Grant Mills - Gallant Pitcher

Grant, who died this week (April 2006), was a man any team would want to challenge for a championship.

He was an honest toiler, always prepared to go the extra distance for the side, yet never made the Auckland team in a time when the stars were recognised more than he was.

His saddest season was Auckland’s too.

In 1995 national coach Mike Walsh made an announcement that he wanted all New Zealand pitchers to be legal hurlers and this caused a great stir as most were playing overseas in the winter and copying the top US men. The umpires followed the ruling of the national body and nowhere more rigorously than in Auckland.

So Grant, Steve Jackson, Chubb Tangaroa and many others were penalised week after week for crow-hopping, but none more so than Grant.

It became so desperate that one night, high on the administration terrace on top of the Norana Park bleachers, Grant showed local umpires his adapted style. Dave Ratu was one of them.

They all agreed that if Grant did the same thing in the Saturday game he would be legal, but on his first pitch the dreaded call, “illegal pitch” rang out. Three pitches later, after desperately trying to be legal, Grant was ejected from the game and left in despair.

He never played at the top again in New Zealand but, like many others, including the “notorious” Allan Dowd, the man with the longest crowhop in the sport, continued to star overseas.

He was the most obvious casualty in a time when softball wrecked its own image, all to ensure that New Zealand had officially legal pitchers for the 1996 world series. It did not matter in the end as everyone kept on pitching in their old style.

Grant was one of many sacrifices, including United and national junior coach Grant Whelan and pitcher Brett Skeen.

Yet his contribution to the game was great, in every team he played for. His team mates all knew that Grant Mills was all heart and all-out for the team.

At 45 years of age, he has gone far too soon, as he did from the sport.