Pitching Tips From A Rickey Henderson Article In The New Yorker Magazine

I was reading the Sept. 12 issue of The New Yorker magazine in which there is an outstanding article about Rickey Henderson called "Stealing Time," by David Grann.

Grann spent a few weeks with Rickey in the Golden Baseball League, a semi-pro league out in southern California. Rickey's team, the San Diego Surf Dawgs, managed by one of my former coaches, Terry Kennedy, a 14-year Major League veteran catcher, was finishing out the summer season.

The article, a look into the mind of Rickey, asks -- and essentially answers -- why Rickey, at 40-plus years old, keeps playing ball in a semi-pro league. His response: I want to make it to the Major Leagues! Of course, this, coming from a guy who is the all-time Major League base-stealer -- a record most in the baseball world will stand the test of time like Cal Ripken's game-streak or DiMaggio's hit-streak.

It's one of the best baseball articles I've ever read, and if you happen to come across it, I think you'll agree that there is some really great insight for pitchers, too.

But perhaps the most beneficial tip is found in a quote from Kennedy. (Kennedy, known as T.K. around the clubhouse, was a long-time Chicago Cubs minor league director before coaching the Surf Dawgs, which is how I was associated with him.)

"I remember at the end of my career I began to doubt my ability," Kennedy, whose dad also played Major League Baseball, told Grann in the article. "I knew what I wanted to do, but my body wouldn't let me do it. And I called my father and said, 'Dad, did you ever start to think you weren't good enough to play this game.' And he said, 'I did, and once you do you can never get it back.'"

Yours in baseball,

Steven Ellis
The Complete Pitcher
www.thecompletepitcher.com