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New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain awaits the next batter in the Chicago White Sox's 7-6 victory April 24.AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Joba on the Mound

By Dalton Walker

The Winnebago with the brilliant right arm was in sports headlines across the nation recently for two entirely different reasons.

The first, a more humanized Joba Chamberlain surfaced as the 22-year-old relief pitcher for the New York Yankees left the team to be with his ill father back home in Lincoln, Neb.

Chamberlain missed a few Yankee outings and when he returned he released a statement to the media explaining his father's condition.

"After several difficult days, my father is feeling much better," Chamberlain said in the statement released by the club. "Each day he's acting more and more like himself, and he's even giving people grief — myself included — because the hospital doesn't carry Yankees games on television."

His father, Harlan Chamberlain, is a wonderful man and a great role model for many Native children. The elder Chamberlain has a history of health issues including a childhood case of polio that left him partially paralyzed. He relies on a motorized scooter for transportation. The father and son are very close. Joba has told numerous media outlets that he speaks to his father on the phone at least once a day.

The second set of headlines had to deal with an on-field issue brought up by the often outspoken Steinbrenner family, which owns the Yankees. With the team off to a slow start, at least by New York standards, Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner blasted the team, saying Joba should start.

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now," Steinbrenner told The New York Times. "There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."

Chamberlain was a strong starter in college and in the minors. During his sophomore year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he led the Cornhuskers to the College World Series and earned the win for the team's lone victory. He was called up out of the minors late last season to help the battered Yankee bullpen. He did just that by mowing down hitters with his wicked 100-mph fastball. With his success came a iconic status few ever receive in Yankee pinstripes.

That success continued this season through eight appearances where he struck out 11 batters in nine innings pitched with only two earned runs. The man known for the flat-billed, black Yankee cap also got a taste of his first defeat. But the loss came in his 27th career game. The Chicago White Sox beat the visiting Yanks, 7-6, after a base hit off Chamberlain.

"It's not the last time it's going to happen," Chamberlain told the Times. "The disappointing part is letting my team down and not giving them a chance to win. I'll get back on the mound, pull my hat down and go to work tomorrow."

The starting pitcher, Phil Hughes, like Chamberlain, is a young Yankee pitcher with a bright future. Even Hughes was surprised that Chamberlain didn't bail him out, again.

"We're so used to him being automatic," Hughes told the Times. "Nobody expects him to go his whole career without a loss, but with the stuff he has, there won't be too many of them."

Some, including me, say Hughes is not close to Chamberlain's level. Yet Hughes is a starter and will probably keep that title his entire career.

Is it fair? Probably not. Chamberlain will be in the starting rotation soon enough. Just ask Hank Steinbrenner.

Dalton Walker, Red Lake Anishinabe, is a reporter at the Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D. Walker is a graduate of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and the American Indian Journalism Institute. A longtime reznet staff writer, he had reporting internships at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and The New York Times.

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