Word: pitcher
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...never started another game, and for the past three seasons that seemed more than probable, Dennis Leonard would already be the most remarkable pitcher of the past twelve years. From 1975 through 1982, only Steve Carlton won more frequently, though only Kansas City appeared to notice. Thrice a 20-game winner for the Royals, Leonard was the most bankable starter in the American League, the most successful righthander in baseball...
...because he habitually began his seasons at about the same speed as the news departs Missouri, Leonard was never called to any All-Star games. Away at his quickest pace in May 1983, the invincible-looking pitcher with the pirate-red mustache was dispatching a routine strike to Cal Ripken of Baltimore when Leonard's left knee (his landing leg) imploded and he disappeared. As sport usually calculates these things, this scarcely qualified as tragedy, even when lengthy surgeries and lost summers followed one after the other. Besides the memory of nearly 2,000 honorable if unheralded innings, Leonard...
...When you're a pitcher," says Leonard, 35 next week, "your only chance at peace of mind is never to second-guess yourself. If someone cranks a home run off your fastball, you can't start thinking, 'I should have thrown the curve.' I felt an obligation not to quit, but it wasn't because of the money. Five years down the road, I didn't want to start second-guessing my whole career, wondering if I gave my best...
...Leonard, Cobb carried a good deal more than that. "Mick doesn't think he's handicapped," says the pitcher. "That inspired me." Through four operations, three despairing journeys back to square one, Leonard required more than inspiration. Dick Howser, a congenial man but a practical manager, supplied a belief that was better than faith. "You can only sympathize and pull for him so much," Howser says. "Then...
...Memphis Chicks (AA). In September, 28 months after his collapse, Leonard returned to Kansas City to pitch the eighth inning of the second game of a doubleheader against Milwaukee. He allowed one hit. "This spring," Howser says, "I told him, 'You're going to have to be a good pitcher to make our staff.' He told me, 'I don't want to be an average pitcher anyway. I don't want to just be around...