Word: pitcherful
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...must know he was not. A great, a giant-but no one would ever say. "There goes Tom Seaver, the greatest pitcher that ever lived...
Every other pitcher has some slight flaw in his motion, some minute deviation that helps him adjust to his own physical limitations. Some of these adjustments are almost imperceptible, some are grotesque distortions...
Does that mean we can't do business with him? Of course not. But it will be like doing business with the American robber barons of the 19th century. Gorbachev is not going to be a fastball pitcher. He'll throw curves, knuckleballs and spitters if he can get away with them. Of course, Ronald Reagan has played a pitcher too, in that movie The Winning Team, and he's also a very shrewd political leader. So you've got two pretty good pitchers going against each other. The question is Which side...
GAMMONS IS AN EXPERT journalist, and within the diffuse deluge are many interesting anecdotes. He relies heavily upon quotations and he has heard some of the best. Before the seventh game of the 1975 series, Sox starting pitcher Bill Lee announced that after the game, Red's starter "Don Gullett is going to the Hall of Fame and I'm going to the Eliot Lounge." Troubled reserve Red Sox outfielder Bernie Carbo once explained his failure to respond to phonecalls saying, "I only answer the phone when its my wife calling...
...must also be said that though Gammons' knowledge is appreciated, it sometimes appears in fatuous form. That Scipio Spinks was the college coach of current Sox pitcher Oil Can Boyd is neither an earth-shattering or particularly interesting revelation. Gammons' awkward prose and his tendency to repeat anecdotes (how many times must we hear that after clinching the American League pennant in '75, Sox manager Darrel Johnson drank whiskey with Oakland Athletic Joe Rudi rather than celebrating with his team?) do not help matters...