Scribner still bringing fun, success to Tri-State League

Copyright Peter Wallace Register-Citizen 8/8/24

LITCHFIELD – As last year’s winner of the Tri-State Baseball League’s Cy Young pitching award and arguably one of the league’s most fun people to talk with, Tri-Town Trojan ace Miles Scribner made his case for both awards after a win last Saturday at Litchfield’s Community Field.

Following his two-hitter pitching performance against the Winsted Whalers in the first best-of-three round of Tri-State’s championship series, he settled into a picnic bench with the statement, “I can never get a no-hitter. The only time I ever did it was in high school in a state tournament game against Windsor Locks and we lost 1-0.” Lack of no-hitters hasn’t kept him from being one of the best pitchers in the Berkshire League in high school, at Western Connecticut State University and, for the last 15 years, in a 12-team Tri-State League full of current and former college and high school stars and a few former MLB players. “I’m very self-aware,” says Scribner. “I don’t throw hard but I can get outs.” Whaler veteran slugger Johnny Lippincott described facing Scribner. “He throws whatever he wants for a strike,” Lippincott said. “You see the same pitch 10 different ways, then he gets a fastball in that looks like it’s coming 100 miles an hour after his off-speed pitches. You’re not going to get many pitches to hit.” Endorsement from a hitter who was a starting center fielder for Division I Central Connecticut State University, then runner-up for Tri-State’s Silver Slugger Award last year.

Scribner, 36, grew up as the middle kid in a family of three boys and a father who’s become a sought-after pitching coach throughout the Northwest Corner. Evan, 39, was a reliever in the majors for seven years; Troy, 33, was a major league starter who faced Stephen Strasburg and won in 2019. “There’s no jealousy,” says Miles. “It’s very hard to do, getting to the major leagues from this area, so it’s amazing what they did.” Part of it is natural ability; part confidence; and part growing up with a father, Dave, who knew what he was doing with his own kids as well as others. “He was very laid back,” says Miles. “Almost to a fault. He’d let us make a mistake so he could correct it, but he always instilled in us, ‘Have fun.’ I sometimes had a hard time with that because I was more emotional.” Older brother Evan still thinks Miles might have had a chance to join the family in the majors, but an early open tryout session for the Blue Jays at Bridgeport’s Harbor Yard stadium knocked the thought out of Miles’s mind. “There was a guy there who threw 97 and they didn’t sign him, so I said to myself, ‘I’ve got no shot,’” he says.

Instead, he settled for legendary status in the Tri-State League, along with a growing hold over his emotions along with his pitches and a combination of confidence and minor self-depredation that’s as fun to watch as his sneaky 83-mile-an-hour fastball. “I’ve always loved hitting, too,” he says, for example. “Hitting is the most fun thing about baseball. In pitching, you’re on defense all the time. Troy and Evan were much better hitters than I was.” Still, he’s learned not to sell himself short as a pitcher. “It’s all about confidence,” Scribner says. “My confidence is really high.” Part of that comes from results, but another part comes from an ability to depend on others.

“(Trojan pitcher) Bobby Chatfield has been in the league for a long time. We feed off each other,” he says, then gives major credit to his catchers over the years. “Landon Gardella was my catcher for many years. He was great at pitch selection and blocking the ball. He was a brick wall. Now I have just as much confidence in Joey Gardella, Brian Carr and Joey Grantmeyer.” It works both ways. A catcher’s dream is a pitcher like Scribner who consistently throws strikes with a full array of fastball, curve, slider and changeup. “Six or seven years ago, I switched to a two-seam fastball. It moves and it has some tail to it, so 83 miles an hour looks harder than it actually is,” he says. In the end, it comes back to a few basics the Scribners’ dad drummed into his kids growing up: “Always get strike one; walks will kill you. “I rarely walk people,” Scribner says. “I’d rather let them hit it, especially with the defense I have behind me.”

One final piece of Scribner’s armament is a ‘rubber arm’ almost as legendary as his pitches. “I love being out there competing, so even if it’s hurting a little and I’m not 100 percent, I still have confidence enough to try to do it,” Scribner says. “I love playing for this team. Danny (McCarty) is a great manager and we have a lot of fun.” That, too, works both ways. A manager’s dream is a pitcher as reliable as Scribner, sure to show up, sure to keep every ballgame at least close. Scribner also plays one day a week for the Danbury Outlaws in an over-30 league. He plans to keep pitching as long as his baseball-fan wife Kaitlyn and two-year old daughter Keira allow it.

Sorry, Tri-State hitters, after seven years of marriage to Kaitlyn, that’s likely to be quite a while.