White Sox’ Phil Humber defines own success

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Phil Humber

Updated: August 28, 2011 12:21AM

You wonder where an 11-21 team’s collective head is right now. In a clubhouse full of slumping hitters and struggling relief pitchers, fifth starter Phil Humber is one member of the White Sox who has it figured out.

And it didn’t take the team psychologist or manager Ozzie Guillen’s tongue-in-cheek, old-school solution — “We used to solve the mental problem with vodka and a lot of Budweiser” — to put Humber in a better place mentally. He did it on his own.

Humber’s method in a nutshell: Forget about expectations, don’t fret about results and pitch because it’s what you love to do.

‘‘When I was in New York, I felt like I had to live up to be worthy of being drafted third overall [by the Mets in 2004],’’ said Humber, who takes a 2-3 record and 3.06 ERA into the Sox’ game tonight against the
Seattle Mariners and Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez. ‘‘Whether it was real or imagined, I felt like people always expected more. Was I throwing hard enough? Or doing this or that? Same thing in Minnesota when I got traded for [Johan] Santana. I felt like everybody was looking for some payoff for that trade. And it took my focus away from what I could control.’’

But everything changed after 2009, which he split between the Twins (eight earned runs in nine innings) and Class AAA Rochester (7-9, 5.34 ERA). Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson told Humber it looked as though his mind was going 100 mph as the game was getting away from him, and the team let him go. ­Humber packed his bags to play winter ball in Puerto Rico strictly for grins and to get his head straight.

‘‘I went to have fun playing ­baseball and not worry about what anybody else was thinking,’’ he said. ‘‘It really helped me.’’

Humber was reunited with Ricky Bones, his pitching coach in Class A, and the game was fun again. He took that feeling to spring training after the Kansas City Royals signed him in January 2010. He spent most of last season at
Class AAA Omaha but was 2-1 with a 4.15 ERA in eight games with the Royals. The Sox claimed him on waivers in January.

‘‘I had to figure out why I was playing,’’ Humber said. ‘‘Because I’m a first-round pick and had a five-year contract? Am I playing for the money? For what people think of me?’’

Humber wrote down a list of the reasons he was playing, and ‘‘what it boiled down to is because I want to. If I don’t want to play, I don’t have to. Nobody is forcing me.’’

In years past, Humber said he’d be looking over his shoulder now that Jake Peavy might rejoin the Sox’
rotation, putting pressure on himself to pitch well or else. No more.

Humber’s good slider is basically the same as it always has been. The difference now is that he throws it with a lower pulse rate.

‘‘When you’re relaxed and focused on what you need to do, you ­command the ball better — no tension,’’ Humber said. ‘‘I’ve got to [the point] where I can make a pitch in ­pressure situations because I’m not worried about the result. Once I let it go, I’m done with it. And I’ve got ­better command. It’s more mental than
anything.’’