How Phillies' Jamie Moyer helped Carlos Ruiz catch on

Jamie Moyer remembers being on the mound last Aug. 28 against Atlanta. Fourth inning, Phillies up by one at Citizens Bank Park. Garret Anderson at the plate with a 1-2 count.

Catcher Carlos Ruiz called for a curve. Moyer shook him off.

Ruiz put down the same sign. Moyer shook him off again.

Ruiz called for the curve a third time. Moyer called him out to the mound, got his way and Anderson grounded out to second on a cutter.

They disagreed, but at the same time the veteran lefthander was proud of the young catcher.

"I think when he first came up here and [the pitcher] said no to a pitch, he would never have put it back down again. He's got that kind of confidence now. He's sure in his ways and, to me, that's growth. That's where you see him growing," Moyer said recently.

There are a lot of people in the Phillies organization who get a slice of the credit for Ruiz developing into the kind of catcher who is now capable of handling some of the best pitchers in the game, All-Stars like Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez. And Moyer is one of them. He came to the Phillies in a trade from Seattle on Aug. 19, 2006. Less than 2 weeks later, Ruiz was recalled from Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. They've been teammates ever since. And, along the way, Moyer has tried to impart some of the wisdom he's picked up from working with catchers like Jody Davis, Keith Moreland, Dan Wilson and Jim Sundberg.

"I don't want to take credit and I don't think I can," the 47-year-old said. "But when he first came here, I would talk to him about some basic things I saw in catchers when I was a younger player. I know the game has changed a little bit from that time to now. But, for me, the catching part hasn't."

Among the lessons he's passed along:

Moyer: "When he first came here he was obviously a little younger and didn't have a lot of experience in catching. He came up here quite quiet, quite shy and I would say even a little intimidated. Which a lot of young players are. But also being of Latin descent, there might have been a little bit of a language issue.

"I don't know how many pitchers have come through that door this year, but it's a fair amount. And it's part of a catcher's responsibility to try to get to know these guys. In the clubhouse. On an airplane. In a hotel. Have lunch. Maybe not have lunch. On the field. In the bullpen. Knowing how to push buttons, when, why, where, how to do all these things. And I think he's created a great ability to try to pull that out of each one of us."

Moyer: "For me, and this is one of the things I told him in the beginning, if you're a catcher the whole game is in front of you. And you have to be able to create that ability and that confidence to take charge. If you need to come out to the mound, and I don't care who it is, you find a way. If you need to kick me in the butt, you kick me in the butt. I don't expect to ever show you up and embarrass you. And I would expect you would be the same way. You can keep your mask on and chew me out. And we can go back to the dugout and chew each other out. Or we can come in the tunnel or whatever it is. But it's all in a good way. It's not in a negative way. It's not in a bad way. You're trying to make each other better."

Moyer: "I played with Sundberg at the end of his career. I played with him in Chicago. I pitched in the 'Game of the Week.' That was back a few years. Against Houston. Against Nolan Ryan. I was a really young player at that time. And I was in the training room stretching before the game and I'm all nervous. I didn't know what was going on. And I'm laying down on the table and the trainer is stretching my arm. And [Sundberg] comes up and he puts his hand on my chest. He just pats my chest and says, 'Hey, kid, you just pitch today. I'll call the game.' And I felt like a ton of bricks had been taken off my shoulders. That was an experience I had 20-some years ago and I remember it as if it happened yesterday. It stuck with me."

Moyer: "I'll give you another Jim Sundberg story. It's spring training and we're playing an intrasquad game. I was pitching in relief. He comes up to bat. We're in the middle of the count and the catcher calls a fastball in. And I went, 'Yes [nodding his head] and No [shaking it].' So it's yes on the pitch, no on the location.

"What pitch do you usually change location with? A fastball. You usually don't change location with a curveball or a changeup, although sometimes we do. So Jim Sundberg sat on a fastball and it was away and he hit a home run. He laughed at me all the way around the bases. After the game he pulled me aside and said, 'Hey, look, I knew what was coming.' A young, green kid, I said, 'How did you know that?' And he explained it. So it's things like that that, over my career, that have stuck with me. And I've been able to relay that to Chooch or another pitcher."