Word: niekro
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These are the boys of late autumn, the last leaves on the tree of my youth. Not too many innings ago, there were others: Reggie Jackson; the knuckle-ball brothers, Phil and Joe Niekro; the great lefthanded pitcher Steve Carlton; and journeyman Outfielder Tom Paciorek, kept around last year by a manager who was an old teammate. A few like Paciorek glided gracefully and gratefully into a broadcasting booth. But most went out cursing the darkening of the light. At 43, Carlton, dropped by five different teams in the past two years, defiantly repeats the old ballplayer's mantra...
Minnesota (85-77, AL West, first): The Miracle Twins will find it hard to repeat. They made no major off-season moves. The offense is solid, but if Minnesota thinks Joe Niekro (4-9, 6.26 ERA) and Steve Carlton (1-5, 6.70 ERA) still have arms, then the Twins will trip over their championship laurels. Best player: Kent Hrbek...
...ever expected America to age gracefully. How could the country of adolescent spirit, reckless politics, marathons, short skirts, unbounded energy and a restless imagination admit that its body is growing old? Not with Ronald Reagan in the saddle at 77. Or Joe Niekro, a starting pitcher at 43, fluttering knuckle balls past cross-eyed youngsters on a Saturday afternoon. Or Dr. Jonas Salk, 73, who developed the first polio vaccine 35 years ago, searching for an AIDS vaccine. Or Elizabeth Taylor at 55, flashing a luscious violet smile from a magazine cover. We don't have to slow down, they...
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...
Seaver took a stab at holding on last summer by playing in the minors, and lately Jackson has been waffling on his announced plans to leave. They are 43 and 41 years old, respectively. "The compulsion to play this game is something," Niekro says. "I don't know how many letters I've got over the years, how many strangers have dropped by my hotel, how many fathers have offered to pay me money to teach their boys the knuckleball. 'Can you at least show me how to grip it?' they say. But I'd have to take them...