Double Playing : Not Even Distance Can Always Separate Young Left-Handers for Dodgers Who Are Identical Twins

VERO BEACH, Fla. —  Michael Mimbs was standing on a mound here late last summer, pitching for the Vero Beach Dodgers, when he felt a twinge.

It wasn’t his shoulder or his elbow. It was his identical twin brother.

“I felt real strange, I felt Mark having a real good night,” Michael said. “So I pitched even harder.”

Shortly after he finished throwing a shutout against the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees, he phoned his mother and nearly fell out of his chair.

On that same night, 3,000 miles away, while pitching for Class-A Bakersfield, Mark Mimbs had given up no runs in seven innings in defeating San Bernardino.

“There are some things we feel, some things we do, that nobody can understand but us,” Michael said.

The Dodgers have stopped trying to understand--or to tell the players apart.

“I call each of them ‘Mimbsie,’ ” said Charlie Blaney, farm director. “That way, I know I’m never wrong.”

Since drafting the twins from southern Georgia on consecutive late rounds in 1990, the Dodgers have been shaking their heads in amazement while watching them become top prospects in identical fashion.

Both probably will pitch for double-A San Antonio this summer.

“The only word I can use for it is, astounding,” said Dave Wallace, the Dodger pitching instructor who probably is the only member of the organization who can identify the players at first glance.

The brothers, 23, are not merely identical in appearance. Both are left-handed and have the same pitching motion and even the same rotation on their fastball.

Both are considered good pitchers not because they are overpowering, but because they are smart.

“I’ll go work with one, then travel across the country to work with the other, and it’s like I’m dealing with the same person,” Wallace said.

They even think alike on the mound.

“I would love to hit against him, because I would always know what was coming,” Michael said of his brother. “I would rock his world.”

Randall Mimbs, their father, remembers watching them pitch for Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

“I would be standing on the fence and talking to Mark while Michael was on the mound, and Mark would be calling every pitch,” Randall Mimbs said. “But I was used to it. In Little League, Michael would pitch and Mark would play first base and they never had to say anything on a pickoff play.”

After each succeeded in rookie leagues in 1990, the similarities became even more startling.

In two Class-A leagues, each won 12 games. Each gave up 42 earned runs.

Each had eight strikeouts per nine innings, and each gave up seven hits per nine innings.

At one point, on July 20, when each had made at least 17 starts, both had 2.26 earned-run averages.

“Even I couldn’t believe that,” Michael said.

The season was capped on Aug. 1, when their father opened birthday cards from them.

Two envelopes, two postmarks . . . and the same card.

“And we had not even discussed Dad’s birthday,” Michael said. “We’re used to a lot of the stuff that happens to us, but when our mom told us about that, it was like, ohhhh , the same card?”

They not only succeed together, they even get sick together.

“Michael will call and say he’s sick and, sure enough, pretty soon Mark will call with the same symptoms,” said their mother, Virginia Mimbs.

The Dodgers have attempted to treat the twins equally.

Tommy Mixon, the scout who signed them out of Mercer in 1990, offered them identical contracts, each calling for a $5,000 bonus.

The players, taken as the 24th and 25th selections, were not told who was drafted first.

“They asked me, and I didn’t tell them,” said Joe Vavre, the manager of the Dodgers’ rookie league team in Great Falls, Mont., that season. “We just didn’t feel it was any big deal.”

The twins weren’t about to press the issue.

“We felt lucky to get anything, no scouts had really talked to us during college,” Michael said. “I heard later that maybe they took our draft selection as sort of a joke, sort of like, ‘OK, let’s pick the twins.’ I think we have surprised them.”

The surprises began as soon as they were assigned to Great Falls. Mark was the opening-night pitcher and Michael was selected to back him up, even though Mark didn’t even begin to pitch until college.

“Michael came into my office and told me we had them confused, that he was always the No. 1 pitcher ahead of Mark,” Vavre said. “You could tell it was really eating at him. Apparently these guys were more competitive than we thought.”

This set off an alarm with Blaney, who immediately ordered Michael’s transfer to the Dodgers’ other rookie league team in Yakima, Wash.

“This game is hard enough when you compete with the opposition . . . we did not want the boys going out of their way competing with each other,” Blaney said. “We thought it was best to separate them.”

One problem. The twins had not been apart in 21 years.

When the Dodgers separated them, they were devastated. Michael called Vavre and all but pleaded to be returned to his brother.

“I got to Yakima, and I really felt like quitting,” Michael said. “It was like a part of me was missing.”

Said Mark: “It was a real sick feeling. It was like somebody had taken away your best friend. I would have let Michael start the first game, I didn’t care.”

While many in the organization still believe the brothers are too competitive with each other, the twins claim that clubhouse bickering over a borrowed shirt is often misinterpreted.

“When we dream about making it, we dream about both of us making it,” Michael said. “Sure, we argue sometimes. And sometimes it’s only natural to want to do better than your brother.

“But when it comes down to it, we both want to do well, to do the same thing. That’s all we’ve ever done, the same thing.”

By the time their first season ended, both acknowledged that the separation was good. Both had winning records with ERAs of less than 4.00, and both were comfortable with establishing their own identities.

The brothers are looking forward to playing and living together again in San Antonio this summer, although they worry what will happen while watching each other.

“I can’t sit still when Mark pitches, and vice versa,” Michael said. “It is like I am out there, too. It’s hard to describe.”

They might not be together long, however.

Mark, who was drafted after Michael, pitched well for triple-A Albuquerque in a practice game against San Antonio Friday, working three hitless innings. If they are promoted to Albuquerque during the season, Mark will probably be the first to go up.

“Whatever happens, it’s an unbelievable story that is only getting better,” Blaney said.

One might notice that with one exception, Michael was the only twin quoted in this story. That is because, although interviews were conducted separately and within minutes of each other, their answers were the same.

“Two pitchers,” Michael said with a smile. “One person.”