Roger Salkeld

Roger Salkeld pitched for the Mariners and the Reds in the mid-90s.

Roger William Salkeld was born March 6, 1971, in Burbank, California. His grandfather, Bill Salkeld, was a major league catcher from 1945 to 1950. Roger was a superstar pitcher at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, where as a senior he had a 13-1 record and 0.51 ERA with 174 strikeouts in 109 1/3 innings; for his high school career he was 29-6 with 404 strikeouts in 264 innings. He was the third player taken in the June 1989 free agent draft, by the Seattle Mariners, who sent him to Bellingham of the Northwest League, class Short-Season A. On August 6 he got a write-up in the Olympian:

Mariner farm team pitcher gets taste of the Kingdome

Inside the Kingdome, both fans and media can be seen taking pictures of the ballplayers on the field.

But on Thursday afternoon, one photographer was sitting in the dugout wearing a Mariner uniform.

Shortstop Alvin Rittman of the Bellingham Mariners was snapping pictures of his teammates preparing to meet the Everett Giants in a Northwest League game that preceded the Mariners-Angels game.

Displaying a sheepish grin, Rittman said, “You never know if I’ll ever be back here.”

For most of the players on the Bellingham club, composed mainly of recent draft picks just beginning their pro careers, Thursday’s opportunity to play on a major league field was a special thrill…

For Rittman’s new roommate, however, the Kingdome appearance was not anything to get overly excited about.

“It’s going to be fun but it’s not like a big thing,” said Roger Salkeld, Seattle’s top pick and the third player selected overall in the recent June draft.

An 18-year-old graduate of Saugus High School in Southern California, Salkeld already had pitched in a major league park.

“I’ve pitched in Dodger Stadium a couple of times,” he said matter-of-factly.

Sitting calmly on the Mariner bench, showing almost no trace of emotion, Salkeld viewed his Kingdome start as just his normal turn.

“Do you think it was just coincidence?” Mariner General Manager Woody Woodward asked later. “We had plenty of time to set up the rotation so we could see him.”

Mariner officials weren’t disappointed in the performance of the big righthander (6-5, 215) who received more than $200,000 to sign.

In six innings, he allowed six hits and one earned run. He struck out eight batters and walked one.

At Bellingham, Salkeld is now facing mostly hitters with college experience. Yet, it doesn’t faze him.

“Over the winter I pitched to college players from USC, Pepperdine and Loyola-Marymount,” he said. “I’m used to it.”

Perhaps the biggest difference from pitching in high school is that the hitters now used wooden bats, and that favors Salkeld.

“A wood bat is a lot easier to pitch to,” he said.

With wooden bats, it’s more difficult to make solid contact with pitches on the inside part of the plate. But Salkeld said he hasn’t altered his style of pitching.

“I pitch the same as I did in high school,” he said. “I usually work my fast ball out (away from the batter) and keep my slider and changeup in. It seems to work so I’ll stick with it.”

Salkeld’s been pitching since he was 7 years old. He started to bloom physically as a high-school freshman, he said, and by his junior year set his sights on pitching professionally.

“By my junior year I felt I had a chance,” he said.

Throughout his senior year the scouts hovered around Salkeld’s every turn on the mound. But they didn’t break his concentration.

“When scouts were there they were spectators,” he said. “I put it out of my mind like they weren’t there.”

Just as he kept scouts at a distance, Salkeld seems equally unaware of the pressures and distractions of professional baseball.

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” said Rittman who shares an apartment with Salkeld. “He keeps me laughing, but once we get on the field it’s all business.”

“He hasn’t shown nervousness on the mound,” said Bellingham pitching coach Gary Wheelock. “He hasn’t been intimidated by the league or the hitters.”

Yet, Wheelock said, it’s easier to appear confident on the mound when you can dominate the hitters.

“He’s got an average-plus big league fastball (86-90 mph),” said Wheelock.

Before reaching the big leagues, however, there are a few things Salkeld needs to learn.

Wheelock is working with Salkeld to improve his curve and changeup.

“He’s going to be a power pitcher,” Wheelock said, “but a power pitcher that can change speeds is that much better. That’s what makes Mark Langston so good.

“When he learns how to get ahead in the count and change speeds he’s going to progress quickly to the big leagues.”

For Salkeld, pitching for Bellingham represents the first step on a ladder that eventually leads back to the Kingdome. For Rittman, who’s hitting only .115, Bellingham could be his final rung.

Nevertheless, he’s tutoring Salkeld in an important part of his education.

On the mound Salkeld pitches like a veteran, but at home he’s still a rookie.

“I have to teach him how to cook and wash his clothes,” said Rittman, his camera clicking one more time.

Later in August Roger was announced as California’s winner of the Gatorade Circle of Champions High School Player of the Year Award. With Bellingham he had a 1.29 ERA in 42 innings in eight games, six of them starts, allowing just 27 hits and ten walks while striking out 55. Then he went to the Arizona Instructional League, where he had a 0.75 ERA in 24 innings. Meanwhile, in August 2 he had filled out a questionnaire in which he listed his off-season occupation as baseball and his hobby as, I think, cars, though it looks more like “CWRS.”

Roger spent 1990 with the San Bernardino Spirit in the California League, Class Advanced A. Before the season he was ranked number 16 in Baseball America’s list of the top prospects in baseball. In May he filled out another questionnaire, in which he mentioned that he had lettered in basketball in high school in addition to baseball, his off-season occupation was student, and his hobbies were basketball, jet ski, and collecting baseball cards. The following comment from the Mariners report in the July 9 Sporting News shows just how high expectations were for him:

The organization’s best pitching prospect has a long way to go. He is righthander Roger Salkeld, who is pitching for San Bernardino, but failed to make the California League all-star team.

Six weeks later, though, on August 20:

Roger Salkeld, the Mariners’ No. 1 pick in the 1989 draft, was 7-1 with San Bernardino (California) from June 10 through August 5 as he improved his record to 8-5 with a 3.49 ERA. He had 134 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings.

Roger wound up 11-5 with a 3.40 ERA in 153 1/3 innings in 25 starts, striking out 167 and allowing 140 hits, though his walks were way up, to 83.

Roger was invited to spring training 1991 with the Mariners as the number five prospect on the Baseball America list, but was sent to the minor league camp for reassignment in mid-March. He went to the Jacksonville Suns of the Class AA Southern League, where in a stretch of four early-season starts he went 3-0 with a 0.69 ERA. On July 7 he got another feature article in the Olympian:

ROGER SALKELD

Drop-dead arm makes him the can’t miss kid

By Matt Hayes

Special to the Olympian

JACKSONVILLE.—A group of middle-age men hang over the guardrail at Tinker Field in Orlando, Fla. Baseball cards in hand, they strain to get a glimpse of the players in their collection.

Each has a different card, all have the same player—Roger Salkeld Topps No. 1 draft pick; Fleer Future Star; California League All-Star.

Inside the dugout sits Salkeld. It’s a couple of hours before game-time, and sweat caused by this humid Central Florida day has turned his red Jacksonville Suns jersey crimson. The Seattle Mariners’ prize minor-league pitching prospect, Salkeld is unfazed by all the attention.

“Pressure,” Salkeld said, “is only what you make of it. You can’t let everything get to you. I just try not to think about it.”

Wherever he goes, though, he’s reminded of his can’t miss tag. From fans, to the media, to other players; it’s a continuing affair.

Each Southern League city brings another chapter in the story. And it’s growing more each time he takes the mound.

“Yes!,” one of the men with the baseball cards grunted as he ran up the stairs of the box seats, delicately clutching his signed card. “Got him—a future all-star.”

Salkeld has been hearing those words ever since Seattle grabbed him with the third overall pick in the 1989 amateur draft…

But Salkeld knows he’s no Superman. A little humility can do wonders as an attitude adjustment. In his third start of the season, Salkeld was rocked by the Charlotte Knights for seven runs on nine hits in six innings.

“He was struggling that night,” Suns catcher Jim Campanis said. “He was trying to throw it by everybody. He wanted to come out bad, and they (Jacksonville coaches) weren’t going to let him. That game was a key to his maturing process.

“That showed him he has to be more of a pitcher than a thrower to make it. Anybody can sit back and throw it 90 mph down the chute.”

The Thrower and The Pitcher, a delicate mix. In a game full of mental and physical aspects, Salkeld is learning to master both.

“It’s never easy to go out and pitch,” Salkeld said. “I don’t care if you’re up by 10 runs or down by one. You can’t go out and get rattled, you have to be in control out there.

“I’m only 20 years old. I still have a lot to learn.”

On July 10 Roger pitched two scoreless innings in the AA All-Star Game, striking out three. On August 14 he was pulled from his scheduled start and informed he was being moved up to AAA, to the Calgary Cannons of the Pacific Coast League. For Jacksonville he had had a 3.05 ERA in 153 2/3 innings in 23 starts, with 159 strikeouts.

Roger pitched just 19 1/3 innings in four starts for Calgary before their season ended, with a 5.12 ERA due to one bad outing. There was speculation that he might be called up to Seattle in September, but that didn’t happen.

Roger, now ranked the number three prospect by Baseball America, was invited to spring training 1992 with the Mariners as a non-roster player. The AP reported on February 25:

TEMPE, Ariz.—Roger Salkeld has been told he won’t be in the Seattle Mariners’ starting rotation when the season opens, but he’s not giving up.

“I think they want me to show them how badly I want to pitch in the major leagues,” Salkeld said.

Pitching coach Dan Warthen gave Salkeld the bad news in December, but said the final decision will be made this spring.

Warthen said managers wanted Salkeld “to have fun this spring and not be consumed with the pressure of trying to make the team. He is under no pressure.”

The Mariners don’t want to rush Salkeld. The 21-year-old throws a fastball in the upper 90s and has averaged more than one strikeout per inning—403 in 368 1/3 innings. Warthen says the ideal scenario is for Salkeld to start the season in Triple-A Calgary and then move up.

But Salkeld’s dream ’92 season doesn’t include Calgary, where he finished last season 2-1 with a 5.12 ERA in four starts.

He’s already been through Bellingham, San Bernardino and Jacksonville, and with as many as three spots up for grabs, he figures he’s got as good a shot at the starting rotation as anybody.

“If I do well this spring, it would be hard for them to send me back,” he said.

Manager Bill Plummer agrees.

“If he does well in spring training and deserves to make the club, he’ll make the club,” Plummer said.

The problem so far is holding Salkeld back, Warthen said. As training camp got under way, Salkeld “was throwing too hard…He has a gifted arm and he wants to exploit it.”

From an AP story four days later:

Roger Salkeld’s fastball already has the hitters gasping at the Seattle Mariners’ training camp.

“First day and he’s brushing my knuckles,” Ken Griffey Jr. said. “A hundred and seven on the black. I want to go home. Plum, how can you do this to us?”

Griffey may have overstated his case, but first-year manager Bill Plummer was impressed by Salkeld’s 90 mph-plus fastball Wednesday.

But Roger was sent to the minor league camp for reassignment on March 25, and soreness in his right shoulder may have had something to do with it. He went back on the Calgary roster, and in early April there was still talk of him coming back to Seattle after getting in a few more AAA innings. But when the Cannons’ season began, Roger was still in Arizona in extended spring training, trying to get his shoulder in shape. In late May and early June he threw 45 pitches in each of two Arizona games and the team was briefly encouraged, but on June 22 they sent him to Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles. Dr. Jobe recommended a month of inactivity, and after that Roger spent August throwing in Arizona. Optimism faded when the soreness returned, and on October 6 Jobe operated on the shoulder. The Olympian reported on October 9:

Shoulder surgery could end Salkeld’s career as Mariner

SEATTLE—The Seattle Mariners say that 21-year-old pitcher Roger Salkeld’s career could be over.

Salkeld, the third player picked in the June 1989 baseball draft, underwent shoulder surgery this week.

“He’s certainly out a year and it’s uncertain whether he’ll play again at all,” Dr. Larry Pedegana said. “I’m talking about the surgery in general. A lot of pitchers don’t recover to pitch again after that surgery. It’s a medical fact.”

Pedegana is a Mariners’ team physician.

Salkeld’s right shoulder capsule was reconstructed by Dr. Frank Jobe at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, Calif., on Tuesday.

Scott Boras, Salkeld’s agent, said Jobe told the pitcher and himself that Salkeld will pitch again.

“He just couldn’t guarantee at what level,” Boras said.

The Sporting News reported on the situation on October 19:

Former No. 1 draft pick Roger Salkeld underwent surgery October 6 and will miss the 1993 season. “This obviously is a major disappointment to us,” General Manager Woody Woodward says. “He definitely was in our plans.” Salkeld, 21, was drafted third overall in the 1990 [1989] draft. He missed this past season with soreness in his right shoulder, believed to be caused by overthrowing during spring training when he tried to earn a spot in the rotation. Despite several examinations, the extent of his injury wasn’t known until he had exploratory arthroscopic surgery. The examination by Dr. Frank Jobe in Los Angeles revealed instability in the anterior aspect of the shoulder. Woodward: “We kept hearing he should be able to bounce back, but there was one delay after another and I guess now we understand why.”

In November the Mariners moved Roger from the Calgary roster to the major league roster. (On January 2 he got married.) In February they signed him to a one-year contract, and he went to Arizona for spring training but did not do any pitching, just rehab work. On March 16 he was moved back to the Calgary roster; by May he was impressing the team with his progress in Arizona and the decision was made to speed things up. On June 10 he pitched five innings for the Mariners in an exhibition game against Calgary. On June 22 he was activated and sent to AA Jacksonville, where he had a 3.27 ERA in 77 innings in 14 starts, but struck out just 56, the first time in his career that he had fewer strikeouts than innings. On September 4, after Jacksonville’s season ended, Roger was called up to the majors.

On September 8 Roger made his major league debut, getting the start at Baltimore. In the first he struck out Brady Anderson looking, struck out Mark McLemore, and got Mike Devereaux on a groundout to third. He gave up a run on three hits in the second, and another on two hits in the third. In the fifth, after getting two outs, he allowed a single and a walk and was removed, ahead 3-2, but the Orioles came back to win 6-3. On the 14^th he pitched 3 1/3 innings of long relief against the Angels in Anaheim, allowing one run in a 9-2 loss. Then he sat until the 30^th, when he got another start, in Chicago. From the next day’s Seattle Times:

IMPRESSIVE MARINER ROOKIE MAKES PITCH FOR NEXT YEAR

By BOB FINNIGAN 

CHICAGO - Minnie was the lucky one.

Benched by complaints from his prospective Chicago White Sox teammates, 70-year-old Minnie Minoso didn't have to play on a miserable night with a chill wind that would have kept a Flying Dutchman in Shilshole.

Then again, Roger Salkeld counted himself fortunate, too, to start for the Seattle Mariners, even though he was gone long before they won 2-1 in 11 innings.

"I had never pitched on a night so cold or windy," said Salkeld, who allowed just four hits in 6 1/3 solid innings. "I found it can be an advantage. The wind was keeping most everything in the ballpark, so I just threw strikes and figured they'd stay in the park."

Hitters traditionally don't like making contact in the cold, but pitching is no picnic, either.

"My hands were dry, the balls slick," Salkeld said. "I used a lot of resin and a lot of spit."

Salkeld would lick his fingers, then wipe them on his pant leg, as rules require. The residue provided some grip.

The residue of this performance and his previous start of nearly five good innings in Baltimore is a good impression on his bosses.

"Roger will get a chance to make our starting rotation in spring training," Manager Lou Piniella said. "We don't have him penciled in; his spring will dictate whether he makes the team or not. But we're glad for the chance to see him pitch, to handle major-league hitters. This major-league experience will be in his favor."

That was his last appearance of the season, and gave him a 2.51 ERA in 14 1/3 innings, with 13 strikeouts and four walks.

After the season people were writing that Roger would probably be the Mariners number four starter in 1994, but by the time spring training began it was being said that he was competing for the number five spot. He did win the spot, but was sent to Calgary to begin the season anyway because the Seattle schedule didn’t require a fifth starter early on. He was brought back to start for the Mariners on April 23, and lasted six innings against the Orioles in Baltimore; he was down 3-2 when he was taken out, then the M’s tied it up before losing 4-3. Five days later he got his first major league victory in his first appearance at home in the Kingdome, combining with his roommate, rookie reliever Tim Davis, to shut out the Yankees, 6-0; Roger allowed two hits and five walks in 6 2/3 innings. However, that would be the last time he would make it into the seventh inning for Seattle.

The next day Roger was sent down to Calgary to get in a start before his next scheduled Mariners start on May 10, but his Calgary start on the 4^th was suspended due to rain in the second inning. After losses in his next two starts, he got a win over Texas at home on May 22, being taken out after five innings with a two-hit shutout; the final score was 8-2. He made seven more starts through July 6, going 0-3 and averaging four innings as his ERA rose to 7.04. An AP story on July 7 said:

“It’s been too familiar,” Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. “I don’t know if Roger loses arm strength or what. He gives us two good innings with good stuff and, boy, all of a sudden he gets hit.”

Salkeld, winless since May 22, allowed five hits and four walks in four innings.

“The only one I can blame is myself,” he said. “It’s been a problem all year, staying out of the big inning. I don’t know what it is…it just happens.”

On July 9 Roger was sent down to Calgary again. On August 5 he was scheduled to start that night’s game until the team got word that the Mariners were calling him back up. He started in Kansas City on the 7^th, getting pulled with one out in the fifth in a game Seattle came back to win in the late innings; then he was immediately returned to Calgary, where he remained the rest of the season.

For the year, Roger started 13 games each for Seattle and Calgary. With the Mariners he had a 7.17 ERA in 59 innings, while with the Cannons it was 6.15 in 67 1/3.

Roger went to spring training with the Mariners in 1995 but was sent down to Tacoma, replacing Calgary as Seattle’s AAA affiliate. He made three starts and a relief appearance (in which he got his first ever professional save) and had an ERA of 1.80 when, on May 15, he was traded to Cincinnati for 33-year-old Tim Belcher, who was in the minors (with AAA Indianapolis) for the first time in his twelve-year professional career. The Mariners wanted someone who could help them immediately, while the Reds were hoping that Roger, still just 24 years old, could still put it all together in the future.

The Reds sent Roger to Indianapolis, where he spent the rest of the year. He had a 12-2 record and 4.22 ERA in 119 1/3 innings in 20 starts, striking out 86 and walking 57.

Roger pitched well in spring training 1996, and made the Cincinnati roster as the fifth starter. On April 6 he got the win in his National League debut, despite allowing six hits and six walks in five innings. After a no-decision on the 12^th he spent some time in the bullpen, had a poor start on May 4, then sat until May 21, when he got the loss despite allowing just one run in seven innings. He then sat again until June 4; from the June 5 San Francisco Chronicle:

Giants Can’t Solve Salkeld, Fall to Reds

By Tim Keown

Chronicle Staff Writer

Cincinnati

The Giants faced Reds starter Roger Salkeld last night, and some of their best rallies were loud foul balls. Sometimes the game conforms to accepted notions, and other times explanations are hard to find.

There wasn’t much explaining going on in the Giants’ clubhouse after last night’s game.

Salkeld, a tall right-hander with a garden-variety assortment of pitches, threw seven strong innings as the Reds defeated the Giants 4-1. He didn’t excite anybody, but he didn’t walk anybody, either.

The Giants managed just five hits—four of them singles. Some of Salkeld’s best moments came with Barry Bonds at the plate. He handled Bonds to the tune of strikeout, popup and grounder to the mound.

“He had us eating out of his hand,” Dusty Baker said. “The main thing was, he was getting ahead of the hitters.”

Getting ahead of the hitters. Keeping the ball down. Working the corners. It’s not a sexy formula, but it got Salkeld and the Reds a quick, straightforward win.

On June 10 Roger had a six-inning, three-run no-decision, and then on the 16^th he pitched the best game of his career, a shutout at home against Montreal. From the AP story:

…The game was pretty much a blur to the Expos, who got down 3-0 in the first inning behind Rheal Cormier (3-4) and simply couldn’t figure out Salkeld.

They didn’t know what he was throwing, how he was getting them out or what his name was exactly.

Salkeld (3-1) allowed just two singles and two doubles in 87-degree heat. The right-hander walked one, hit a batter and struck out five in his first complete game in 22 major league starts.

“Today I faced a really tough battler,” Cormier said. “Salkafeel, I think his name is, pitched a real good game. We couldn’t get to him all game.”

“He’s somebody we don’t know well,” Montreal manager Felipe Alou said. “I think we know him better. We didn’t even come close to doing anything.”

Salkeld, the Reds’ fifth starter, has put together four good starts since May 21, giving up five runs and 21 hits in 36 innings [actually 29] for a 1.25 ERA [actually 1.55].

“The last four starts, he’s been our best pitcher hands-down, without exception,” [manager Ray] Knight said.

Then came a run of bad luck in his next three starts: on June 21 he was forced to leave the game in the fifth after being hit on the left knee by a liner hit by Jose Vizcaino, on June 27 he left the game with “a sore pinky finger on his glove hand” after Todd Zeile hit a liner off his glove in the sixth, and on July 2 he came out after being hit by a pitch on his right hand while attempting to bunt in the second. Roger continued to start regularly through July and into August, but after allowing seven runs in 5 2/3 innings on August 16 he was sent to the bullpen. On August 26 he was told he was being sent to Indianapolis, but an injury to Mark Portugal saved him and he finished the season in the Cincinnati bullpen, except for one start in September. For the year he had an 8-5 record and 5.20 ERA in 116 innings in 29 games, 19 of them starts; he pitched great in relief, with a 1.93 ERA in his ten relief appearances.

During the off-season Roger was talked of as a possible member of the Reds’ rotation in 1997, but he was sent to the minor league camp early in spring training. He pitched all season for Indianapolis, ending up with a 4-8 record and 6.75 ERA in 88 innings in 36 games, eleven of them starts; he struck out 88, averaging a strikeout per inning for the first time since his surgery, but also walked 60.

After the season Roger was released by the Reds, and in December the Astros signed him to a minor league contract. He was invited to spring training 1998 with the major league club, but reassigned to the minor league camp on March 15. From Matt Young’s column in the Galveston Daily News, March 15:

Roger Salkeld, once a top prospect with the Seattle Mariners, was trying to claw his way into the Astros bullpen as a non roster invitee before being sent down Saturday. Salkeld wears No. 72 and says it has nothing to do with any kind of admiration for William “Refrigerator” Perry.

“Seventy-two’s pretty ugly, isn’t it?” the 27-year-old right-hander said. “This isn’t Little League so you don’t want to make a big deal out of something like jersey numbers, but it’s not real comforting to know that you’re wearing a football number.”

Roger began the season in the starting rotation at AAA New Orleans. His first start did not go well, but the second one did; from the April 15 New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Roger Salkeld rediscovered Tuesday how simple pitching can be.

Salkeld allowed three hits in six innings as the New Orleans Zephyrs defeated Edmonton, 5-4, before 3,780 at Zephyr Field and completed a sweep of their four-game series…

Salkeld didn’t get the victory. That went to reliever Mike Grzanich (1-0), who had his fourth consecutive scoreless outing. But it was a turnaround from his first start Thursday night, when he allowed six runs in four innings at Albuquerque.

“It was all mechanical,” Salkeld said. “It was nothing in my head or anything like that. It was just trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and correct it.

“I really can’t define it down to anything. Just over the last year and a half, I’ve been working on so many things. In a sense, I might have just been overloaded.”

So Salkeld decided to simplify things and, this time, threw his curveball for strikes.

“I went back to the way I was comfortable throwing and just trying to stay basically with my old mechanics,” he said. “I got some decent results out of it today.”

That, plus Salkeld didn’t dig himself deeper when he got into holes.

“Today, things didn’t compound when he had a bad batter or two,” catcher Marc Ronan said. “He righted himself and got the next guys out, whereas the other day they got worse and worse.”

After this Roger went through a rough stretch, and he was moved into the bullpen in the first half of May. Things started to click again for him there, and he went back into the rotation and was hitting 96 MPH with his fastball. On July 12 the Times-Picayune ran a story on his love of fishing. Sometime after that, no longer doing so well, he was returned to the bullpen, where he finished the season. He wound up with a 3-6 record and 5.79 ERA in 82 1/3 innings in 37 games, eleven of them starts, while striking out 79 but walking 64.

The Astros let him go after that, and in 1999 he caught on with the Mexico City Tigers of the Mexican League, where he made six starts and had a 6.14 ERA. On June 8 he signed with the Calgary Cannons, now a Florida Marlins farm team, and finished the season with them; he had a 4.63 ERA in 35 innings in 27 games, two of them starts. In 2000 he made three relief appearances for the Akron Aeros of the Class AA Eastern League, an Indians affiliate, pitching four scoreless innings, and that was the end of his professional career. The latest information I found is from Wikipedia, which says “He currently resides in Saugus, and is president of Skaggs Concrete Sawing in Santa Clarita, California.”

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/S/Psalkr001.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/salkero01.shtml