推 ivanos:這篇寫的有趣，還有寫到鈴木一朗對王建民的看法 05/06 13:53
推 Linama:一朗趁機跟阿民告白了 05/06 14:07
推 qoobaa:“But I like him.”>////< 05/06 14:17
推 tsming:投奔自由吧Ichiro XD 05/06 14:25
推 Dola1003:But I like him . XDDDDD 05/06 19:37
The New York Times
Wang Keeps Demeanor Calm and Sinker Low
By JACK CURRY
Published: May 6, 2007
Chien-Ming Wang’s audition for the Yankees took place in a gymnasium in
Taiwan seven years ago. It rained that day, so Wang’s workout was moved
indoors. Wang threw for about a half-hour before he was offered a $1.9
million signing bonus. He accepted.
From that humble start, Wang has developed into an unusually cool pitcher. He
barely blinks, he seems as if he never sweats and he throws an overpowering
sinker that drops like a bowling ball off a cliff. Hitting Wang’s sinker
feels like connecting with a weighted baseball.
On a breezy day at Yankee Stadium, thousands of miles from where he
auditioned to became a Yankee, Wang was better than cool. He was almost
perfect yesterday. He rolled through the first 22 Seattle Mariners he faced,
silencing them with his sinker. He was a glorious sight to a team that is
starved for decent pitching.
He did not end up with perfection because Ben Broussard clubbed Wang’s first
changeup for a home run with one out in the eighth inning. But Wang and his
trusty sinker powered the Yankees to an 8-1 victory and made them feel like
the team they could potentially be and not the wayward team they have been.
“It’s most important,” Alex Rodriguez said. “We’re not going anywhere
without Wang.”
Wang throws fastballs, sliders, changeups and splitters, but the pitch that
distinguishes him and makes him difficult for hitters is the sinker. Wang’s
sinker is devastating because it has such great movement. It is especially
effective because the movement comes late. Hitters usually commit to swing
before Wang’s sinker darts or dives in another direction.
Willie Bloomquist, Seattle’s third baseman, explained how he was tricked
into thinking that Wang had misfired on some pitches because they were
zooming right down the middle. They looked appetizing. But by the time
Bloomquist swung, he said, the pitches had veered out of the strike zone. He
grounded out in all three at-bats.
“He threw a great game, basically with one pitch,” Bloomquist said. “He
shut us down with it.”
Richie Sexson, the designated hitter, who was also 0 for 3, gushed about how
Wang’s sinker starts in one spot and ends up in a much different place.
“He’s chewing guys up,” Sexson said.
Ichiro Suzuki said that he did not know how dominant Wang had been until the
seventh. That is when Suzuki approached his teammate Kenji Johjima and asked
him, “Is this a perfect game?” Johjima told Suzuki it was. Suzuki opened
the seventh with a twisting shot to left-center field, but Hideki Matsui
snagged it in front of the warning track.
“I was kind of hoping that I would be the one to get the hit,” said Suzuki,
who was also hitless in three at-bats against Wang.
Suzuki chuckled at the notion that hitting Wang’s sinker is like hitting a
bowling ball, and said that he did not know how heavy a bowling ball was. But
Suzuki eventually acknowledged that hitting one of Wang’s sinkers that are
out of the strike zone does feel like hitting a heavier ball.
In describing what it was like to hit against Wang, Suzuki did not focus on
the sinker, but rather on another one of the pitcher’s attributes — his
calm exterior.
“He’s a quiet guy,” Suzuki said. “He’s the kind of guy who burns inside.
As an opponent, he’s a tough guy to face.” Then Suzuki paused before
adding, “But I like him.”
Unlike Suzuki, Broussard did not need to quiz teammates to know that Wang was
pushing for perfection.
“After four, you don’t think about it,” Broussard said. “In the sixth,
you start realizing he’s got a shot at doing this.”
With one out in the eighth, Wang still had a shot. The concern about Wang’s
torn middle fingernail was long gone. All Wang needed was five outs to become
the first Yankee since David Cone in 1999 to pitch a perfect game. All Wang
had to do was continue throwing his sinker.
But after Wang got ahead of Broussard with a first-pitch fastball, catcher
Jorge Posada called for a changeup. Wang, who is at his best when he keeps
his pitches down, hung the changeup and Broussard hit it over the right-field
fence.
“It was the first off-speed pitch I’d seen all day,” Broussard said.
Broussard sounded relieved to have broken up Wang’s perfect game. He said
Wang was deceptive, with a methodical motion in which he hesitates when he
lifts his glove over his head.
“You wait and you wait and then it’s on you,” Broussard said.
Manager Joe Torre said that “pressure doesn’t seem to bother” Wang and
called him as “even-tempered as any pitcher I’ve ever seen.”
Torre said it would have been nice if Wang had pitched a no-hitter, in part
because it would have been interesting to see how he would have celebrated.
“He might have jogged off the mound,” Torre said.
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