Curt Schilling now has a blog.
Things go well through the first three innings, and I throw ten changeups in that time. I literally feel like I’m throwing the first two left-handed. This is such a different pitch for me, and it’s taken three years to convince my body and arm to sync up. It’s still a work in progress, but after the first two changeups I feel as if the next five or six are very good. I even get a swing and a miss. Twenty-one years into my professional career, and I get my first swing and miss at a changeup in spring training. It feels like a national holiday.
So we’re into the fourth inning, and the inevitable happens. I start Cuddyer off with a curve ball–strike one. My thought as the pitch is being called is, “OK, anything but a fastball here.” Tek puts down fastball in, I shake no. Tek puts it down again, which means he feels great about the pitch. At this point the ONLY thing to do is commit to the pitch and throw it as I called it or step off. I do neither. Mentally I think no, but physically I nod yes. In the middle of my windup I’m thinking, “OK, you idiot, why the hell are you throwing this pitch?” About ten seconds later, when the ball lands over the left-field wall, I’m dropping words I’d put soap in my kids’ mouths for saying.
Tito is strolling out now, and my outing ends on a misplaced, CRUSHED fastball.
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