The MLB star caught playing for a strip club softball team
Bobby Valentine was livid.
The Mets’ manager, entering his first full season at the helm, had already grown tired of the team’s losing ways.
Hired in 1996, partway through a 91-loss season, Valentine was charged with exorcising a defective culture that had derailed the Mets for several years.
Since winning the 1986 World Series, New York had returned to the postseason only once, and a 103-loss dénouement in 1993 forced a hasty rebuild.
Three young pitchers were intrinsic to that future vision: Bill Pulsipher, Paul Wilson and Jason Isringhausen, known collectively as Generation K. (1) And on that particular day, the rebellion of Isringhausen worked Valentine into a lather.
It was late-February 1997, and the Mets were ensconced at their spring training camp in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Isringhausen, a 44th round draft choice whose meteoric rise culminated in a 1995 major league debut, was sidelined following surgery to repair a shoulder tear and elbow bone chips. (2) Therefore, when Valentine received a phone call detailing the reckless extracurricular activities of his 24-year-old prospect, he had every right to fume. (3)
The report came from a local softball player, indignant that a rival team on the Port St. Lucie beer league circuit regularly fielded a major leaguer – Isringhausen – under an alias. (3)
Valentine decided to verify the accusations himself, planning a trip to Sandhill Crane Park, the municipal lot featuring three baseball diamonds where his pitcher allegedly played. (3)
The Mets’ skipper did not find Isringhausen during his impromptu visit, but other softballers confirmed the rumour, explaining how the big leaguer would play first base and pinch-hit in big spots for a competitor. (3)
Granted, the diamonds at Sandhill Crane Park were tiny – the bases 60, 65 and 70 feet apart, with outfield fences lurking 300 or 325 feet away (4) – and Isringhausen was a professional playing against potbellied amateurs, but his performances inspired local legend. “He was fantastic,” said one opponent, who estimated Isringhausen had hit nine home runs in 12 at-bats. “Nobody could play at the level he could.” (3)
To Valentine, however, the folly of a young, hot-headed big leaguer playing recreational softball while rehabbing multiple serious injuries was astounding. The manager scolded his pitcher when reporters caught wind of the fiasco. The tabloid scribes found an altogether more salacious angle to the story, though, when it emerged that the softball team Isringhausen played for was sponsored by a strip club – namely, Silhouettes Gentlemen’s Club in Palm Bay, Florida. (3)
Giddy at the prospect of such a juicy story, local reporters followed the breadcrumbs to Susan Reid, owner of Silhouettes, known for its lewd shows and topless waitresses. “They had a great season,” Reid told the Sun Sentinel, confirming Isringhausen’s participation. Back in Mets camp, meanwhile, Valentine reprimanded Isringhausen, who vowed to recalibrate his actions. (5)
Old habits die hard, however, and Isringhausen remained a magnet for controversy. Mere weeks into the 1997 season, while commencing his rebab in Triple-A Norfolk, the strip club MVP punched a dugout trash can after being removed from a poor outing. A fractured wrist set him back two months, and he did not return to a major league mound until August 1997. (3) By that point, though, another furore enveloped Isringhausen, who ‘playfully’ referred to longtime Mets public relations czar Jay Horwitz by an anti-Semitic slur. (6)
Adding to the negativity, Isringhausen missed the entire 1998 season with tuberculosis and further arm injuries before being shipped to Oakland in 1999 after exhausting the Mets’ patience.
Resurrected as a high-octane reliever on Billy Beane’s island of misfit toys, Isringhausen dominated for the Athletics and made the All-Star team in 2000. Successive seasons with more than 30 saves burnished his pedigree, and the St Louis Cardinals gave Isringhausen a four-year, $27 million free agent contract before the 2002 campaign. Such was his newfound impact, replacing Isringhausen – along with Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon – became the foundational quest of Moneyball, as later dramatised by Brad Pitt.
Morphing into one of the most dominant closers of his generation, Isringhausen recorded 217 saves in seven seasons with the Cardinals before a forgettable four-month stint with Tampa Bay in 2009. Then, after rehabbing from Tommy John Surgery in the Reds’ minor league system, Isringhausen returned to the Mets on a one-year minor league deal for 2011.
Despite falling from the high-leverage plans of manager Terry Collins, Isringhausen recorded the 300th – and final – save of his career in a Mets uniform. Only 31 relievers in history have reached that plateau, and there was fine symmetry in his breaching it with the team that drafted him.
In fairness, considering his position in that 1991 draft – 1,156th overall – Isringhausen delivered a phenomenal return on his questionable promise. While Generation K remained a Mets mirage, and though Isringhausen flamed out as a starter, his two All-Star appearances and seven seasons surpassing 30 saves established him as a marquee performer. Between 2000 and 2007, in fact, only Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman logged more saves.
And as for the Silhouettes Gentlemen’s Club? Well, there is no indication that it still sponsors a softball team, but it is still open. “Step into the ultimate adult playground, where elegance meets excitement,” offers an ambitious Yelp profile. “Stunning dancers, seductive shows and non-stop fun every night, whether you’re celebrating, unwinding, or just craving a wild night out.” (7)
Perhaps Jason Isringhausen just craved a wild night out, way back when. Or maybe he just wanted to mash beer league dingers. Regardless, by turning out for a strip club softball team while recovering from surgery, he may have hastened his exit from the New York Mets. Rarely has baseball seen a scandal like it, and slim are the chances of something similar happening again.
Sources
1. Wikipedia. [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_K_(baseball).
2. Berkow, Ira. New York Times. [Online] May 2, 1997. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/02/sports/a-shocking-reminder-of-our-frailty.html.
3. Olney, Buster. New York Times. [Online] April 22, 1997. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1997/04/22/issue.html.
4. City of Port St. Lucie. [Online] https://www.cityofpsl.com/Government/Your-City-Government/Departments/Parks-Recreation/Parks/Sandhill-Crane-Park.
5. Sun Sentinel. [Online] April 27, 1997. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/1997/04/27/padres-discover-baseball-is-a-beach-in-hawaii/.
6. Olney, Buster. New York Times. [Online] July 8, 1997. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1997/07/08/issue.html.
7. Yelp. [Online] https://www.yelp.com/biz/silhouttes-gentlemens-club-palm-bay.