He founded the Big League Edge baseball academy and soon had a thriving business, one in which the only baseball action he saw was "messing around" in batting practice.
That is, until a junior-college prospect attending the camp last July saw Parque on the mound and called out jokingly, "Oh, there's the has-been!"
Parque dared the player to step into the box against him. On his first pitch, he sent an 82-mph fastball whizzing down the heart of the plate.
"I hadn't thrown anything that hard in two years," Parque said. "I didn't really know what to think."
That one pitch led to others, some sessions of playing catch and later some more serious workouts that resulted in Parque, who turns 32 next week, signing a minor-league deal with the Mariners on Thursday. A pitcher who started Game 1 of the 2000 Division Series against Seattle while pitching for the White Sox will get a spring-training invitation and attempt to resurrect a career long presumed dead.
"Oh, there's the has-been!" will have to be added to the daily phrases I use to motivate myself. It will go right up there with "Stupid Loser!", "You are a moron!", and "Idiot!"
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