Mussina’s marathon
Mike Mussina wasn’t worried about his lack of velocity in his first start of the year, even if Joe Torre felt he was trying too hard to manufacture added heat in the cold Bronx weather…
Mussina, whose fastball was as slow as 85 MPH on Friday, didn’t need to see radar readings. The Orioles told him he wasn’t in prime form, and the final line (four innings, eight hits, three walks, six earned runs) cemented it.
âI know I canât throw like the way I used to throw,” he said Sunday morning. “Iâm just like every other pitcher: everything works off your fastball.
âBut I base it on the reaction of the guys who swing. Because if Iâm changing speeds properly, mixing it up, in and out and up and down, doing all those things, then my 87 can look a little faster than that. âI base it on how the guys are reacting to my stuff, not when it says 87 out on the screen. And I know this time of the year, for the last five or six years, thatâs just the way itâs been.
“I start throwing 86, 87, and a month from now itâll be 88, 89. Maybe by July, itâll be a little more than that.”
While Mussina might not like the fact that his arm strength simply isn’t there yet, he must accept it.
âItâs acceptable, if Iâm not hurt and Iâm changing speeds and getting the ball where I want to get it,” he said. “Then Iâll be OK.
âNo, Iâm not going to blow the ball by people. But thatâs not how I pitch anyway.”
Mussina was asked if there was any way to set up a spring training program so pitchers are at their peak in April.
âI donât think you want to be, because you canât maintain that for six months,” he answered. “If you are throwing the ball with the same velocity, the same number of pitches, the same intensity from March 15 until October, I donât think your body can handle it.
“Thatâs why we take time off, thatâs why we work up to it, thatâs why guys have ups and downs in their seasons. You hate it when they happen, but theyâre going to happen. You canât take them away.
âI just donât know. Especially the older you get, the more pitches you throw, I donât know if you can handle being at 110-115 pitches from April 3rd through the end of the year. Say you can do it â for this year. Whatâs the after-effect for next year? Or the year after?”
What if youâre 23 and 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds?
âWell, itâs still gonna get you,” he said, citing pitchers from Orel Hershiser to the 2005 White Sox who eventually paid for their Herculean postseason efforts. âThereâs something to be said for the long haul.
“And if youâre in the middle of a marathon, and you decide in mile 17 to kick it in and run a mile faster than youâve been running⦠well, by the time you get to mile 24 and 25, youâre not going to have anything left.
âIf youâre in this world, and Iâve been in it for 15 years, youâve just got to kind of pace yourself into it. Because I still want to be throwing the ball in August and September. I donât want to be on the shelf.”
