Charlottesville native Larry Mitchell was in the bullpen at old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on an August day 30 years ago, having just been called up from Triple-A by the Phillies.
Radford native and ex-Virginia Tech star Mike Williams (144 career saves) was making a rare start for the home team, and it wasn’t going well. Williams allowed six runs while retiring just four batters against the Houston Astros – and suddenly Mitchell was being summoned from the bullpen to make his MLB debut.
“I was expected to be booed as a rookie. It is just overwhelming; you see your name up there on the scoreboard. But the fans were cheering for me,” JMU product Mitchell, 54, said in a recent phone interview from Charlottesville. “I looked up at the big Jumbotron, and my depth perception was weird. It was so overwhelming.”
But the right-handed pitcher, drafted out of JMU by the Phillies in 1992 in the fifth round, retired Derrick May on a popup and then fanned Sean Berry to end the top of the second inning.
Mitchell came back out for the third inning and retired all three batters in a game that Houston won 10-5 on Aug. 11, 1996.
That came just after he was called up from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, along with position player Kevin Stocker. Mitchell was told by Triple-A manager Ramon Aviles that he was being called up to the Majors. The next day he rode in the pickup truck of Stocker from northeast Pennsylvania to the home park of the Phillies.
“I walked into the clubhouse, and you see your name on the locker and a number on your jersey. It was like, whoa,” Mitchell said.
That 1996 Phillies team featured future Hall of Fame third baseman Scott Rolen, starting pitcher Curt Schilling and two stars who were injured much of the season: catcher Darren Daulton and outfielder Lenny Dykstra.
Michigan to Charlottesville
Mitchell was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1971 and moved with his family to Charlottesville about eight years later.
“Kind of the best thing that happened to me,” he said. “Flint was kind of rough, though my neighborhood was good. Just a smaller environment” in Virginia.
His father worked for General Motors in Michigan, and the automotive industry was going through tough times. Mitchell’s mother was from Charlottesville, so the family moved to Virginia.
Mitchell starred in football and baseball in high school and was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 43rd round of the 1989 draft, but he opted to attend JMU.
“I came to JMU as a raw athlete. I was a football player: I got recruited to play football at Virginia and JMU. Everyone was steering me into baseball. I did not have a whole lot of experience,” he said.
Mitchell’s first season at JMU in 1990 coincided with the first year as Ray Heatwole as the head coach. Heatwole had coached Turner Ashby High School to two state titles in the 1970s (he would win a third in 2002) and was an assistant under head coach Brad Babcock with the Dukes before taking the head job.
“Being strict and having structure … he is very meticulous. He gave me the opportunity to play the outfield and hit and see what I could do. He never limited me,” Mitchell said of Heatwole, who was the head coach at Bridgewater College and for one year at Spotswood High School. “He gave me the ball. I pitched my freshman year. It was all confidence (building) for me. He kept putting me out there. I had to figure it out. I had to adapt a lot.”
While at JMU, Mitchell played for the Harrisonburg Turks of the Valley Baseball League and for a short time with the Harrisonburg entry in the Rockingham County Baseball League.
After Mitchell was drafted following his junior year, he reported to rookie ball with Martinsville in the Appalachian League.
The only other pitcher from that team in 1992 to make The Show was Tony Fiore, who saw action with Tampa Bay and the Minnesota Twins.
Later that season, Mitchell was sent to Batavia in the New York-Penn League – where he went 7-2, 2.63 in 10 starts. He was the only true pitcher on that club to make the Majors.
With Single-A Clearwater in 1993, Mitchell was teammates with fellow pitcher and Hampton native Wayne Gomes, who starred at ODU. Gomes would appear in 321 games in the Majors with 29 saves. The two have remained good friends.
The Phillies moved Mitchell to the bullpen during the 1996 season while at Double-A Reading and at Triple-A before his call to the bigs.
End of the road
The MLB career of Mitchell did not last long.
He appeared in seven games with the Phillies in 1996, with his last appearance on Sept. 2, 1996. His ERA was 4.50 in the Majors.
In his last MLB outing, he came on in the top of the ninth with Philadelphia trailing 5-0 against the visiting San Diego Padres.
He struck out Steve Finley, who played for the Harrisonburg Turks in the Valley Baseball League, and Ken Caminiti before Wally Joyner got a single. Mitchell retired San Diego catcher John Flaherty, who played at George Washington University, on a lineout to end the frame as the Phillies lost 5-1 to fall to 55-83 on the season.
Mitchell pitched at Double-A Norwich in the New York Yankees system in 1997 and then split the next year between Double-A Bowie in the Baltimore Orioles farm system and with Double-A Binghamton, part of the New York Mets farm system.
Since his playing career, Mitchell was an assistant football coach at Charlottesville High School, and he has also coached baseball at the club/travel and high school level, including Charlottesville.
Mitchell was the pitching coach for a few years at STAB when one of their players was Kyle Long, who would star in the NFL. Mitchell also coached in the VBL under Mike Bocock, who is in the VBL Hall of Fame.
These days he runs Mitchell’s Cleaning Service in the Charlottesville area. He has two sons and a daughter.
One son, Mason, played baseball at the Covenant School and at Bridgewater College, while his other two children went to JMU and played club sports there.
JMU pitchers in MLB
Other JMU pitchers who have appeared in the Majors:
- Dana Allison, a Front Royal native who appeared in 11 games with the Oakland A’s in 1991.
- Scott Forster, who pitched for the Montreal Expos in 2000.
- Rich Croushore, who was in The Show from 1998-2000 with the Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox.
- Mike Venafro, from Paul VI High in Northern Virginia, with 307 games of big-league experience through 2006. His seven MLB seasons is also the most of JMU pitching products.
- Brian McNichol, a Fairfax native who appeared in four games in 1999 for the Chicago Cubs.
- Travis Harper, a Harrisonburg native and West Virginia high school alum who appeared with Tampa Bay from 2000-2006.
- Dan Meyer, a lefty reliever from 2004-2010 who played for the Danville Braves in the minors.
- Ryan Reid, who appeared in seven games with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2013.
- Nick Robertson, a Roanoke native from Franklin County High School who made his MLB debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023. He also appeared with the Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays through 2024, and this year pitched at Double-A and Triple-A in the Dodgers’ system with an ERA of 1.78 in 46 outings as a reliever.
- Kevin Kelly, another Paul VI alum who has been a reliever with Tampa Bay since 2023.
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David Driver
