Baseball: White Sox pitcher Farquhar ‘lit up’ the Cajun clubhouse

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, April 29, 2018

As he travels the slow road to recovery from a life-threatening brain hemorrhage and ruptured aneurysm, former UL pitcher Danny Farquhar of the Chicago White Sox leaves behind a trail of memories treasured by some of those who knew him best from his Ragin’ Cajun days.

Former teammate Buddy Glass was the best man in Farquhar’s wedding, and vice versa; each is the godfather of the other’s eldest child.

“He’s just an awesome human,” said Glass, who maintained a close relationship with Farquhar as he bounced between the majors and minors. “He’s about as good as they get, you know? Very humble. … Loves kids.”

Maybe that’s because who’s made his life’s work a game never stopped being one.

More: The Cajuns are praying for White Sox pitcher Danny Farquhar

“While he took his pitching seriously, he didn’t take life too seriously,” said longtime UL radio play-by-play man Jay Walker, who’s convinced Farquhar inherited an always-upbeat disposition from his mother.

“He was very loose in the clubhouse,” Glass added. “He plays little jokes — little, harmless jokes here and there. I wouldn’t call him a prankster, but he has a good time.”

Current Cajuns coach Tony Robichaux recalls quite a character in Farquhar, who collapsed in the dugout after throwing 15 pitches in the sixth inning of the White Sox’s April 20 game in Chicago against the Houston Astros.

“Some guys come to work every day; they’re introverted. … Danny was extroverted,” said Robichaux, also the Cajuns’ coach when Farquhar threw for UL from 2006-08. “Danny was always cutting up, always was funny.”

Now that outgoing nature may be critical to the rehab process for Farquhar, who according to an update from the White Sox on Thursday “continues to show signs of progress and has even taken a few short walks on the ICU floor” at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center.

More: White Sox, Robichaux update ex-Cajun Farquhar’s status

“When he came in on a recruiting visit,” Robichaux remembers, “he came in with Scott Hawkins (still UL’s career home runs hitter) and we fed them at the Blue Dog (Cafe).

“At Blue Dog, you know, they put a cover on the table and they bring colors (crayons) to the table. Danny had asked for colors, and I mean he colored right there on the table like a kid.”

Which he was, and still — even with 30 in the rearview mirror — is.

HE WORE SQUAREPANTS

Robichaux was emotional as he shared stories one day after the 31-year-old Farquhar was hospitalized.

It was before a UL win over Little Rock that was dedicated to the ex-Cajun, and before it was uncertain if he’d even survive.

“Danny was real free-spirited,” Robichaux said. “The team really respected him.

“He just brought some life to the clubhouse every day, because he was always cutting up and friendly. That’s why we’re hoping and praying … that God’s not finished with him yet.”

The prayers in that regard seem to have been answered for Farquhar, a married father of three who nonetheless faces an uphill climb that could take years to fully traverse.

“I remember for a couple years he had the dressing stall that was next to the door to the coaches’ locker room,” Robichaux said.

“I’d catch him dressing — and he had some Walt Disney World boxer shorts that he wore to pitch in.

“I used to always stop,” Robichaux added, “and tell him, ‘Hey, look, I’m just so glad that my family eats, and my career hinges, on a guy wearing Walt Disney boxers.’ ”

Not just Disney, though.

Goofy and SpongeBob SquarePants too, among others.

“There was always something fun going on with him,” said Glass, a former All-Sun Belt Conference pitcher who — like Farquhar — played his high school ball in Florida.

“I remember one day he was wearing his SpongeBob boxers and saving a lizard on the batting practice screen, or a frog or something.

“Robe (Robichaux) was making fun of him: ‘Putting my whole career in the hands of you, with your SpongeBob boxers.’ ”

‘JUST LIKE MOM’

Farquhar — from the South Florida community of Pembrook Pines — is a product of Archbishop McCarthy High in Southwest Ranches, Florida.

He was both a closer and a starter for the Cajuns, and during his freshman season he and Glass tied for lowest ERA in the Sun Belt at 2.17.

Play-by-play announcer Walker recalls one season at UL when, on Mother Day’s, the bilingual Farquhar was on the receiving end of one rather meaningful delivery.

It came from his mother, Beatrice, who now resides in Gainesville, Florida, where his sister Valerie was a University of Florida cheerleader.

“His mom, I swear, never had a bad day in her life,” Walker said.

“She was a Cuban immigrant; she had a very, very thick accent. Loved her son. I mean, he was definitely Momma’s boy.

“She was always smiling, always happy. And that’s the way Danny was,” Walker added. “Danny joked a lot around the ballclub, but he always had a smile on his face.”

More: Farquhar’s friends from a decade in baseball balance hope, heartbreak

The Cajuns have a tradition in which the moms of UL players each throw a pitch to their son whenever Mother’s Day falls during a weekend home series.

“The first year they did it was when Danny was playing, and Ms. Beatrice — she might have been 8 feet away,” Walker said. “And she worked really hard, and managed to throw the ball about 8 feet.”

Beatrice Farquhar found her target, smack in Danny’s glove.

“She started jumping up and down. She was so happy that she had done it,” Walker said. “And Danny just giggled the entire time.

“You could just tell, him and his mom, how close they were. … That was it: Danny never had a bad day, just like his mom never had a bad day.”

No matter how many ups and downs.

And there have been plenty of those.

‘A GREAT KID’

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 10th round of the 2008 MLB Draft, Farquhar has been with six major-league organizations and pitched in the bigs for four of them — the Blue Jays, Seattle, Tampa Bay and the White Sox — since making his debut and working three games for Toronto in 2011.

He’s also has pitched for 11 different minor league teams, including five in the 2012 season alone, when he spent time out of the majors and instead bouncing around the Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees and Mariners systems.

The righty reliever then appeared in 155 games for Seattle from 2013-15, 72 for Tampa Bay from 2016-17 and 23 for Chicago since last year, including eight this season.

Yet the journeyman also has pitched in eight or more minor-league games — all at the Triple-A level — in each season from 2013-17.

Throughout the yo-yo career, however, Farquhar — once dealt out of the Yankees organization as part of a trade, in 2012, that sent outfielder Ichiro Suzuki from Seattle to New York — has never forgotten his college roots.

“He’s proud of where he came from. I can tell you that,” said Glass, describing how both Farquhar regularly talks up the Cajuns — especially when coming across major-leaguers who played at LSU.

For a while, in fact, Farquhar maintained an offseason home in Lafayette, and his parents have been frequent visitors to town.

In days not long gone by, he’s happily signed autographs at UL baseball fan days.

Before relocating a couple years ago to California, where according to Glass his wife Lexie’s family is from, he would frequently work prior to spring training at UL facilities.

He’d sometimes do so alongside another former college teammate, All-Star catcher Jonathan Lucroy, now with the Athletics and the only other ex-Cajun currently in the majors.

More: UL players benefiting from Lucroy’s time as a free agent

“I used to have to go catch bullpens for (Farquhar),” Glass said with a laugh, “(because) Lucroy wouldn’t catch bullpens.”

Before kids started to rule the roost, Glass would travel to visit Farquhar — and watch him play — several times a year.

Now, with many miles between them, and Glass having remained in Lafayette following his college days, the two speak on the phone at least once at week.

During the week before Farquhar was hospitalized, they talked twice.

Once was on a Tuesday, Glass’ birthday. The second time was a day later, two days before Farquhar went down.

“I was telling him I was walking more, playing golf, trying to eat better and all that,” Glass said. “He said, ‘Man, if you want to lose weight you’ve got to quit eating dairy. That’s it. That’s all I do.’ ”

The White Sox list the 5-foot-9 Farquhar at 185 pounds. Others have him at 180. In college, he was down for 170.

Glass jokingly suggests 160 might be a better number.

For the former teammate, however, what’s harder to accurately weigh is the impact Farquhar’s had on him and the Cajuns.

The same goes for Farquhar’s former coach.

“He’s a great guy,” Glass said.

“A great kid,” Robichaux added, the drawl long on ‘kid.’ “He was one of those people that lit up the clubhouse, you know?”