Rex Ryan opened yesterday’s news conference by playing a video of his ceremonial first pitch at Tuesday night’s Mets game.
Ryan broke down his mechanics, and used a split screen of himself and Washington rookie Stephen Strasburg, who struck out 14 in his big-league debut.
“Two stars, very similar,” Ryan said as the video played. “Two outstanding pitchers. Look at the movement here. Yep, two great ones.”
Ryan, who wore a No. 30 Mets jersey as a tribute to Nolan Ryan, threw a two-seamer. He joked that the “movement” on the pitch “was filthy.”
After watching himself and Strasburg side by side, Ryan broke things down.
“You’ll see the form is not exactly where we want it,” he said, laughing, “but we’ve got to understand something: The kid is just a rookie.”
And, just to further show how unhittable he could be, Ryan had the Pirates’ Lastings Milledge superimposed into the video of his pitch.
Milledge, as he did against Strasburg on Tuesday night, struck out.
“Yep, it’s still a strikeout,” Ryan said. “Swings, misses and it’s a strikeout.”
With AP
