Rambling On About My Glory Days: Toughest Pitchers I Faced

Going to see Springsteen next week and it made me think about guys that could throw that “speed ball”by you. I was thinking about the pitchers who I least liked to face in my major league career (think early to mid ’80s here). I am sure you will remember these guys but they intimidated for reasons you might not expect.

1. Nolan Ryan - I faced him only once but that was enough to include him on the list. He happened to throw a no-hitter (his 5th) the day I faced him and who was I, a journeyman second baseman, to break up a no-hitter. Obviously, his fastball was terrific but as they say “everybody” can hit a fastball. What struck me out and was most intimidating was that overhand curveball. The best visual I can think of for his curve was the illustration (from my early school years) of the earth being flat and what would happen to boats sailing to the end of a flat earth. It was the teaching lesson, of course; I wasn’t around when they actually believed the earth was flat. Let the record show that I did foul off one of his fastballs.

2. Phil Neikro - Of course he did not have the speed ball, but the knuckleball was intimidating and hitting it was like catching a fly buzzing around with your bare hand. But that didn’t bother me because I had a good eye and was a contact hitter. No, what bothered me was when I got him to a 2 and 0 count and he would throw a 70 (mph) something fastball and I would ground out to second on it every time. Very embarrassing that he didn’t respect me enough to stay with his best pitch (knuckleball) and that I couldn’t get a hit on such a fastball.

3. Lee Smith - Lee is a big man and it looked like he was throwing the ball from little league distance when you were facing him. If I could do it over again, I would definitely ask the umpire to get a tape measure out and check the distance from the mound to home plate when Lee was pitching.

4. Jack Morris - threw hard and had a nasty slider, so why he also needed to throw an unhittable split-fingered fastball was beyond me. I had one theory when facing him and that was to try to bunt for a base hit until two strikes and then hope for a walk.

5. Bert Blyleven– I faced Bert closer to the end of his career, thank God, and he had that amazing curve ball. The problem was that he never wasted it on me. He mostly threw me this batting practice fastball which I proceeded to make an out on most of the time. It reminded me of the line from the famous writer John Updike when he wrote about Ted Williams, “Gods don’t answer letters.” I was so geared up for that great curveball, which he rarely threw me. I just wish I would have gotten a little more respect than a batting practice fastball.

6. Goose Gossage - facing the Goose was crazy. He just came at you with everything. Fastball after fastball, each one seeming faster than the previous one. Not much of a chance for me, unfortunately. I tried to choke up on the bat high enough to hit the ball on the sweet spot but when my hands got to the trade mark, it looked kind of silly.

Some of these pitchers are deservedly already in the Hall of Fame, and I believe they all should be. Next blog I will write about the Major League pitchers that I intimidated. Wait; there is no one on that list. However, I did have one intentional walk in my MLB career and I am trying to find out the team and pitcher it was against.

Former major leaguer Jack Perconte is the author of The Making of a Hitter ( http://jackperconte.com ) and has a baseball instruction site that can be found at www.baseballcoachingtips.net . He has recently published his second book Raising an Athlete – How to Instill Confidence, Build Skills and Inspire a Love of Sport