Word: niekro
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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BEST SCUFF/SNUFF JOB Minnesota Pitcher Joe Niekro was caught with an emery board on the mound at the height of baseball's season-long tempest over scuffed balls and corked bats. A meaner illegal substance, cocaine, stymied Mets Pitcher Dwight Gooden...
Along with Rose, Tom Seaver, Phil Niekro and maybe Reggie Jackson are approaching this New Year's Day with that same thought. "Usually," says Niekro, 48, meaning every year of the past 24, "my blood starts flowing as soon as the holidays are over. I don't know how I'm going to feel a month from now, or when the summer starts to get hot, or when the World Series comes around. I wonder what it's going to be like, never again seeing that look in the batter's eye with the bases loaded...
First, Phil Niekro's younger brother Joe was nabbed in a Minnesota game with an emery board in his hip pocket. He was captured on film, during an umpires' search, casually tossing something with his right hand while jettisoning something else with his left. A patch of sandpaper, described by the umps as "contoured for a finger," was also recovered from the grass. Niekro was ejected...
...Niekro brothers, 90, have not pitched 50 professional seasons without developing a certain look of innocence. "I wasn't marking the ball," Joe insisted, though a few blemished ones had arrived irregularly at the plate. "Like a lot of knuckle-ball pitchers, I occasionally file my nails after I warm up, and even between innings. Sometimes the emery board gets wet, so I have to go to the sandpaper." His brother believed...
Players such as Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson and Phil Niekro are now in the twilight of their fine careers. These players once dominated baseball. Now they are playing for final glory and achieving certain milestones...