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PERSONAL:
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- Carl grew up in Southington, Connecticut. He was a Yankees fan and once pretended to be Don Mattingly hitting against Roger Clemens.
- Pavano used to have lots of baby fat. But then he got on a regular aerobic workout schedule and reduced his body fat from 16 percent to 9 percent.
- In 1988, Pavano met Curt Schilling when the Red Sox ace was pitching in the minor leagues.
"I was 12," Pavano recalled recently. "I was at a baseball camp in New Britain, and Schilling, who was pitching for the Sox farm team in New Britain, was one of the instructors. He invited me and my family to one of his games a couple of weeks later. The day we were supposed to go, he got traded to Baltimore."
Then, in 1988, Pavano, who by then had grown into the 6-foot-5-inch pitcher the Red Sox traded to Montreal for Pedro Martinez, made his major league debut for the Expos against the Philadelphia Phillies. The man he opposed: Curt Schilling.
"I guess there was a little irony there," said Pavano, who didn't get the decision in a 3-2 Montreal win decided by an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth off Schilling, who was allowed to go the distance by then-Phillies manager Terry Francona.
- Pavano made his Major League debut May 23, 1998, beating Phillies ace Curt Schilling. But it wasn't the first time the two had met. That was in 1988, at a baseball camp in New Britain, Conn. Schilling was in Double-A with the Red Sox team, and Pavano was 12 years old. "He actually took me aside, talked a little about pitching and he said I reminded him of himself at that age," Carl said. "It really impressed me. And I looked up to him, I followed his career. I thought it was really ironic that I was starting my first game against him. But I'm sure he doesn't even remember."
- Many baseball people think that Carl has a low tolerance for pain.
- Midway through 2002 spring training, Pavano threw five innings of no-hit baseball against the Cleveland Indians. He struck out three and walked no one. Only one batter reached base, on an error by 3B Chris Truby.
- During the offseason before 2003 spring training, Pavano started doing Bikram yoga. It entails going through different positions over 90 minutes in 104-degree heat with New Age music in the background. "You don't want a hug from me when I get out of there," Carl said.
At first, he said the heat made it hard for him to concentrate on the trainer's instructions. "It hasn't made me eccentric," Pavano said of becoming a yoga enthusiast. "You meet a lot of eccentric people in those places. But I don't socialize much."
- Carl is rather eccentric, but he is also pretty bright. He has a soft, low voice and a dry wit, dropping in one-liners with barely a hint of a smile. He's described as cool under pressure and says he doesn't feel or show emotion.
- Pavano is somewhat of a baseball historian. He enjoys learning about past heroes of the game and the history of teams.
- September 2004: Carl dropped IMG and well-connected agent Casey Close as his representative. He retained the services of South Florida-based attorney Scott Shapiro, who has worked with the likes of Ozzie Smith and Pedro Guerrero, but is a relative neophyte in the high-stakes world of sports contract negotiations.
- When Pavano returned to the Yankees for the last week or so of the season, manager Joe Torre was quite frank in discussing the pitcher who had been on the D.L. from July 27, 2005 through the 2006 campaign.
"He has to understand what his priority is," he said. "I'm not accusing him of anything. But the fact is baseball is something right now that has to be his life. He's going to have to live his life that way. Nobody is saying he wasn't hurt. But you have to help yourself, and there may be some thought process that he could have done a better job helping himself."
Pavano said, "I could sit here all day and rehash everything, but it's not going to do me any good," he said. "Personally, everything I've done has been disappointing, frustrating, humiliating, so the best thing that I can do is continue to look forward to '07." (Jim Baumbach-Newsday-9/23/06)
- Carl's surliness and apathy have been well noted around the clubhouse, and his constant teases—pitching in rehabilitation starts, only to come up with new injuries—left nearly everyone skeptical. So Pavano came into 2007 having to prove himself.
- September 2006: Pavano hired Gregg Clifton as his new agent (replacing Ron Shapiro). Clifton advised Pavano to be up-front with the media about his past off-field issues and to repair his image by getting back to work and becoming the pitcher he was in Florida.
- Spending the off-season before 2007 spring training in Arizona, Pavano worked out with the same physical trainer Randy Johnson has used for years. It was intensive 10-week program of four to five hours per day under the supervision of trainer Brett Fischer. Numerous Major Leaguers like Kerry Wood, Mike Hampton, Randy Johnson, Eric Gagne and Kevin Millar use Fischer's facilities, where Pavano was welcomed with open arms by the fraternity.
Carl said his winter efforts went light on bodybuilding and focused mainly on core exercises—flexibility, range of motion, and plenty of stretching. In one exercise, Pavano would be on a mound with a medicine ball, doing lunges with weights; in another, he'd be utilizing a pulley system to replicate his pitching motion. It was a long way from the iron-pumping workouts that Pavano used to favor.
"The workouts are some things that I've never done before," Pavano said. "The machines [Fischer] has, I haven't even seen. They're not common machines. They're machines that a lot of track athletes use who rely on core strength and hip flexibility to produce power in their legs." (Bryan Hoch-MLB.com-2/2/07)
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Near the start of spring training in 2007, teammate Mike Mussina said that Pavano needs to prove he wants to pitch for the Yankees, with Pavano's long injury-related absences having left doubt in some players' minds. Mussina said he does not believe he is not the only Yankee who feels this way.
"It didn't look good from a player's and teammate's standpoint," Mussina said. "Was everything just coincidence? Over and over again? I don't know. Pavano is only looking at it from his perspective," Mussina said. "We're looking at it from our perspective. We want him to go out there and show us that he wants to do this."
One of the final straws for some of Pavano's Yankees teammates—and the low point in Pavano's absence, he said—came in August 2006. Pavano appeared close to returning to the big leagues, but instead broke two ribs in an automobile accident.
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Pavano called the whole sequence of events "kind of funky." The last incident prompted a teammate to hang a newspaper cover that read "Crash Test Dummy" in Pavano's Yankee Stadium locker.
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March 9, 2007: Pavano said he missed his scheduled spring training start because of a medical situation involving his girlfriend, Gia Allemand. The team gave him permission.
"The reason I left, my girlfriend had a severe medical condition and I had to be with her," Pavano said. Carl didn't give specifics about the problem, but said his girlfriend is "doing well."
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In December 2007, Carl hired his fourth agent, Tom O'Connell. Preceding O'Connell have been Casey Close, best known for representing Derek Jeter; Scott Shapiro, who negotiated Pavano's contract with the Yankees in 2004, and Gregg Clifton, whose client list is topped by future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine.
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In Joe Torre's book, "The Yankee Years," he and the writer of the book, Tom Verducci, questioned Pavano's intestinal fortitude. In fact, Torre said, "The players all hated him. It's no secret."
Yankee bullpen catcher Mike Borzello is quoted as saying, "Guys on the team despised him. One day Jeet (Derek Jeter) walked by him and said, 'Hey, Pav. You ever going to play? Ever?' Wow. That was a damaging comment coming from Jeter. He didn't say a whole lot, but when he did, it was pretty piercing."
Jeter is the Yankees captain. Torre managed the Yankees from 1996 through 2007.
Former Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina believed Pavano, who grew up a Yankee fan, couldn't pitch in New York. He said in the book that he realized it after a conversation with Pavano during his first season with the Yankees.
"He just didn't like being under the microscope," said Mussina. "He couldn't play being under the microscope every day."
Torre said Pavano's lack of responsibility to his team bothered him most of all. In 2006, the Yankees were about to activate Pavano from a rehabilitation assignment, when he broke some ribs in a car accident.
Recalling the incident in the book, Torre told Pavano, "It's nice to go out. I know you like to go out, but you've got a commitment here. You've got a bunch of players that need for you to be a pitcher."
Pavano, who underwent shoulder and elbow surgery with the Yankees, made only 26 starts in four years.
Torre's final evaluation of Pavano went like this, "Andy Pettitte had elbow issues in 1996, and you just have to realize, 'I'm either going to pitch or I can't play this game anymore.' Pav, unfortunately, never came to that reality. In saying that, am I saying he wasn't hurt? No. Not at all. But would it have made a difference if he had pitched, based on how he wound up, anyway? You're still capable of getting people out.
"He's a guy with all these issues in his life and he's not sure what's important and what isn't. Was he afraid of failing in New York? It must be that way, because I talked to Larry Bowa, and he saw the bulldog on the mound when he pitched against the Phillies, and I saw it in the World Series (2003 when Pavano pitched for the Marlins against the Yankees). We just didn't see it with the Yankees."
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In 2004, Pavano was dating actress Alyssa Milano. But they had broken up by mid-season. Milano is a famous actress and baseball enthusiast. And she has a line of clothes with team logos for female fans, called Touch Boutique.
Milano was born in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst neighborhood and moved to Los Angeles to star in "Who's the Boss?" and "Charmed." She has also dated the Giants' Barry Zito and Boston's Brad Penny.
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Carl and has wife, Alissa (Zandy) have two children: son Anthony Carl, born November 15, 2008 and daughter Presley Mara, born October 24, 2009.
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March 29, 2012: A former high school teammate of Pavano was accused of trying to extort money and a luxury SUV from him.
According to a search warrant affidavit filed by police early n March, Pavano's sister, Michelle DeGennaro, said Christian Bedard, 36, of Southington, Conn., was "attempting to extort monetary funds for his fabricated, false information" and that he believes he can hold the Pavano family "hostage" with the information.
Bedard told the Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn., which first reported the story, that he had an "emotional and physical relationship" with Pavano for three years while they were in high school. The affidavit says he threatened to reveal the alleged relationship and to write a book about it unless Pavano apologized to him and bought him a navy Range Rover with tan leather.
Police in Pavano's hometown of Southington, about 18 miles southwest of Hartford, said in the affidavit they began investigating the allegations after DeGennaro complained in December she had received several troublesome Facebook messages from Bedard. DeGennaro told police that Bedard made up a bogus story about having a same-sex relationship with her brother in an attempt to extort her family.
Officers executed the search warrant at Bedard's home on March 21 and seized items but wouldn't say what they were. Bedard said on his Facebook page that police took his laptop computer, material relating to Pavano and the book he was writing. Bedard hasn't been charged. The search warrant affidavit includes copies of several Facebook messages Bedard allegedly sent to DeGennaro.
"I have serious juicy book offers ... to the point that the only way your brother is getting out of this ... is with a heartfelt apology and a navy range rover with tan leather," Bedard allegedly wrote to DeGennaro, according to police. "If I'm going to drop a 1.2 million dollar book deal I want something. That is my best offer an apology and a land rover and I'll kill the project," Bedard wrote referring to the book deal, according to the affidavit. Bedard told The Associated Press in a statement that he wanted an apology because of how Pavano treated him at the end of their relationship. He didn't elaborate.
Bedard, a real estate agent, later rescinded his offer to DeGennaro in another message, police said.
"I'm up to five depositions of friends who I trusted with the secret of Carl and I's relationship," Bedard wrote, according to the affidavit. "Then I called my attorney ... the book is the best deal."
DeGennaro told police that Bedard also demanded that Pavano pay a substantial amount of money to him or he would reveal personal information about Pavano to the media
TRANSACTIONS
- June 1994: Pavano was drafted by the Red Sox in the 13th round, out of high school.
- November 1997: The Expos sent P Pedro Martinez to the Red Sox to acquire Pavano and P Tony Armas.
- July 2002: The Marlins sent OF Cliff Floyd, INF Wilton Guerrero, P Cladio Vargas and cash to the Expos, with Florida acquiring Pavano, P Graeme Lloyd, INF Mike Mordecai, and P Justin Wayne.
- November 4, 2004: The Marlins offered Pavano a three-year, $21 million contract but he became a free agent.
- December 11, 2004: Carl agreed to a contract with the Yankees worth about $39.95 million over 4 years. The pact also has a team option for a fifth year at $15 million with a $2 million buyout if the option is not picked up. Pavano also can become a free agent after four years if he pitches 200 innings in the third and fourth years of the deal.
- November 4, 2008: The Yankees did not pick up the $13 million option on Pavano for 2009, making Carl a free agent.
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January 6, 2009: Pavano and the Indians agreed to a $1.5 million guaranteed contract for 2009, with another $5.3 million in performance-based incentives. The incentives don't kick in until Pavano notches at least 18 starts. The deal does not include an option.
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August 7, 2009: The Twins sent RHP Yohan Pino to the Indians, acquiring Pavano.
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November 7, 2009: Carl filed for free agency.
But on December 7, 2009: Pavano agreed to return to the Twins, accepting arbitration.
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January 19, 2010: Carl and the Twins avoided arbitration, agreeing to a $7 million contract for 2010.
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January 18, 2011: Pavano and the Twins agreed on a two-year, $16.5 million contract. It pays $8 million in 2011 and $8.5 million in 2012, with another $500,000 in possible incentives.
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CAREER INJURY REPORT:
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- 1997: Pavano started the season on the D.L. with tendinitis in his biceps. But he returned to action April 25.
- July 6, 1997: He went back on the D.L. with a sore right elbow caused by elbow and tricep tendinitis.
- 1998 spring training: Carl developed tendinitis in the back of his right shoulder.
- July 16, 1999: He went on the D.L. with soreness in his right elbow. He was reactivated September 7. But he went back on the shelf 10 days later with that sore elbow. An MRI revealed no structural damage, but Pavano was put on an offseason rehab program.
- June 25, 2000: Carl went on the D.L. with right triceps tendinitis close to his elbow. He finally had arthroscopic surgery August 22. Dr. James Andrews peformed the procedure on Pavano's pitching elbow in Birmingham, Alabama. Carl started the 2001 season on the D.L. in rehab. He was finally activated August 9.
- June 28, 2005: Pavano was on the D.L. with tendinitis in his right shoulder.
He didn't pitch again in 2005. And he missed the entire 2006 season.
- February 11, 2006: Dr. Robert Watkins examined Pavano in Los Angeles. His written recommendation said Pavano should spend the next two weeks undergoing a back-strengthening program. Carl said that the stiffness is on the lower left side of his back, his landing side, where he felt it all of 2005.
Pavano was still allowed to throw on flat ground,, but the Yankees want him to follow Watkins' advice to keep his back from getting worse, especially after Pavano revealed that it bothered him all of the 2005 season.
"It kind of locks up everything and makes it hard to push off and land," said Pavano.
April, 2006: Pavano spent the first month of the season on the D.L. with his back. And on March 28, he hurt his backside when he lunged awkwardly to touch first with his glove on the first play of his first (and only) exhibition inning.
- May 19, 2006: It was determined that Pavano would need surgery to remove a bone chip above his right elbow. He had the surgery on May 25.
- August 15, 2006: Pavano suffered a pair of broken ribs in a car accident that he didn't tell the Yankees about for a week.
Pavano said he was hurt Aug. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla., when on a rainy night his car hit a puddle, spun out of control and hit a truck that was at a stop sign.
"There was no ambulance or anything. I was able to walk away from it," Pavano said. "I had my seat belt on. I think that's the area where maybe I got injured, is where the seat belt was."
Pavano lives in West Palm Beach and had permission to go home, Yankee G.M. Brian Cashman said. Pavano said his lack of performance with the Yankees led to his decision not to initially inform the team.
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April 14, 2007: Carl was on the D.L. with tightness in his forearm. He also had discomfort in his right elbow.
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June 4, 2007: Pavano had to undergo Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery.
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April 1–August 23, 2008: Pavano was on the D.L.
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Mid-May, 2012: Carl battled a strain in the front of his right/throwing shoulder, so he worked on shoulder-strengthening exercises between starts. An MRI showed he could pitch through the discomfort.
Finally, on June 4, 2012, Pavano went on the D.L.with right rotator cuff weakness.
And he stayed sidelined for the rest of the season after an MRI on August 21, 2012 showed a bruise on his right humerus bone. Only rest can heal a bone bruise.
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January, 2013: Pavano suffered a ruptured spleed while shoveling snow in his driveway at his home in Vermont. He was in the hospital for two weeks. He lost a lot of blood. Carl didn't think he was seriously injured after the fall, then didn't feel well following a workout a few days later in Connecticut.
"He felt bad enough that he went to the hospital and he ended up getting admitted, and they realized he had a lacerated spleen," Pavano's agen, David Pepe said. "They tried to control the bleeding. They did all they could to not take it out and, unfortunately, he didn't stop bleeding and he was in the hospital (for two weeks, or so).
"To be quite honest, I think he's very fortunate that he caught this thing. He had the presence of mind to go to a hospital," Pepe said. "It could have been a lot worse. He's just got to get his strength back and worry about baseball later."
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