It was years ago when me and a buddy of mine were sitting around one day, talking about the chances of someone who was gifted enough that he or she could become a professional athlete without the benefit of a lot of experience and training.
Granted, we might not have been in our proper frames of mind back then - it was around the time of the Gulf War so there was a lot goin' on, but thankfully our world leaders have been able to make a lot of progress since, in terms of how to live with one another and not let oil be the driving force of everything.
So we thought maybe there's some guy out there who had such a strong leg that with a bit of work he could kick a football 80 yards straight as an arrow. Or some other guy who had played some golf, then one day got hit by lightning and could suddenly break 70 whenever he wanted (it should go without saying we had a lot of time on our hands).
It would be difficult to suddenly decide you were going to pitch a baseball at a professional level, I remember us surmising, but what if someone had the natural ability to throw a knuckler? Some athletic ability would help, but it isn't necessary to be able to throw it hard (in fact, the idea is to not throw it hard), you just need a knack for it. It's really that easy!
Not at all, but knuckleball pitchers invariably become knuckleball pitchers by accident: most of the time, they had utilized the typical fastball-curve-slider, then suddenly lost their stuff (that's how former major leaguer Jim Bouton among many others fell into being a knuckleballer), or realized they didn't have much stuff to begin with.
Eri Yoshida is an 18-year-old Japanese girl pitching this summer for the Chico (California) Outlaws of the independent Golden Baseball League. Her manager by the way is Garry Templeton, the ex-big league shortstop who once gave the finger to the hometown fans in St. Louis after their relentless booing got to him. Rest assured he wasn't telling the fans that they are No. 1.
Yoshida pitched this week out in Victoria, getting a three-up-three-down inning in the first before walking a few batters the next inning and giving up a grand slam homer. Chico, Ca. is a long-way from Dodger Stadium (almost no chance of it happening so don't even think about it), but it's a great human interest story.
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I'd have to agree with an article in Friday's edition of the news, where a couple of cyclists out Lyons Brook way were talking about the dangers of cycling the road from Lyons Brook to the Pictou rotary. Although I don't know why they even bother: with blind hills and a narrow road that seems to invite motorists to put the hammer down, and the traffic is a little too close for comfort. Vale Road is like that, too. It has a 50-kilometre speed limit but a lot of drivers seem to think 50 really means 60, or 70 if there aren't any cops around.
It's safer to ride through the streets of New Glasgow, as I do, although I use the sidewalks where I have to (illegal, but I don't care) and bike the trails and quiet residential streets whenever possible. East River Road is just not an option -you'd have to be half-crazy to try to cycle with the traffic on that horrifying stretch of asphalt.
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Didn't see any squirrels last weekend, although I spent several minutes trying to explain to a relative of mine why it probably isn't a good idea to go horseback riding after drinking all afternoon (no broken bones, some bruises. Good old Auntie F always was a tomboy).
