http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2010/06/the_stephen_strasburg_effect_s.html#comments
http://0rz.tw/Jd7Qa
這好像有點過頭，對戰球隊開始搶沾史寶哥光芒。
http://0rz.tw/EcH7x
Kerry Wood on Stephen Strasburg: 'It's going to be more intense for him'
There is probably no one on the planet who understands precisely the mania
Stephen Strasburg is experiencing right now. A few men have an approximate
idea, and one of them will be sitting in the opposing bullpen this weekend at
Progressive Field.
On April 12,1998, the Chicago Cubs called up 20-year-old Kerry Wood from
Class AAA Iowa. Cubs fans were excited; Wood was the fourth overall pick in
1995 and, in less than three years, had moved from high school through the
Cubs system. In his first start, Wood lasted 4 1/3 innings and lost. In his
third start, Wood allowed seven earned runs and lost.
In his fifth start, Wood struck out 20 Houston Astros in a one-hit, no-walk
shutout that still stands as perhaps the greatest game ever pitched. His
fastball scraped triple digits, his curveball violated physics and everyone
wanted to know more. Wood, with Manager Jim Riggleman in the dugout, became a
phenomenon.
"I didn't really have the whole hype until my fifth start, when I struck out
the 20," Wood, now Cleveland's closer, recalled today. "Then it got a little
out of control. We kind of had to control the media. After a couple weeks, it
died down a little bit. We set up a schedule - the day before [a start] was
kind of a day off."
The hype surrounding Strasburg seemingly escalates by the day. The Cleveland
Indians have already sold more than 8,000 tickets to Sunday's Strasburg
start, and one vendor in the park was selling only Strasburg jerseys.
Riggleman said the attention was "definitely" good for the sport.
"I think players feed off those crowds, feed off the excitement," Riggleman
said. "Quite often, you get a better brand of baseball. It shouldn't be that
way, but it is."
Riggleman said he noticed a similar effect for road games in 1998, when he
managed Wood and the Cubs. Wood handled a severe media crunch as a rookie,
but, 12 years later in a new media age, he knows the spotlight will burn
brighter on Strasburg.
"It's going to be more intense, probably, for him," Wood said. "There's more
media outlets now out there than when I came up. There's more Internet access
and all that stuff. So I think he's going to get more of it. From what I
hear, he seems to be pretty levelheaded, a good kid. He should be able to
handle it, go out there and do his job."
Wood has no plans to meet Strasburg, but would talk to him if Strasburg
wanted. "I'm not a real big guy in going over there," Wood said. "If he had a
question, I'd answer it."
In 1998, Wood became a sidelight to Sammy Sosa's chase with Mark McGwire for
Roger Maris's single-season home run record. Still, Wood felt overwhelmed at
times on days he did not pitch.
"For me, the toughest part was the off-field stuff," Wood said. "He's got
four above-average pitches. He's confident out on the field. I was the same
way. I wasn't big into the off-the-field stuff. That's our comfort zone, is
out there on the field, on the mound. I just wanted to come to work and
compete as hard as I could."
Wood had little to say on Strasburg as a pitcher. ("I haven't paid a whole
lot of attention to him," Wood said. "I saw some of the highlights.") But he
pointed out something universal for any pitcher, especially one with as much
scrutiny as Strasburg faces.
"Probably the toughest part is the first time you have a bad one," Wood said.
"He hasn't dealt with adversity, hasn't really struggled out in the field
yet. It might be two years. It might be three or four years. It might be his
next start. Who knows? When it does happen, he's going to have to bounce back
after that first one."
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