Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Swing the Bat There, Big Boy! or, Mike Francesa's Brother Will Teach You How To Pitch, or Jeff Lynne of E.L.O. is Difficult to Look At.

Via the always-entertaining Uniwatch, footage of Terrific Tom Seaver's first game on the mound from 1967. Watch the footage and tell me you don't get nostalgic for Shea.


There was a time, a long time ago, when I modeled my pitching on Tom Terrific. I figured, I've got the trunks, may as well make use of them. Of course, I never did pitch effectively for too long. Bryman had a bit of Seaver in him as well, in so far as that his left knee would almost kiss the earf, pope-style, during his delivery. Cannatar made use of his stems as well, but, oddly enough, he seems to end up cross-legged at the end. The Bizman always appears to be all-arm.

In recent years, I've shifted my focus from my gams to my wrist, as Mike Marshall advocates. Using two deliveries based on pronation, I've found increased accuracy, if not velocity.

Which somehow brings me to the following insanity/video. Mike Francesa's brother, in both accent and looks, will help you INSTANTANEOUSLY achieve an ideal pitching motion. Peep the gold watch on his left watch. That's so he can constantly clock all the cold hard cash that he melts into pomade. Do you know what's behind that garage door? Did you guess sadness? Would you have guessed that this operation is based out of Staten Island? Actually, I appreciate this guy's intentions. Doesn't mean the product is worth it but it is worth focusing on the wrist. His heart is in the right place.



Also worth noting that the one non-baseball-training related video is a video for E.L.O.'s "Telephone Line" featuring a coked-out-of-his-fucking-mind Jeff Lynne. It's hard to look at him. Little known fact, Jeff Lynne always wears shades because he lost his eyeballs in a back alley in Bangkok betting that "Evil Woman" was not the greatest piece of pop rock ever written. Ever a man of integrity, he knew it was, but he could not, would not, bet on himself. But he can still see right through your shit.