Jan 09 2006 10:35 AM
I was kind of at a loss for the "Seaver" post...hitting a real dry spell...so it came to mind...what "sticks" in my head the most with Mr George Thomas Seaver? Is it, all the great pitching games that I watched him have on WOR? Is it, the TRADE to the Reds? Is it, Tom coming back? Is it Tom having the same last name as my grandmother's maiden name? No...it's Seaver's "3 elements of pitching" speach that I must hear 5 times a game when I catch him on TV...it's like a bad Madonna song (aren't they all), it just won't leave your head for days, until you hear something else more annoying...(Ok, I don't find Seaver's "3 elements of pitching" annoying, but hillarious...it may be true, but it's funny when he gets into spouting it off...almost like Timmy McCarver talking about the Ozzie Smith "mouth" signal behind the glove with a runner on first base to communicate with the 2B on who's covering on a steal; I felt like a 2 year old everytime Timmy would feel the need to "educate" us on that one)...
Here's what I dug up on Seaver's "3 elements of Pitching" from the baseball hall of fame's site:
http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/whats_new/events/Q_and_A/transcripts/seaver_tom_2000.htm
| ]Tom: Through the course of a 20-year career, you're going to be a different style pitcher because of your age or whatever. ##### ###### reminds me of myself when I was in a power-pitcher phase. He is so big and strong and is in such incredible shape that he's still pretty much a power pitcher. #### ###### reminds me of myself as well: throwing the ball on both sides of the plate, with movement on the ball, changing speeds, throwing it off the plate. You may have heard me talk about this on television. There are the three things that a pitcher has to work with. Only three things. Velocity, movement, and location. That's all a pitcher has to work with. The only three elements that he has to try to get a hitter out with are velocity, movement, and location. The least important of those is velocity. It's movement and location. #### ###### is a great pitcher. Why? Movement and location, on both sides of the plate, with movement right at the hitting zone. The ball gets there and moves on the bat. It doesn't have to move very much. It's down, it's this way, it's that way, it moves off the plate, it changes speeds. Instead of here, next time it's there. "Oh, I hit a ball hard the last time up, and now I pop up in centerfield with a man on third base." That's all a pitcher has to deal with. On the days that a ##### ####### or a ##### ####### can change speeds and have great location with a dominating fastball, it's a two-hit shut out with 14-16 strike outs. What's a slider? Movement, right? A slider is no good if you don't get it in the right spot. A slider is no good if it's exactly the same speed as a fast ball. It's got to be little bit different than the fast ball. It's got to end up in a different spot … location. It's got to have movement and hopefully the movement is late and quick. That's a real good slider. |
