Steve is the really good one

I have provided a lot of blog coverage for Dan's record-setting spring season so I should devote some time to his brother Steve. I have always felt Steve is the truly talented one as he is better at the various tools of baseball than his brother when the same age. Dan's true talents are his eyes, must be 20-10, and his confidence. His confidence writes checks that his body seem to be able to cash.

Steve on the other hand lacks in the confidence department and that seems to inhibit his performance. He doesn't believe that his talents can write checks and so looks for reasons not to succeed. A funny opposite to his brother for certain.

I can relate an especially good performance from yesterday, however. The PHS JV team was beating the Robbinsville team 7-1 entering the top of the 7th inning. All PHS had to do was hold the lead for the win. Steve had played short stop all game and the pitcher for PHS was Colby who had been sharp for 6 prior innings.

When Colby walked the lead-off batter of the inning the Coach replaced him with the reliever Marlow. Marlow is a crafty lefty pitcher with a decent curve ball but not much of a fastball to match with it. Marlow walked a few batters and the Robbinsville team got several hits so before we knew it the score was 7-4 with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. The PHS fans were getting nervous with the tying run in scoring position and a big hitter at the plate.

Then when Marlow walked the bases loaded the Coach didn't hesitate in calling time out and heading onto the field. He motioned to Steve to come in for relief and I was elated. Ernie, a parent standing next to me gave his Kudos to the Coach for "calling in Mariano (as in the Yankees closer)" and he remarked to me "here comes a 4 pitch strike out." These pressure situations are where Steve really excels. He seems to draw energy from the pressure of a close game with runners on base.

Steve took his warm-up throws, mixing in fastballs, curves, and sliders. Ernie, remarked, "I think he will drop in a curve ball to start things off." I thought he was crazy as the right pitch is a fastball for strike to get ahead in the count. Sure enough, a curve ball came in at about 45 MPH just a little low in the zone for ball one. I was amazed and remarked that Ernie seemed to be calling the pitches.

The next pitch in was a 4-seam fastball for a strike. The pitch seemed about twice the speed of the first pitch but was probably closer to 77 MPH. By comparison it was on the hitter before he could react. Steve's next pitch was another fastball but he dropped down to a side arm slot that fooled the batter again. Strike two!

Now the batter seemed worried. He had seen a slow curve, a fastball that blew by him, and a side-arm pitch that he didn't know what to do with. What might be coming next? Ernie speculated another curve and I was thinking slider that breaks to the outside. With a 1-2 count he didn't want to throw anything too good so as to get the batter to chase a bad pitch.

Well, as you can imagine Ernie was writing the script on this one for number pitched rather than pitch selection because in comes another blazing fastball that the batter just waved the bat at weakly. Strike three, batter is out, game over, PHS wins! Steve gets the the save!

Seeing his smile from the field was the best part. When will he believe me when I tell him how good he is, and how good could he be if he would just believe in himself?