Nationals' Capps answers his father's question

Capps first heard them as an awestruck youngster sitting with his father, Mike, at old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. His eyes would turn as big as baseballs whenever Dale Murphy launched another home run into the sea of outstretched bleacher arms.

“Man, that’s gotta be cool,” Matt would say.

Most dads would shrug off such fantasy. Not Mike. With unmistakable sincerity, he’d turn to Matt and reply, “Well, they’re human. Someone has to be the best. Why not you?”

The words speak silently now. Mike died last fall. But the arrows of ambition that he launched hit their mark. Capps is currently the major league leader in saves, with 22 in 26 chances for the Washington Nationals.

On the underside of his game hat, inscribed in permanent marker next to his jersey number and a cross, are these words: “Someone has to be.”

“I miss him every day,” Capps said of his father. “But on the same hand, I know he’s with me every day now, where before I had to talk to him on the phone. I talk to him every day. I listen to him.”

It has been a wild ride to the top for Capps, a 26-year-old native of Douglasville who is back in town for a three-game series against his hometown Braves opening Monday night. Only six months ago, Capps was discarded on baseball’s curbside.

His journey started in 2002, when Pittsburgh drafted the husky, hard-throwing right-hander in the seventh round out of Alexander High School. After making little progress as a starter in his first three minor league seasons, a serendipitous switch to the bullpen during 2005 spring training sent him soaring from low Class A in April to the major leagues by mid-September.

Armed with a mid-90s fastball and an effective slider, he earned Pittsburgh’s closer role in 2007 and in two seasons, he saved 39 games with a 2.58 ERA. But things disintegrated last season. Despite a career-high 27 saves, he blew five chances and his ERA ballooned from 3.02 in 2008 to 5.80.

Last Dec. 12, when the Pirates decided not to tender a contract offer to him before the arbitration deadline, Capps was shocked.

“There was kind of an empty feeling there,” he said. “It was the first time in seven or eight years I was unemployed.”

Compounding the difficult offseason was the death of his father. Mike Capps had been Matt’s first baseball coach, a comforting voice after tough games and his best friend. Then, in a moment, he was gone.

On Oct. 20, Mike fell off a ladder in his carport and hit his head on the concrete floor. When his wife, Kathy, found him a few minutes later, he was breathing but unconscious and bleeding badly. With a history of heart problems, Mike went into cardiac arrest. After two days of hospital tests revealed no brain activity, the family took him off life support. Mike was 61.

“It’s not a decision we wish on anybody,” Matt said. “But it’s a decision we talked about as a family, a decision that my dad had every say in. We knew he didn’t want to live that way.”

Seven weeks later, Capps was looking for work. After receiving interest from several teams, he signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Nationals on Christmas Eve. It was a mutually beneficial marriage. Washington, coming off a 103-loss season, has used 22 different relievers. Eight pitchers recorded saves. The Nats desperately needed bullpen stability and Capps needed a fresh start.

“This was a place I really felt at home from the get-go,” he said.

Capps converted his first 16 save opportunities and accumulated a 0.93 ERA through his first 18 appearances, earning baseball’s top relief pitcher award in April. But beginning May 17 in St. Louis, he endured a difficult three weeks in which he blew four saves while his ERA swelled to 3.62. The frustrating stretch stoked media speculation in in Washington whether Capps would be replaced by prized rookie Drew Storen or red-hot setup man Tyler Clippard.

“He wasn’t getting on top of the ball,” Nationals backup catcher Wil Nieves said. “His slider wasn’t doing anything. It was spinning and his fastball was running back to the middle.”

While he can still be prone to off-nights, Capps (3.51 ERA, four consecutive saves since June 6) has mostly returned to form thanks in part to some arm-angle adjustments with pitching coach Steve McCatty. In fact, the one-two bullpen punch of set-up man Clippard (1.58 ERA) and Capps has spawned a quaint nickname in D.C. On June 22, the Nationals gave out “Clip & Save” T-shirts to the first 10,000 fans.

“He’s a competitor,” McCatty said of Capps. “He’s got very good stuff -- a real good fastball, a slider, when he’s throwing well, [that] is very good, and he’s got great command. And he competes. I just love his whole attitude.”

This season’s success is a welcome change from the professional questions and personal pain that engulfed Capps last offseason.

“You’re not human if you don’t doubt every now and then,” he said. “But throughout the whole course, I knew I was healthy and I knew what I was capable of doing. It was just a matter of going out and doing it. To have the start that I’ve had so far has just reassured that.”

With that, Capps tucked in his jersey, laced up his spikes and ran onto the field, another chance to eulogize through performance. His dad was right. The bright lights that Capps once daydreamed about as a kid now illuminate him. His tribute-inscribed brim is pulled low over a head full of fond memories.

And the words go with him: “Someone has to be.”