February 19, 2008
Use the Force, Pedro
Pedro Martinez practices pitching with his eyes closed:
The ball was crackling out of Pedro Martinez's right hand during his bullpen session Tuesday morning, hitting Dave Racaniello's mitt with authority every time. But when one, then two, then three balls sailed wide, a few other reporters and I started wondering what happened. Was this a new pitch? Was Pedro hurt?
The answer was revealed just a few minutes ago when Pedro said that he was pitching with his eyes closed. And not just for those three balls (and another that Racaniello had to stretch for). He estimated that he threw 15 pitches with his eyes closed, which is what he did last year during his rehabilitation.
Pretty cool. He must be listening to Obi-Wan:
Your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them.
Posted by David Pinto at
12:54 PM
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I remember hearing Pedro say that he does this to develop a consistent release point. It's one of those things like Greg Maddux taking all of his warmups from the stretch (because when you need to make a big pitch in a game, it's almost always from the stretch) that makes you wonder why more guys don't do it.
Could you imagine him helping Manny with his jedi exercises?