A business card, an offer and K-Swiss sneakers: In ALDS Game 5, Tarik Skubal’s Seattle story comes full circle

The Athletic has live coverage of the Tigers vs. Mariners Game 5

SEATTLE — The first time Tarik Skubal threw off a mound in this city, his father was on a mad dash around town… looking for shoes.

Elliott Cribby, then the pitching coach at Seattle University, had recently discovered this unheralded lefty with a funny name. At a tournament in Peoria, Ariz., Skubal lit up the radar guns one day, then watched as scouts fled the field when his fastball came in closer to 82 mph another.

To Cribby, though, something stood out about the arm action. Something seemed right about this kid with the big leg kick and a little too much baby fat.

Call it luck. Call it destiny. Whatever word you prefer, Cribby was right.

“As a coach, it’s like winning the lottery,” Cribby said. “Meeting Tarik for the first time, recruiting him, you could see in his eyes that he was different.”

When Skubal’s unlikely recruitment started, Seattle University’s baseball program was a fledgling operation. The school had cut baseball years ago and only recently brought the sport back. Seattle U did not have its own field and hardly had any equipment. But Cribby left a business card with big, red letters.

That business card famously turned into Skubal’s only Division I college offer. The wrinkle in that story is the fact that Skubal did not actually want to go.

“I was like, ‘Dad, I’m not gonna call that guy,’” Skubal once said. “I’m not gonna call this number because I don’t want to go play baseball in Seattle. I’d rather stay in Arizona.’”

Skubal’s father pushed him. “No. Call.”

Cribby invited Skubal up to throw at a Seattle U camp. Skubal’s family had to pay for the travel, the camp and a hotel. They made the trek from their home in Kingman, Ariz. They expected to be pitching outside. Skubal’s bullpen ended up being off a portable, indoor turf mound that did not allow for cleats. Skubal had only his spikes and a pair of slides. He has unusually large feet— size 14, Cribby estimates, though one of Skubal’s feet is actually bigger than the other — so he could not easily borrow a pair of turf shoes.

But this was supposed to be the biggest bullpen of his life, so Russ Skubal scrambled. He arrived back at the facility with a pair of humongous, white K-Swiss sneakers.

They did not exactly radiate swagger.

“It was pretty funny to watch,” Cribby said. “But he was really good that day.”

Cribby was not supposed to offer any scholarships until head coach Donny Harrel returned from dealing with a family situation. He offered Skubal anyway.

“I wouldn’t let him leave until he committed,” Cribby said.

The decision to attend college in Seattle changed Skubal’s life.

Now, entering Friday’s decisive Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners, Skubal is back in this city for what could be the biggest game of his career.

Once a goofy kid with a toothy smile and funny shoes, he is now at the apex of his craft, an intimidating presence who bullies hitter, backpedals off the mound and commands the game in a way few others can claim.

If not for that bullpen, that offer and those K-Swiss sneakers, who knows where he might be?

During his college days, Skubal sat up high inside T-Mobile Park. He purchased a ticket to watch Félix Hernández pitch. He remembers lights flashing and horns blaring as Edwin Díaz entered to close games.

“I was like, ‘This is the coolest place in the world,’” Skubal said. “I’d get goosebumps when he’d come running in and they’d do his whole thing.”

The early days at Seattle made for a tough adjustment. Cribby could sense Skubal’s reluctance. He coached him hard but did his best to build an authentic relationship. He hosted him for Thanksgivings and Easters.

“He was a fish out of water in a big city,” said Cribby, who went on to coach at Washington and now coaches at a suburban Seattle high school.

Once an awkward underclassman with long hair, Skubal is now the best player to ever come out of the school. His picture hangs on a mural above Bannerwood Field. On his trips back to Seattle, Skubal stops by campus to visit with the Redhawks baseball team. His most recent message was aimed toward college kids like he used to be, watching major-league games like they’re part of another universe, reserved for players with more talent, more offers or more publicity.

“I just remember when I was going to school there, the pro guys would come back and throw and work out with us, and I thought that was really cool,” Skubal said. “I idolized those guys. … So I think it’s important to just understand that it’s not a dream. You can dream about playing in the big leagues and getting drafted and all this stuff, but those things can become a reality.”

Much about Skubal’s time in Seattle remains etched into his ethos. He purchased Game 2 tickets for every member of the Seattle University baseball team, an estimated 34 people. He had his favorite Seattle restaurant — Tacos Chukis — cater for the Tigers after the game.

“I have dreams of this place,” Skubal said. “It’s so good.”

Less than a decade ago, when Skubal was still a college pitcher working his way through Tommy John surgery rehab and walking more than six batters per nine innings, it would have been difficult for Skubal to imagine all this coming to fruition.

Earlier this season, when the Tigers played their second road series at T-Mobile Park, they hosted Tarik Skubal Night. Old college friends, coaches and family members gathered and reunited in the third deck of T-Mobile Park.

Only a few days ago, Skubal sat in a gaudy interview room, preparing to start a postseason game in the city that changed his life.

“Moments like that are full-circle or surreal, however you want to put it,” Skubal said. “And that kind of gets back to that question of why I want to go back and do these things.”

Sunday in Game 2, before another warmup in this outpost by the Puget Sound, Skubal strode out to the bullpen at T-Mobile Park glowing with a certain aura. The gold patch on the back of his jersey, symbolizing his Cy Young status, glimmered in the afternoon light.

He was only a ninth-round draft pick but grew into a fearsome prospect. Even then, Skubal would not have reached these heights without more work, more growth, more evolution. Early in his career, he traveled to Driveline Baseball outside Seattle, hoping to improve his arsenal. He stayed at Cribby’s house while he toyed with a splitter he could never master.

He endured another surgery, developed the nastiest changeup in the game, refined his mechanics and improved his command.

“You can’t necessarily anticipate any player is going to get to his stature,” Cribby said. “That’s a credit to who he is.”

Before Game 2, fans wearing gear with both Olde English D’s and Mariners tridents clutched the railing and packed tightly around one of the most intimate bullpens in baseball. Most watched Skubal intently. Of course, a few hecklers could not resist.

Seattle U is not here, one of them yelled.

Tonight’s the night you lose control, said another.

Skubal held the Mariners to only two runs in seven innings. A pair of home-run balls to Jorge Polanco was the only damage. The Tigers still lost, 3-2.

Skubal is the Tigers’ greatest weapon, the biggest reason they have made it this far. Including the playoffs, they are 22-11 in games Skubal starts. They are 69-67 in games without him. The left-hander finished the regular season with a 2.21 ERA and is the favorite to win a second consecutive American League Cy Young Award. No AL pitcher has done that since Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000.

“We win together, we lose together, but he leads us,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s a big presence going into Game 5. As we get on this plane to go across the country, we’ve got a lot of optimism heading that way because of the presence of Tarik Skubal.”

Oddly enough, the Mariners have beat Skubal three times already this season, twice in Seattle and once in Detroit. Last season, the Tigers lost a heartbreaking ALDS Game 5 to the Guardians with Skubal on the mound.

But after the Tigers clawed back from the abyss to beat the Mariners in an emotional Game 4, Skubal is back here where it all started. He will get the ball for Game 5, hoping to add a new chapter to a legend that started from nothing.

“I was born in California, raised in Arizona, but I feel like I kind of grew up here in college, getting independent,” Skubal said. “So this place will always have a special place in my heart.”

(Top photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)