Dave Otto

From Sports Library

David Alan Otto (born November 12, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois), is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1987-1994. Dave is a 1982 graduate of Elk Grove High School. At 6-foot-7 he is the tallest pitcher to hurl for the Elk Groves Grenadiers. He was also a basketball standout in high school.

As a senior at Elk Grove in 1982, Otto hurled a no-hitter against Schaumburg High School. In that game, Otto struck out 16, and allowed just one baserunner. The baserunner, who reached on a dropped third strike, was promptly picked off first base. Otto also led the Grenadiers in that season's IHSA state playoffs, where the Grens were one of the final eight teams standing before losing to Edwardsville 1-0 despite a 2-hitter thrown by Otto.

Otto was also a standout basketball player at Elk Grove, setting the high school records--still standing-- of 670 points for a sinle season ('81-'82) and 1,582 points for his high school career. At 6'7", Otto was both the tallest pitcher and tallest basketball player for Elk Grove in '81-'82. [1]

Following his senior season, Otto was drafted in the third round of the 1982 amateur draft by the Baltimore Orioles. However, Otto elected to enroll at the University of Missouri and play baseball there instead. Otto fielded offers from other Division I schools like Arizona, Northwestern, Old Dominion and Iowa State. While Arizona would only offer him a baseball scholarship, the other three schools offered him a spot on the basketball team. The other problem was that Otto was a good hitter, so good that his coach at Elk Grove compared him to former Prospect High School star Dave Kingman, who went on to star for the Cubs in the 1970s.

Dave is also a 2000 inductee to the University of Missouri sports hall of fame. Otto pitched and sometimes DHd for the Tigers from 1983 to 1985.

After three years at Missouri, Otto was drafted by the Oakland A's--again in the third round. This time he signed with Oakland and pitched for Medford (CA) in Low A ball. The following season, in 1986, Otto spent a full season at High-A Madison where he went 13-7 with a 2.34 ERA. He started the '87 in Madison, and shortly thereafter moved up to AA Huntsville. Toward the end of the season, Otto was promoted to AAA Tacoma, where he pitched in the Pacific Coast League playoffs. Otto's '87 season earned him a promotion to the big club, and he appeared in 3 games for Tony Larussa's Oakland A's in September, meaning he had pitched at all four levels of the minors (A, AA, AAA) as well as making his major league debut.

Otto spent the next three season bouncing back and forth between Oakland and Tacoma. Because the A's had begun their three-year run of AL West titles, and had plenty of pitching strength (led by Dave Stewart, Bob Welch, Storm Davis, and Rick Honeycutt and, later Scott Sanderson) Otto had difficulty sticking with the big club for good. Following the 1990 season, Otto was granted Free Agency and he signed with the Cleveland Indians.

After spending two season with the Cleveland in 91 and '92, Otto signed with Pittsburgh Pirates in 1993. The following season, Otto signed with his hometown team, the Cubs.

He pitched for the Cubs in '94 as a left-hander out of the bullpen. That year, he started the Crosstown Classic exhibition game between the Cubs and White Sox at Wrigley Field. It was common for teams to start long relievers to get them work and then load a roster full of one-day minor-league call-ups. One such player in the White Sox' starting lineup was a 30-year-old outfielder from Double-A Birmingham, Michael Jordan. Just two months into his baseball career, six months after his first (of three) basketball retirements, and 11 months from his return to the NBA, Jordan collected his first Wrigley Field hit off of Otto. Later in the game, Jordan would deliver an RBI double off of Chuck Crim.

Otto's one-year stay with the Cubs was so undistinguished that he occupies 1/19th of the No. 23 spot on the Hire Jim Essian! blog's "Bottom 126 Cubs of My Lifetime." Otto joins Willie Banks, Mike Morgan, Kevin Foster, Chuck Crim, Jim Bullinger, Frank Castillo, Jose Guzman, Danny Jackson, Dave Smith, Dan Serafini, Andrew Lorraine, Bob Scanlan, Micah Bowie, Jeremi Gonzalez, Mike Harkey, Anthony Young and Daniel Garibay as "The Unnamed Pitchers of the 90s."

After Steve Stone left the Cubs broadcast booth in 2000 because of health issues, Otto became color analyst opposite play-by-play announcer Chip Caray for Cubs games televised on Fox Sports Chicago. Former Major Leaguer (and onetime Cubs' farmhand) Joe Carter did analysis for games televised on WGN-TV from 2001-2002. While Carter was univerally panned, Otto made enough of an impression to continue his association with the Cubs after Stone returned in 2003. When the Cubs clinched their first division championship since 1989, Otto was in the television booth as a color commentator alongside Caray. Otto was filling in for Stone, who was observing Rosh Hashanah. When the Cubs clinched their first postseason series since 1908, Otto was in the Cubs' radio booth, alongside Pat Hughes. Regular color analyst Ron Santo was out with health reasons and Stone, who would have been Santo's replacement, was again out for a Jewish holiday--this time Yom Kippur. Currently, Otto fills in for radio color Santo on WGN-AM whenever Santo has to miss games due to health issues. He also does studio analysis for Cubs games for Comcast Sports Net on days Dan Plesac is off.

If Otto has a "signature" call, it would be his use of the word filthy (pronounced "filll-theee") to describe a pitcher or a pitch with exceptional movement or velocity.