Cincinnati Reds' Brent Suter on Mike Marshall, Jim Carrey and Harvard's hope for humanity

Cincinnati Reds left-hander Brent Suter spent eight seasons in the majors, mostly for the Milwaukee Brewers, before getting the chance to sign as a free agent with his hometown Reds this year.

He has quickly become one of the more popular players in the clubhouse and one of manager David Bell's most trusted relievers.

A graduate of Archbishop Moeller and Harvard University, Suter worked mostly as a starter early in his Brewers career before 2018 Tommy John surgery and has pitched almost exclusively in relief since, producing a 3.22 ERA post-surgery.

Suter, 34, pitched in four of the Reds’ first five games, including a scoreless two innings on Opening Day, and then pitched three innings in the ninth game.

He spent some time for a Q and A just ahead of this week’s series against his old Brewers pals, on his new, familiar digs, pitching thoughts and a few off-the-field topics:

How settled in are you after all the anticipation of playing for your hometown team?

“Definitely Opening Day was a lot of energy, a lot of great things, and a lot of texts after the game, for sure. But I feel like since then it’s settled in to being in the routine of things. And the cohesiveness of this group is great, so that makes it super easy.

“Obviously, it feels like home, but it feels like the really good family vibes I’ve been used to in my career, been able to be a part of with Milwaukee and Colorado. Everyone pulling for each other, good people all around the organization. So it’s been a really easy transition.”

Are you used to the logo on the front of your jersey yet?

‘Definitely the first couple weeks of spring training, I kept putting the jersey on and kept pinching myself. But it’s settled in now, for sure.”

How does your Reds debut, with so many friends and family there on Opening Day, compare to some of your other professional highlights, or even in your personal life?

“Someone asked me, is that my favorite all-time baseball moment. It’s up there, for sure. I had a game in Milwaukee (in 2018) where I hit a home run and was able to come in for long relief and pitch a bunch of innings. Hitting the home run was always kind of my go-to answer for favorite baseball moment. But that might have topped it professionally.

“And then in my life, it was just so cool with my family being there and then also being home and being with a bunch of friends and family before the game. And the excitement for Opening Day, which I think was a particularly large crowd. … My brother was in town. We got to celebrate afterwards. It was just a dream day.”

Can you literally pitch every day? I mean, Mike Marshall set the record with 106 games in 1974 …

“That’d be sweet. If I keep throwing three pitches an outing like (April 1), I might be able to get there. I try to be as efficient as possible, do all my recovery stuff, work in the weight room, nutrition, sleep and all that, for sure, so that I can bounce back as much as possible.”

Do you miss starting? Is that something you even think about wanting to do again?

Sometimes. I love the starting routine, the (between-starts) bullpens; you’re really able to dive into your repertoire and get better, and then those days of just being able to show up, work out, recharge and get ready for the next one. And that satisfaction coming off the mound after a good start, like I gave it my all. I might feel like a truck ran over me tomorrow, but I feel good about where the team is.

“You’re the most important person on the team that day when you’re the starting pitcher. So I miss that importance of it.

“But I love the cohesiveness of the bullpen unit. We’re all pulling for each other; we’re all kind of one heartbeat out there. It’s really something special. I do love both. It’s 51-49. It’s really close.”

If you weren’t doing the baseball thing, what do you think you’d be doing?

“Something in the environmental realm. Probably something like environmental consulting.”

(Note: Suter earned a degree from Harvard in Environmental Science and Public Policy)

You’re known as one of baseball’s best at impersonations. What’s your best one?

“My go-to is Jim Carrey. ‘Spank you. Spank you very much.’ “

How many more books have you got in you? (Note: Suter is the author of a children’s book, The Binky Bandit)

“Writer’s block right now. I really enjoyed the process of the first one, but it’s not something I necessarily need to do again.”

What did Harvard teach you that you don’t think you might have learned at a regular-person school?

“If I hadn’t gone there I might have felt like Harvard always had that elitist student body or elitist mentality. It was quite the opposite. There were still pockets of that. But I was so impressed by how down to earth everybody was and how much people were genuine human beings on top of being extremely smart and talented in however many areas of life they were.

“(I learned) just that sometimes the most successful people, brilliantly gifted people, are also really good human beings. That was a big ray of hope for me for humanity. It was really cool.”

Ever wish you would have gone to a better school like, say, the University of Washington?

“Sometimes … Nah. I was talking to Wash U in St. Louis a little bit before Harvard came along. But never U-Dub. Dream school for me. I was lucky.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 10 questions with Cincinnati Reds' hometown reliever Brent Suter