Fastball

Sometimes Life tells us to throw a curveball.

But if you're a fastball pitcher throw the fastball.

The fall of 2003 when the Marlins won the Series was so much fun for me. I went to games that year all season long and so when the Marlins made the Series I felt like a true fan because I had been there when they looked all but dead just a few months prior. That October was phenomenal. I remember leaving work early to make the game on TV, sitting up late into the night with roommates anxiously watching every pitch, calling friends across the country and saying, "Can you believe this?" I yelled at the TV, wore a rally cap in my living room, laid in bed after games analyzing, played catch in my yard between innings.

During this year's Series I thought back a lot to the Year of the Fish in '03 and once again revisited in my mind one of my favorite memories:

A single at-bat between Josh Becket and Sammy Sosa in the NL Championship series.

I don't remember all the details but any baseball fan will recall that this was when Sosa was still one of the game's most feared hitters. He had cracked the 60 homeruns in a season mark 3 times in 5 years. Between 2000-2002 he had hit more than 150 homeruns. '03 was another 40 homerun season for him. He was rapidly swinging himself into the Hall of Fame. Beckett was the Marlin's young fireballer. Beckett had no big league experience but was making a name for himself with his fastball and his gunslinger attitude. Sosa had made a living hitting fastballs out of the park for years.

And so when the two faced each other one night in Wrigley late in the game something had to give.

Beckett threw fastball after fastball and Sosa hadn't yet caught up but he had been here before.

Sosa had 2 strikes against him.
Sosa was the face of the team.
Sosa at this point was one of the greatest living hitters.

The crowd was rallying behind their feared slugger.
The hopes of a city rode on this man's bat.

Surely Beckett had been lucky, he now would throw an off-speed pitch and get Sosa off balance right? Beckett's good but in the Major leagues you gotta mix up your pitches - the hitters are too good. This young pitcher wouldn't challenge such a devestating hitter in a game this big right?

Sosa did his batter's box ritual.
Beckett took a little more time than normal glaring at the batter.
It was a battle of wills.
Neither man uttered a word but you could see in Sosa's eyes he wouldn't be outdone on his homefield by some young punk.
You could see in Beckett's eyes he had no fear.

And so when convention would tell him to throw a curveball,
throw something out of the strike zone,
don't press your luck with a hitter like this,

Beckett threw a fastball right down the middle.

Sosa swung and missed.

Beckett is a fastball pitcher.

This world and this life tell you and me to be a lot of things.
To look a certain way.
To like certain things.
To have a certain job.

Be yourself.
Be no one but yourself.

If the world tells you to throw a curveball but your a fastball pitcher.

Throw the fastball.

If you get burned who cares?

At least you were yourself.