He’s got stuff from the mound that Major League Baseball teams dream of, but Rob Tamen was cut from NIU’s baseball team during walk-on tryouts in 1978.

But every time a hitter steps into the batters box for the World Series contending Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, they face Tamen’s arsenal of pitches.

His fastballs, breaking balls and change-ups cut through the air like NIU football’s running back Garrett Wolfe through opposing defenses.

Tamen is usually the first man to take the mound on game day at “The Cell.” He even throws out pitches before the ceremonial first pitch.

So how is it that Tamen couldn’t even walk-on at NIU?

Because the man befriended by White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko throws BP, also known as batting practice.

He’s thrown over three times as many pitches as Mark Buehrle’s mark of 3,478 this season. But Buehrle’s never been one known to work the count.

All Tamen does to keep his 45-year old shoulder from crumbling is lift 40-pound weights, do stretch exercises with 10-pound weights and workout with an elastic band for a total of 10 minutes a day.

“At my age I’ve been lucky and never felt sore,” Tamen said. “I throw about 300 pitches a day.”

On days when the White Sox play at 7:05 p.m., Tamen gets to the park at 1 p.m. where he works out and runs for an hour. Then at 3:30 p.m. the players come in to take batting practice.

Roughly around the sixth and seventh innings Tamen said he hangs out in the batting cages behind the dugout so the bench players can hit and stay warm. Players also hit in the cages before they head to the on deck circle.

Though Tamen said he won’t be traveling with the team to Houston, this season has been his most memorable in 17 years of throwing batting practice.

“I’ve been around teams since 1978 and never been with one that went to the World Series,” said Tamen, who is friends with NIU Associate Athletics Director Dee Abrahamson. “This team just keeps winning. And no matter what, they come to the ballpark knowing they can win.”

Tamen’s love for baseball grew from the endless hours of catch he played with his father in the backyard as a child on the North Side of Chicago.

“He taught me everything,” Tamen said. “How to grip the ball, throw and the proper mechanics.”

Tamen would go to all the Cubs game as a kid and became a starting third baseman and pitcher for Chicago Senn High School.

After graduating, Tamen worked on the grounds crew at Wrigley Field in the summer of 1978, the job that would prove to be Tamen’s shoe-in toward his current part-time job as a BP pitcher.

That fall Tamen left Wrigleyville to walk on to former NIU baseball coach Walt Owens baseball team, but found out he wasn’t strong enough, or good enough.

“As a freshman I just wanted to find out if I could make it,” Tamen said. “I don’t know if I really put my heart into it. I was really intimidated by the upperclassmen and didn’t perform well.”

The former physical education major was planning on teaching, but if that didn’t work out he was going to follow in his dad’s footsteps.

“I was looking to teach for a bit, but knew that if I didn’t teach, I could go into business with my father in investments, which is what I do as a full-time job now,” Tamen said.

Tamen continued to work on the Cubs ground crew until he graduated from NIU in 1982. For the next four years Tamen shagged balls and played catch with Cubs players, but in 1988 Tamen’s arm was called upon.

“Coach Larry Cox came up and asked me if I wanted to throw batting practice,” Tamen said. “I told him I’d give it a try, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

For seven years Tamen pitched from the mound at Wrigley, his childhood haven.

After stints with the Baltimore Orioles in 1996 and Cincinnati Reds in 1997, Tamen found himself pitching on the South Side in 1998.

“I still follow the Cubs, and if they win, fine,” Tamen said. “I’m really just a baseball fan.”