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Streator's Own
AMI 2009
Picher who returned to baseball with a handlebar mustache after giving it all up wins honor
ST. LOUIS (Oct. 30, 2009) – Wearing a $3 crown and his dapper, trademark handlebar mustache that terrorized Major League hitters during the 2009 Major League Baseball season, Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Clay Zavada received the American Mustache Institute’s 2009 "Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year,” presented by Quicken®.
 In front of a crowd of roughly 1,000, Zavada accepted the honor -- recognizing the person best representing or contributing to the Mustached American community over the past year -- at ‘Stache Bash 2009, a benefit for Challenger Baseball.
“Clay and his menacing mouth garden were a great story throughout the 2009 baseball season, and Quicken and the American Mustache Institute are proud to honor him as the ‘Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year’ award winner,” said Chelsea Marti of Quicken®, who herself is a robust supporter of the Mustached American way of life.
Zavada won the Goulet award after more than 100,000 total online votes were cast. He bested Northeastern State University professor Dr. John Yeutter, who took second place and was in attendance, as well as an otherwise impressive field that included fellow attendee and CBS News reporter Bill Geist, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, popular, Major Leaguer Brendan Ryan of the St. Louis Cardinals, USA Today blogger Whitney Matheson, US Airways pilot Sully Sullenberger, and Mayor Dan Snarr of Murray City, Utah. Several cartoon characters including JStache and FOX Television's "Cleveland" received votes, but after much debate, were disqualified because they violated a clause that required the winner to sign an ethics agreement as well as actually exist in real life.
“Thanks to Quicken and the American Mustache Institute as this is an honor, especially to beat out some great people like Captain Sully Sullenberger, who is an absolute hero,” said a modest yet good looking Zavada, who in 51 innings for the Diamondbacks in 2009 struck out 52 batters with a 3.35 ERA. “I am humbled that so many people in America care about mustaches and have been amazed at all of the support I’ve gotten, especially from my grandma who was really fired up about me winning.”
The young lefthander has overcome numerous obstacles in his young career. After being drafted by the Diamondbacks in June of 2006, his father passed away in December of that year from a heart attack. He opted to leave baseball to attend Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and remain close to his family in Streator, IL. In 2007, he received his degree and signed with the independent Frontier League, and then joined the Diamondbacks Class-A South Bend Silverhawks organization where Zavada was inspired by teammate Josh Collmenter to grow his labia sebucula (Latin for “lip sweater”).
Zavada is part of growing wave of good looking mustached baseball players who have discovered the power of the labia sebucula (Latin for “lip sweater”). The mustache’s enhancement of a player’s skills has stirred controversy in the sport as an internal report produced by Major League Baseball reportedly said it believes Zavada’s mustache was responsible for at least 42 of his 52 strikeouts in 2009, leading the Diamondbacks and 12 other teams to conduct a worldwide search for other mustached players. The New York Yankees are believed to have tried to clone and transplant the mustache of Hall of Fame reliever "Goose" Gossage onto the face of Joba Chamberlain until Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig intervened.
The Goulet award is named in honor of the late and legendary performer Robert Goulet, whose voice, trademark mustache, sense of humor, and black leather jackets represented a quadruple-threat of talent the American Mustache Institute is proud to salute.
About AMI
The American Mustache Institute, the bravest organization in the history of mankind behind only the U.S. Military and the post-Jim Henson Muppets, is the world’s only facial hair advocacy and research organization, with more than 600 chapters around globally. AMI battles negative stereotypes and discrimination against the Mustached American race. Based in St. Louis due to the presence of the world’s largest mustache – the Gateway Arch – the organization is committed to recapturing the mustache’s glory years of the 1970s, when there existed a climate of acceptance, understanding, and flavor saving for Mustached Americans.
About Challenger Baseball
Challenger Baseball is a baseball league for youngsters and adults with developmental disabilities. The fundamental goal of Challenger Baseball is to give every player the chance to play. To realize that goal, Challenger has two basic rules: every player bats each inning, and every player plays the field. The league does not count strikes, and does not count outs. Every player scores and every player wins. Challenger Baseball participants learn not only the fundamentals of baseball, but also experience teamwork, being cheered on by a crowd, and being encouraged by peers. All players are named all-stars and all receive trophies. Find more about the program at ChallengerBaseball.org.
About Quicken
Quicken is a division of Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Our flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants. Its financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions. Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $3.1 billion in its fiscal year 2008. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.
Zavada relishing time in Major Leagues
D-backs reliever in awe of opportunity to play in the Show
- fan comments
By Steve Gilbert / MLB.com
07/17/09 12:00 AM ET
PHOENIX -- There are many days that Clay Zavada gets to the Arizona Diamondbacks clubhouse early just to sit in front of his locker and take in his surroundings.
"I just enjoy it," Zavada said. "Every day is a great day to be here. It's the best job in the world. You don't ever have a bad day at a ballpark. If you have cleats, a glove, a hat and someone has your name on a list to be out on the field for batting practice you've got the best job in the world. That's the way I feel."
That Zavada looks at things that way is not surprising. After all, his journey to the big leagues was more winding road than rapid ascent, and it's the challenges and detours that allow him to appreciate every moment in ways that other players cannot.
Zavada, who is 2-2 with a 1.69 ERA in 23 games this year, first gained national attention this past offseason when he was featured in a New York Times story. He also has received considerable attention for the Rollie Fingers-like handlebar mustache he sports, the result of a contest in Class A ball last year. But he also has caught people's attention on the field as he began his Major League career with 18 consecutive scoreless innings.
However, what will eventually make Zavada, 25, a fan favorite is the way he looks at the game and the opportunity he has to be a part of it. In the words of one teammate, he is still "wide-eyed." While other players may grumble about packing for yet another road trip, Zavada looks at it as an opportunity to see cities he's never seen before.
"He enjoys the big leagues," 15-year veteran Tony Clark said. "It's not lost on him that this is special, that this opportunity is special. He appreciates its worth and he's taking it all in. It's great to see. The longer you're here the more difficult it can be to consistently appreciate it for what it is. It can become a business real quick."
Zavada, though, knows all about real loss and true adversity and is anything but naïve when it comes to the world away from baseball.
Father's guidance
Zavada's mother died when he was just 3 years old and that left his father, Clarence, to raise Clay and his brother, Dustin, who was then 4, in the town of Streator, Ill., a small, rural community about 100 miles southwest of Chicago.
It's where Zavada still lives and takes care of the family farm. It is a community that gathers in one of the local bars to watch him pitch for the D-backs.
It was Clarence who was there to play catch with Zavada, who threw batting practice to him and who encouraged him to keep playing.
"He was just superman, trying to be there all the time," Zavada said. "He felt bad for us and was always trying to fill in the gaps for me and my brother because our mom died when we were so young."
When Zavada finished high school, there were not many scholarships offered to him and he did not want to take the one from Illinois Valley Community College.
"I didn't want it because it wasn't cool to go to a community college," Zavada said. "It was cooler to go to a state school and party. That kind of thing. My dad, though, he made me play. He said you're going to go to Illinois Valley Community College, take this scholarship and play baseball. I had a good year freshman year, sophomore year was OK and I got into a four-year D-II school in Edwardsville, Ill."
D-backs scout Mike Daughtry had seen Zavada pitch and told him he was going to get drafted following his junior year. That seemed like a pipe dream for Zavada, who took a summer job following his junior year working alongside his father at a plant that makes parts for nuclear reactors.
It was while he was there working on the second day of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft that his dad checked on the Internet and saw that his son had been drafted.
"We punched out," Zavada recalled. "Well, I quit, he punched out, and we went and started celebrating."
Two days later he was at the D-backs mini-camp in Tucson, Ariz., and after that it was on to the Rookie League, where he was part of a championship club. Zavada had a good year there and followed it up in Instructional League. It seemed like everything was falling in to place for him.
A dream deferred
That all changed that December when Clarence died of a heart attack while working out at the local YMCA.
"After that I was pretty messed up," Zavada said.
Indeed, he broke his hand and failed to report for Spring Training that year, and the D-backs eventually put him on the reserve list before releasing him in December 2007.
To fulfill a promise he had made to his father, Zavada went back to school that fall and eventually graduated. To make ends meet, he delivered furniture. It was a living, but it wasn't the life he and his father had dreamed of for him.
"I didn't want to be one of those guys that say, 'What if?'" he said. "I didn't want to be one of those guys who says I was this or I was that. I didn't want to be miserable because I gave up. Because I quit. Being out there delivering furniture, I could do it, but it wasn't fun for me. I can't work an office job. The only thing I know is baseball. It's the only thing I've ever known."
So, in 2008, Zavada went to play for the Independent Southern Illinois Miners where Daughtry once again saw him and convinced the D-backs to give him another chance.
Living the dream
The D-backs assigned him to Class A South Bend so Zavada could be close to home and tend to the family farm. Meanwhile he put up video-game-like numbers -- 0.51 ERA, 54 strikeouts and six hits allowed in 35 1/3 innings.
Over the winter the D-backs added him to the 40-man roster, and when they needed a reliever in May they called him up from Double-A Mobile.
Zavada picked up the win in his first big league game and did not allow an earned run in his first 18 innings.
"Sometimes you ask people how they are doing and they tell you they are living the dream," Zavada said. "They're not really living the dream. There's really only one percent that is really living the dream. I'm living the dream, my dream. Not many people get to do that in their lifetime. Life's not fair. Life's not easy. So I'm just thankful. It's a blessing from God that I'm in this situation. There's only 750 or so of us. That's pretty unique. So you had better have fun, you had better enjoy it and you'd better give it all you've got. Otherwise you'll regret it. And I don't want to regret it."
It's that attitude and approach to the game that has made Zavada so popular among his veteran teammates.
"Clay definitely is one of those guys that lightens everyone up," veteran left-hander Doug Davis said. "Seeing him wide-eyed every day, ready to pitch, ready to do whatever we ask him to do, he's just always very humble even though he went 18 innings without giving up a run. It's fun to have a guy like that in the clubhouse."
Said closer Chad Qualls, "He recognizes that it's very special to be a big leaguer and he's had a lot taken away from him, so to have this opportunity given to him, he just relishes it."
Nothing encapsulates Zavada's journey better than the day he got to meet Ken Griffey Jr. prior to a game against the Mariners at Safeco Field. It was a big thrill and he clearly reveled in it. Later in the day, though, he was all business on the mound as he struck Griffey out.
"He's a cool guy," Zavada said, an autographed Griffey jersey hanging in his locker behind him. "That's good because sometimes you look forward to meeting someone and you can be disappointed."
Zavada does not expect his appreciation for his big leagues life to change. After all, when just over a year ago you were delivering furniture and struggling to make ends meet, the experiences you have in the Major Leagues are a non-stop high.
"It's amazing here. You play for two weeks and you're like, this is sweet, this is awesome. And then you get a check and you're like, holy cow. It's pretty cool. It's the best job in the world."
Smash 'stache: Zavada's look a hit
D-backs reliever enjoys popularity after enduring tragedy
By Steve Gilbert / MLB.com
05/28/09 9:59 PM ET
PHOENIX -- Clay Zavada has no doubt why he has received so much national attention since making his Major League debut last week.
"It's the mustache, man, I'm telling you," the D-backs left-hander said. "Relief pitchers don't get this kind of attention."
That may be true, but Zavada also has a compelling personal story. The 24-year-old lost his father in December 2006 following his first year of pro ball, and he gave up baseball for a time to tend to the family farm in Streator, Ill., before returning to the organization in 2008.
It has been suggested to Zavada that his story might be the reason he gets so much attention these days.
"Nah," Zavada said. "Some people don't know my story, they just see the 'stache. That's the first thing people ask me about. Then maybe they get into the story, but it's the 'stache."
Zavada's debut was chronicled in the New York Times and he appeared on ESPN's First Take along with numerous local radio shows.
"First thing they asked me about?" Zavada said of the ESPN interview. "The 'stache. There's a fascination with it right now for whatever reason."
In four appearances since being called up from Double-A Mobile, Zavada has not allowed a run in three innings.
Zavada started growing the mustache last year at the urging of his then-roommate and fellow pitcher Josh Collmenter. Recently he's begun to twist the ends so that it has begun to look like Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers' handlebar mustache.
"It's amazing," Zavada said of the attention. "People either hate it or they love it. There's no in between. There's a fascination with it right now for whatever reason. If I had played back in the '70s, I would have been a normal dude. I would have been just another dude with a weird 'stache. Now I'm unique. Now, it's like, 'Wow this guy has a 'stache, what the heck is he thinking?'
"It's all good. If it brings a smile to people's face, I'm good with that."
May 21, 2009
Posted by Craig Wieczorkiewicz under baseball, sports
No Comments
Streator native Clay Zavada earned his first major-league victory Thursday as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Florida Marlins 4-3. This appearance was the relief pitcher’s major-league debut. He struck out two batters while pitching a perfect seventh inning.
Ironically, the losing pitcher, Cristhian Martinez, also made his major-league debut in that game. I wonder how often this has happened: both the winning pitcher and the losing pitcher in the same game made their major-league debuts in that game.
Zavada has an interesting backstory. A few months after Zavada finished his first professional baseball season (playing on a summer rookie team for the Diamondbacks), his father unexpectedly died of a heart attack. His mother died when he was 3, and his older brother was serving in the Navy at that time, so Clay dropped out of baseball to take care of his family’s property. He returned to baseball last year, first playing for an independent league team, then again in the Diamondbacks’ farm system.
Katie Thomas of The New York Times wrote an excellent story about Zavada last December. She obviously spent time in Streator (a city I covered for seven years as a reporter for the local daily newspaper), including great details about the former “Glass Capital of the World” in her day-in-the-life profile of Zavada. I highly recommend reading it, even if you aren’t too interested in baseball. It is an excellent “people profile,” as such stories are called in newsrooms. You can find it by clicking here.
(Incidentally, the then-director of player development for the Diamondbacks who is quoted in the New York Times story, A.J. Hinch, is now the team’s manager.)
Here is a link to an article and video done by the New York Times on Clarence Zavada's son Clay. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. His father would be so proud.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/sport ... ss&emc=rss
Multimedia from NYTimes.com:
Plays Hard, Works Harder
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/12/20/sports/baseball/20081220_zavada_multimedia/index.html
Clay Zavada, a major-league pitching prospect, spends the off-season with his sleeves rolled up, working odd jobs.
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JERSEYS FROM THE LOCKER ROOM OF THE DIAMONDBACKS. CLAY IS NUMBER 64!
Thanks to Betsy (Mohan) Kain for providing the following information on another Streator boy who "Hit one out of the park!".
Another Streator boy knocks one out of the park!
Danny Dobberpulh is older (almost 9-10 years ahead of us). The Dobberpulh & Mohan families were good friends… hence I remember Danny from way back. He was always very smart… and married Carol Higgins ( St. Anthony gang remembers teacher /organist Madeline Higgins and her four children… Ruthie’62?, Carol’64, Jeanne’65 and Billie ’68)
• TAGS:Dan Dobberpuhl, PA Semi, PA6T-1682M, power, PWRficient, StrongARM
It's IT Blogwatch: in which Apple buys processor designer PA Semi -- an unexpected move that has people scratching their heads, seeing as the company uses the POWER architecture. Not to mention video of a poor guy stuck in an elevator for nearly two days...
Gregg Keizer reports:
Apple Inc. has agreed to buy P.A. Semi Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., a microprocessor design company known for its high-end, low-power chips ... [for] $278 million ... P.A. Semi was founded in 2003 by, among others, Dan Dobberpuhl, a 20-year veteran of chip design at Digital Equipment Corp. ... P.A. Semi counts 150 employees and includes engineers who have worked for Intel Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. The company's current processor line, dubbed "PWRficient," includes the PA6T-1682M, a low-power, 64-bit, dual-core chip that features two memory controllers and 2MB of L2 cache. The company's processors are based on IBM's Power microprocessor architecture ... Apple relied on PowerPC chips for its personal computers until it abandoned them in early 2006 for Intel's microprocessors. more
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