ARIZONA PERFORMANCES

When I first came on the scene and I met the pitching staff for the first time in China, I was both surprised and despondent. Surprised at the size of some of the pitchers and despondent at their skill level; I knew it was going to be a major project. I had lefthanders who didn’t know how to make the ball move; they threw only straight 80MPH fastballs. I had to teach them how to make the ball move, how to throw different pitches and when and why to throw them. I was basically doing what I do at Line Drives only I’m not working with 13-20 year olds I was working with 25-30 year olds. Our first four games in the Arizona league were very discouraging and only a portent of what could come. We were beaten 11-1, 10-0, 11-2, and 6-4 in our first four games. It was ugly as the combination of poor fielding, poor hitting and poor pitching led to those scores. As the season progressed our pitching progressed we were starting to understand the nuances of pitching and pitching with their level of pitches. We then went on a string of wins and you would think that we had one the World Series after each one. We had finished the season with a 22-9 record, the same season in which we had won three games the previous year. Our team ERA went from 11.7 in the fall to finish 3.54 during the Spring/Summer season. We had now started to believe.