"A TRUE STORY"
During our 2000 Goodwill Series game at Blair Field in Long Beach, California, Mike Jones after 5 innings of near perfect pitching approached Luis Medina, our American Team coach and said "I need to come out of the game". Louie said "is your arm sore".
No, Mike stated, "my head is sore". Mike had been throwing 97 mph without any effort, however the Japan National High School Team, fresh from their National tournament viewed by 40 million on TV was able to "foul off" Mike's best pitches and forced him to concentrate to a small strike zone.
In this game on the American Team was Scott Kazmir, Delmon Young [Tampa Bay] and Sergio Santos [Brewers].
The moral of this story - is speed is not enough, a pitcher needs a "breaking ball" and "change up"to succeed.
In 2006, we will again host the Japan National Team in Goodwill Series XV.
Team. We are now beginning the search for 18 players who can play like Delmon, Mike, Sergio and Scott.
Bob Williams