Banter From The Bench: Jim Carrey's favorite baseball player is helping the planet

It’s not often that a Renaissance man plays professional baseball for the Colorado Rockies, let alone can do a remarkable impression of Jim Carrey.

The Harvard University graduate — one of only seven big leaguers to ever come out of Harvard and the first with the Rockies — has a degree in environmental science and public policy. The move to the Rockies, who selected him off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers in November, allows the self-proclaimed tree hugger to continue his efforts towards improving the health of our planet.

Along with Ryan McMahon, Suter will be donating 73 trees for every Rockies win this season. The 33-year-old treats every day like it’s Earth Day, and his efforts to minimize the impacts of climate change with Eco City Milwaukee, Players For The Planet, and The Outrider Foundation are what led to him being selected as the Brewers’ Roberto Clemente Award Nominee for the last three seasons.

He even released a children’s book last year about his dog Wally called The Binky Bandit.

The former Colorado Springs Sky Sox pitcher from 2015-17 is back in the Centennial State doing what he does best: holding down the fort for his team late in games.

“Major League” feat. Brent Suter

2016 | #DimTillardVideo🎥 pic.twitter.com/fvKwIslLoW

— DimTillard Video Archives (@DimTillardVideo) April 15, 2022

Suter had a 3.51 ERA during his seven seasons with Milwaukee, including a 2.90 ERA when utilized out the bullpen, something that made the team’s choice to place him on waivers seem shortsighted.

Other than his debut this season with the Rockies, he’s pitched more than an inning every time, including five of his 10 appearance for two innings. When you consider he’s given up two earned runs in 16.1 innings pitched (1.10 ERA), the left-hander’s value in the bullpen has been critical for keeping the Rockies in games.

Brent Suter, 20 second Strikeout. ⏱️

and ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/LgYbIVshTC

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 26, 2023

On Sunday in Philadelphia, he picked off his third base runner of the month, already tying a career-high. One more will tie the single-season reliever record of four with fellow southpaw Brian Fuentes in 2003, and two more will tie Germán Márquez for most on the active roster. (The single-season record for pickoffs by a Rockie is eight by starter Armando Reynoso.)

Along with teammates Justin Lawrence, Jake Bird and Brad Hand, Suter has been worth 0.3 fWAR through the first 26 games of the season. That’s contributed to Colorado having the seventh-best bullpen in the sport, according to FanGraphs.

The following is a composite of two conversations with Brent Suter during Spring Training and April of 2023.

Patrick Lyons: You spent a decade with the Brewers before coming to the Rockies. When you got the news, did you immediately look over the roster and notice that the rest of the bullpen would be really solid? 

Brent Suter: Oh absolutely. It was definitely a flood of emotions, calling the Brewers guys and a lot of those relationships I’ll have for life, for sure. Quickly, it was getting super excited about this team, this organization, this fan base. Every time we played the Rockies, we were like, ‘This team’s good.’ Everyone’s been awesome from the top down has been super welcoming. So really excited.

Lyons: To your point, what are your memories from the 2018 National League Division Series and then the end of the 2019 season when Colorado got revenge and prevented you from winning NL Central?

Suter: I remember that. The Rockies were always there. In 2017, we were neck and neck until Game 161. We lost a heartbreaker and they got the final playoff spot. The next year, we beat them in the playoffs in the NLDS. But they were good. We snuck some wins out early in that series. And yeah, 2019. We needed one win to get to Game 163 at the start of the series and we could have won the division if we had taken two or three. That (Sam) Hilliard home run, opposite field, was just such a back breaker. (Trevor) Story walk-off homer. I remember that like it was yesterday.

Note: The Hilliard and Story home runs helped Colorado win Game 161 of the 2019 season and prevent Milwaukee from tying St. Louis for first place in the NL Central with 90 wins. In the final game of the season, Colorado scored a run in each of the final three innings to tie the game 3-3 in the bottom of the 13th on a wild pitch that scored Hilliard to further dash their hopes of avoiding the Wild Card Game.

Lyons: You guys have been successful as a bullpen unit. There’s been a lot of unearned runs that have been scored on the bullpen’s watch. How do you guys kind of cope with that or ignore that, in general?

Suter: We don’t like runs, period. I guess the only solace about the unearned runs is it doesn’t affect the bullpen ERA or team ERA, but it’s still runs that make it harder for us to win games. And it also tells me that we gotta pick not only our defenders up, but each other up with runners on bases. When we don’t make the play, we got to make sure we execute the next at bat. Make sure we nip it in the bud, if you will, or put out that fire. So it’s definitely a stat that we look at. We’re a run prevention unit. We don’t want to give up runs, period.

https://twitter.com/BigMoBarrett/status/1624002555222147073

Lyons: Are you into the analytic side of things? Earned run average is already a type of basic analytic that doesn’t penalize you for a mistake by the defense. There are more involved metrics that show this bullpen as having been quite good this season.

Suter: I’ve liked our bullpen from the beginning of Spring. I think we cover a lot of bases out there. We do. We have a lot of guys that can do a lot of things. Obviously, (Daniel) Bard coming back as one of the premier closers in the game is huge, too. We’ve got all the pieces. We need to keep our nose to the grindstone and make pitches, pick each other up and get some wins out of this thing.

Lyons: Does the pitch clock make it easier or harder when there’s a missed double play or error behind you? Can’t you forget about it easier because of the time component?

Suter: The only thing I think it’s affected us on has been in the high altitude, especially after covering a bag or making a play and coming back, you might not have that time to get that extra breath to really get your legs back under you. I’ve had two four-pitch walks after I cover first up here just because I didn’t totally get my breath back and I should have. I probably had time to, but I say that and then I got banged for a pitch clock violation the other day when I didn’t take hardly any extra time. So, it definitely moves quick, but it’s not something we can’t adjust to. We can certainly adjust to it, for sure.

Lyons: Off the field business. You’re into the environment. Given everything that Colorado represents as a state in terms of nature and the environment, how appealing is that for you?

Suter: It’s unbelievable. It’s a haven for sure. It’s a hotbed of great environmental advocacy and action going on there. I’m getting in touch with a lot of environmental leaders and hooking some things up. I’m really excited about the possibilities there to just try to help these programs along as best I can. I’m really, really excited to get going with that. It’s an unreal community in that regard.

Lyons: Any time you’ve been in the area, have you been able to visit Boulder? That might be your vibe up there.

Suter: Never. I’ve never been to Boulder. Maybe when I was like super young we drove through it maybe. But, I’ve never been up there. Definitely had a good talk with some CU environmental people up there and they do some great work. Coast Prime’s up there now so it’s vibing on the sports front. From everything I’ve seen, it’s beautiful. Right up against the mountains just like Denver, maybe a little more. It’s beautiful. I’m looking forward to going out there.

Lyons: Michael Toglia played me a video of you doing play-by-play as Jim Carrey. I know you’re a big fan, as am I. Have you ever visited the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo? A few scenes from Dumb and Dumber were filmed up there. And if not, that’s surely a potential off-day activity, right?

If #Rockies are no longer aired on television, maybe Brent Suter can just call play-by-play in his Jim Carrey voice. pic.twitter.com/ZCqglMQRkK

— DNVR Rockies (@DNVR_Rockies) February 25, 2023

Suter: You said it. I might.

Lyons: There’s a ghost tour there. The hotel was the inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining. There’s a rumor that the hotel is haunted and Jim Carrey was in one of those rooms.

Suter: Oh my gosh. I didn’t know that. 

Lyons: Well what’s your favorite Jim Carrey favorite film?

Suter: It’s Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. It’s one of the rare ones where I like the second one better than the first one. When Nature Calls is probably one of my favorite movies of all time, followed closely by Dumb and Dumber and The Mask. 

Ahhh Milwaukee…where the beer flows like wine! I gotta admit, when I saw this Dumb and Dumber tribute from the Brewers I was tickled stupid. @bruter24: you got some comedy chops or a severe behavioral disorder. The difference is negligible. Spank You Kindly, guys! https://t.co/PgNy0e1Gu6

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) June 9, 2018

Lyons: You don’t have to do the impression, but you’ve got it nailed down. 

Suter: It’s been fun to imitate him. I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid. We did like a Dumb and Dumber spoof with the Brewers back in 2018. And he actually tweeted at us and said, ‘Hey Brewers, great job.’ And then he tweeted at me. I was like, ‘Frame!’ That was really cool. That was really, really fun.