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Wang is one cool customer
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
By TARA SULLIVAN
STAFF WRITER
NEW YORK -- Chien-Ming Wang knows from the moment he finishes his pregame
bullpen session what his signature pitch is going to give him.
Will it sink the way it should and therefore dominate his pitch selection
for the night? Or will it stay too high in the strike zone, necessitating
more fastballs than he normally would like? Such is the life of a sinkerball
pitcher, even one who has gone 38-13 over the past seasons relying on the
high-velocity, late-breaking pitch.
But whether Wang opens the game with three straight groundouts
(clear evidence the sinkerball is doing its job by forcing batters to
top the ball) or whether he walks the bases loaded and escapes with a
double-play ground ball (which he's done often enough his teammates don't
worry about a lack of control), the rest of the Yankees are universal in
their comfort and confidence behind the 27-year-old right-hander.
Stingy with his English though unfailingly polite to reporters, Wang,
a native of Taiwan, is a wickedly funny teammate apparently immune to
pressure. That is part of the reason Yankees manager Joe Torre handed Wang
the start in Game 1 of the American League Division Series that starts
Thursday in Cleveland, a decision that is equally prestigious and weighty
for Wang.
"I don't think he gets too rattled," said fellow pitcher Andy Pettitte,
who will start Game 2, leaving both pitchers available for a potential
Game 5. "He's got a great demeanor. He's big and strong and young and he's
got great stuff. What a combination. It's the best sinker I've ever seen and
he throws it with velocity."
Pettitte learned plenty about Wang this season following his three-year
hibernation in Houston. Torre admitted he strongly considered putting
Pettitte on the mound in Game 1, but ultimately decided the value of Game 2
is in many ways just as pressure-packed. Plus, Wang won the opener of last
year's ALDS against Detroit, which Torre ruefully recalled as "the only game
we won against Detroit."
Said Pettite: "I don't have any problem not pitching Game 1. Joe called me in
his office and asked me what I was thinking. I said, 'Buddy, that's on you.
That's your call. Go with what your gut tells you.' I think I've pitched Game
2 every year and I know for the nine years I was here I pitched Game 2 every
time."
While Wang's approach is not in question, there have been some whispers among
baseball observers that Wang's 199 1/3 innings this season have caused some
arm weariness, that his signature sinker is flattening out smack in the middle
of the strike zone. Wang actually threw more regular-season innings last year
(218), having missed the first month of this season with a hamstring injury,
and he insists he feels fresh.
"I am excited," he said in a halting English that teammates insist is much
more fluent without the pressure of notebooks and cameras.
Rookie phenom Joba Chamberlain forged a friendship with Wang early this
season when the two were in Tampa rehabbing their matching hamstring injuries.
"We spent a lot of time in the hot tub together," said Chamberlain, laughing. "
We're two totally different people, but for some reason, I can get him to talk.
When he would miss one of my calls, he'd call back and say, 'Joba, you called.
What do you want?' I'd tell him I just wanted to say hello."
While Chamberlain has dazzled the major leagues with his late-season 100-mph
radar readings, he has been equally impressed by Wang's sinker, which he
called "the best in baseball."
"You throw 95 and it does that?" Chamberlain said. "That's special. But what
I find really special is that when you talk to him, you wouldn't know what he
does for a living. You wouldn't know better if he was an artist or a pitcher.
He's a great guy."
"I'm happy to be part of this team. They are great teammates and play great
defense behind me," Wang said.
Come Thursday, Wang just wants to make sure he has a great sinker.
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