Brett Tomko was a sketch artist who made his living painting corners as a pitcher.
On Dec. 15, 2002, the Cardinals got Tomko from the Padres for reliever Luther Hackman and a player to be named (pitcher Mike Wodnicki).
A right-hander, Tomko was a durable, but hittable, member of the Cardinals’ 2003 starting rotation, earning 13 wins despite some rough outings.
Arts and crafts
In 1970, three years before Brett was born, his father Jerry entered a contest to name the new Cleveland NBA franchise. His suggestion, Cavaliers, was selected from more than 11,000 entries submitted, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. His prize for naming the team was a pair of season tickets for the club’s first year.
When Brett was 3, he moved with the family from Euclid, Ohio, to Placentia, Calif., near Anaheim, and developed skills in baseball and in art.
An art communications major at Florida Southern College, Tomko had a 15-2 record for the baseball team in 1995 and was named NCAA Division II player of the year, pitching a shutout in the national championship game.
When not playing baseball, he’d sometimes spend his nights at the campus art studio. “I’d stay until 4 in the morning, drawing and painting,” he recalled to the Dayton Daily News. “It relaxes me totally.”
He said to the Tampa Tribune, “I’ve always taken art courses. It’s come easy to me, like majoring in baseball.”
The Reds chose Tomko in the second round of the 1995 June amateur draft. After he reached the majors with them in May 1997, art remained a part of his life. “Tomko always carries with him a sketch pad and charcoals,” The Cincinnati Post reported. On road trips, he visited art museums. “I am the biggest nerd in major league baseball,” Tomko told Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe.
Before long, Tomko “dazzled teammates with his charcoal drawings,” Jeff Horrigan of The Cincinnati Post reported. Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News wrote, “Tomko drew beautifully in charcoal.”
(On April 15, 2007, the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson integrating the big leagues, each fan attending the Dodgers game that day received a copy of Tomko’s drawing of Robinson, the Los Angeles Times reported.)
Traveling man
Tomko had 11 wins for the Reds his rookie season and 13 the next year. In April 1999, the Dayton Daily News reported, the Reds could have acquired Jim Edmonds from the Angels for Tomko but refused to part with him. (The next year, Edmonds was traded to the Cardinals.)
In February 2000, the Mariners made the Reds an offer they couldn’t refuse, sending them Ken Griffey Jr. for a package of players, including Tomko. The Mariners used him primarily as a reliever before shipping him to the Padres in December 2001.
Tomko was 10-10 with a 4.49 ERA in 32 starts for the 2002 Padres, but Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan noticed he was developing an effective sinkerball. “When he was in Cincinnati, he would just rear back and fire,” La Russa told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We saw that he has really started to move the ball around and pitch.”
Shopping for pitching at the baseball winter meetings in December 2002, the Cardinals talked to the Giants about a trade of second baseman Fernando Vina for either starting pitchers Russ Ortiz or Livan Hernandez, the Post-Dispatch reported, but the Giants instead opted to sign free-agent second baseman Ray Durham.
Turning to the Padres, the Cardinals discussed swapping Vina for Tomko and another pitcher, Kevin Jarvis, before scaling back the framework of the deal, according to the Post-Dispatch.
The Cardinals projected Tomko, 29, to join a starting rotation with Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Garrett Stephenson and Jason Simontacchi.
“He’s a guy who we’re getting in the prime of his career,” La Russa said to the Post-Dispatch.
Skeptics noted that Tomko was joining his fourth team in five years and only once posted an ERA below 4.44, but Dave Duncan told the newspaper, “He’s a low-ball pitcher, gets a lot of ground balls, and we have a good defense. I think he has pitched in some other places where the defense wasn’t so good and he had to suffer through that and paid a penalty for it.”
After seeing Tomko pitch in spring training with the Cardinals, Duncan said to the Post-Dispatch, “I feel good about everything about him. I like the way he’s throwing. I like the way he goes about his business, his willingness to work, his drive to win. All the ingredients are there.”
Like he had elsewhere, Tomko continued his art work while with the Cardinals. Among his projects was a portrait of teammate Woody Williams.
“The moments when Tomko has a charcoal pencil in his hand are among the most relaxing he can imagine,” Stu Durando wrote in the Post-Dispatch.
Good, bad, ugly
Tomko’s 2003 season with the Cardinals was a mix of gems and duds. He pitched complete games in wins against the Marlins (Boxscore) and Rockies (Boxscore). He also gave up nine runs in a game three times _ versus the Rockies (Boxscore), Red Sox (Boxscore) and Yankees (Boxscore).
Tomko finished the season with a 13-9 record and ranked second on the club in wins, but he gave up more hits (252) and more earned runs (119) than any pitcher in the National League. He allowed 35 home runs and batters hit .305 against him, helping account for a 5.28 ERA. Video
At times, Tomko impressed as much with his bat as he did with his arm. He hit .286 with nine RBI for the Cardinals.
Granted free agency after the season, Tomko signed with the Giants _ the fifth of 10 clubs he pitched for in 14 seasons. The others: Dodgers, Royals, Yankees, Athletics and Rangers.
Tomko finished with a career mark of 100-103. His 13 wins for the Cardinals tied his single-season career high.
RetroSimba 
I didn’t know about his talent off the field, but those images shown certainly indicate he could have made a full-time career out of that instead of pitching if he had been so inclined.
Thanks, Bruce. I really didn’t know, or remember, about Brett Tomko’s art interests either. I stumbled it across it when I began the research. I had more fun researching his art background than I did his baseball background.
He was pitching pretty well with Oakland when he suffered a very serious arm injury. Give him credit for making it back. His art work is quite impressive.
Thanks, Phillip. Here is a link to a Brett Tomko sketch of Pete Rose: https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0a239c1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1329×999+0+0/resize/1760×1322!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fwvxu%2Ffiles%2F201902%2Fpete_rose_4256_by_brett_tomko_2016.jpg
Brett Tomko gives literal meaning to “painting corners. That Jackie painting is really something else, the way black gives way to white or white gives way to black. A sad side effect of the color barrier being broken was the demise of the Negro Leagues which make me wonder if the Rickey so called “humanitarian” move was all a hoax to destroy another league.
I took a quick look at b-ref and notice that Brett had decent control which might explain why he got hit around a lot. He musta gone after batters which musta made it fun to watch him pitch.
Where in the world did you find out that his father won the naming of the Cleveland basketball team contest! I’m glad you did. I love the tidbits you add to the storyline and biographical details. Not a bad reward – a pair of season tickets!
Steve, I am so delighted you appreciate the anecdote about Brett Tomko’s dad naming the Cleveland NBA team the Cavaliers. That is one of my all-time favorite research finds. So unexpected!
While researching articles about Brett, I saw a brief, unattributed, mention about Jerry Tomko being the person who named the Cavaliers. Fortunately, it didn’t take much more digging to find a Cleveland Plain Dealer article, confirming the information as fact.
According to The Plain Dealer, when Jerry Tomko entered the naming contest, he submitted an illustration he drew of a swashbuckler and wrote an essay about how the name Cavaliers “represents a group of daring, fearless men, whose life’s pact was never surrender, no matter what the odds.”
A week before the Cavaliers began their inaugural season, Jerry still had not received his season tickets. So he drove to Cleveland Arena, went to the ticket window and asked about his prize. Embarrassed Cavaliers personnel told him there was a mix-up and promised to get him the tickets on time. According to The Plain Dealer, the Cavaliers came through.
Meanwhile, Jerry read that the person who named the Portland Trail Blazers got a new car as a prize. Jerry went to Cavaliers owner Nick Mileti and said he didn’t expect a new car, but he’d really like a basketball autographed by the team. Mileti agreed, but, according to The Plain Dealer, Jerry never got the ball.
Forty years later, in 2010, the Cavaliers tried to make amends and gave Jerry a game ball signed by the 2010 team.
Not a bad ball to have! I just took a quick look at basketball-reference and LeBron was on that team.
I had hoped the baseball team would have a different name, not the Guardians. A fellow wordpress writer once suggested what a great name the Nashville Sound is. I agree with him. Cleveland could have picked a name related to the Music Hall of Fame, like the Cleveland 6 strings or something like that. I wonder how they came up with the Guardians? If it was another contest? I like that they let the public decide.
According to Sports Illustrated, Paul Dolan, owner of the Cleveland baseball team, chose Guardians as the name to pay homage to the Guardians of Traffic statues located on the Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland. The Guardians of Traffic statues have flanked both sides of the bridge since 1932. Each of the four-winged Art Deco figures has winged helmets and crowns, and each statue holds a different vehicle to signify “the spirit of progress in transportation,” according to bridge engineer Wilbur Watson. There was a significant push for the Cleveland Spiders, which was the franchise’s initial name in the 1890s. Cleveland baseball teams previously went by the Blues, Bronchos and Naps before becoming the Indians in 1915.
Thanks Mark for the explanation. After reading it over, I like the name and what it represents.
The Cavs would have done better if Jerry had made their draft picks for them.
You’re right, Keith. The Cavaliers’ top five picks in the 1970 NBA draft were John Johnson of Iowa, Dave Sorenson of Ohio State, Surry Oliver of Stephen F. Austin, Glenn Vidnovic of Iowa and Wayne Sokolowski of Ashland.
He should have stuck to drawing.