Word: gooden
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...Gooden's most eloquent admirers consecutively struck out Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Simmons and Cronin in the 1934 All-Star game: Carl Hubbell, 82. "The most amazing part of the whole damn thing is he's so cool and calm," Hubbell says. "You used to have to get broken into it. A lot of pitchers seem older than their years today, but Gooden most of all. Also, he's got one of the best curves I ever saw--he throws it so hard! The damn thing breaks nearly from the guy's shoulder to the ground." Evidently, Hubbell has been studying...
Advancements in technology and improvements in early-level coaching may be part of what Manager Johnson terms Gooden's "instinctive sophistication." But poise is unteachable and Gooden's kind of confidence inexplicable. By Johnson's calculations, "Dwight's already got more command than any pitcher I ever saw." Off the field, absently tapping his drums or vaguely thinking of marriage, Gooden is also the picture of control. Strawberry, the Met outfielder Gooden is no longer mistaken for, took a square look at his friend in his wet new hairdo this spring to see if $1.32 million wears any differently than...
Orel Hershiser, a late bloomer mislaid for five years in the Dodger farm system, considers Gooden's primary talent "just the fact of how natural he can make himself feel in a stadium full of people. I've watched him, and I don't know whether he's any more natural when he's alone. The days I make it look easy when it wasn't easy are my proudest. But for him, I think it is easy. I just think he knows what he wants to be. If you don't know what you want to be, people...
Bret Saberhagen's teammate, iconoclastic Relief Pitcher Dan Quisenberry, cannot ordinarily resist such deep discussion, but he has a simple view of Gooden's class. "Joseph Heller used the phrase in a book title: Something Happened. That's it. About every decade or so in pitching, a little group shows up with something special, a secret recipe. They have something a lot of guys with great arms never get. And this time, whatever it is, Gooden got most of it. It's not fair...
This spring the noise level has been up. Even Gooden has heard the unfamiliar sound of cowhide meeting ash. But then, hitters forget every winter and have to be reminded every summer who the pitchers are. A young fellow named Floyd Youmans had a bright spring for Montreal and has pitched his way into the starting rotation. Maybe the best pitcher in baseball should dig up a hard rubber ball, a red brick wall and a chalk-drawn strike zone. There could be Strikeout games this summer...