The Fireballer

by Mark Stevens

He listens to suggestions about players he should pluck away from other teams via trade. He marvels at the ability of others to tell him how to spend his money; would he ever walk into their home office and make a few pronouncements about where to invest and how much to risk? The trade activists never name which Orioles to bid goodbye to, unless it’s the third-string catcher. Trade pushers forget about the hard part, shipping a player off to a city across the country and disrupting family lives and shattering expectations, not to mention disrupting their personal flow of routines, rent, schools, neighborhoods, friends. Sure, some players ask to find new digs, but for most of the guys it’s hard. And who would want to be shipped away from the Frank Ryder craziness?

Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too. —New York Yankees and Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra

Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move. —Negro League, Major League Baseball, and Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige, who threw his last professional pitch two weeks shy of his sixtieth birthday