Word: pitcher
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...while it has cooled to around .270, 56 walks have plumped his on-base percentage to a sensational .393, third in the National League. "I can't ask my players to be selective at the plate if I'm not," he reasons. Also, he has been hit by the pitcher three times. "I have to show them how to use their elbows, don't I?" Pitchers try to overpower Rose inside, but his solution to waning bat speed has long been just to choke up a little more. Soon he may be holding the bat by the wrong...
...Phil Niekro, 46, the New York Yankees' elderly knuckle-ball pitcher, "experience after a while becomes another word for compensating, listening to your body, squeezing the maximum out of what's left. When I started, my age now would have boggled my mind. But these days I think anything's possible." Niekro lacks six victories for 300. The wise Chicago White Sox pitcher Tom Seaver, 40, got there last week. He has lost only the least of his gifts, velocity. Discussing Rose, he says, "Pitchers don't have to run, remember. Not that Pete was ever a very fast runner...
...hitter forgets the first pitcher he faced in the big leagues, though Rose wonders yet why it was modest Earl Francis for the Pirates that opening day and not Bob Friend. "My first time up, Francis walked me on four pitches. What he didn't realize was I couldn't have swung at any of them." It was the first of 1,506 walks. "Frank Robinson followed with a homer--on the second pitch. Since Cincinnati used to open before anyone else, I scored the first run of the year." It was the first of 2,129 runs. Off Friend...
...makes to every new one is to execute the squad cuts briskly. However, never having been demoted, Rose says, "I just can't do it quick. If they want to, I'll talk all day." The last of five cut last spring was a sloe-eyed and red-freckled pitcher, Ron Robinson, fondly nicknamed "True Creature." "Shoot, I've idolized him," says Robinson, who was one year old when Rose broke in. "The day Pete was made the manager, I was the first player in the clubhouse. 'How are you doing, Ron?' he called over to me. I couldn...
...there anything you want to say?" Rose asked Robinson in farewell after an extended monologue and a lengthy silence. "Yes," the pitcher said finally. "I hope you don't get any more hits." Rose was dumbfounded: "What did you say?" Robinson blurted, "I hope you stop hitting." In a smaller voice, he added, "Because I don't want you to get the hit until I get back." The manager regarded his young player with a look of amazing optimism that both of them felt. "Don't worry, I'll wait for you," Rose said. Robinson is back with the Reds...