Bentz Needs No Special Treatment

Former Dirtbag Needs No Special Treatment
by ESPN The Magazine

March, 2004

Chad Bentz is a special case, but he insists on no special treatment.

"On the field I can throw, hit and field my position like everyone else." he says, "Off the field, I'm different. Most people aren't from Alaska. And most people have two hands."

Bentz, 23, was born with a partially formed right hand. Yet sometime this season, he's likely to pitch for the Expos.

"I was mainly a hockey and football player." he says of his childhood in Juneau, Alaska.

"I knew so little about baseball. I threw a no-hitter when I was 9 and didn't even know it. My coach had to explain it to me. I said, 'But three guys hit the ball!'.

Bentz is still hard to hit. Last season at AA Harrisburg, he had 16 saves and 2.55 ERA in 52 games. He throws a slider and a cutter, plus a low 90's fastball with movement, much like his inspiration, Jim Abbott. They've talked about pitching, not about their disabilities.

Anyway, Bentz acts as if he doesn't have one. "Teammates have a lot of fun with me," he says, "When I hit, they call me the one-armed bandit."

A seventh round pick oit of Long Beach State in 2001, he's now the best lefty RP in the Expos system.

Says Bentz, "Nothing beats proving people wrong."

'Except, maybe, getting some people out.'


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