As a lefty hitter, hardthrowing southpaws always scared me. Unit was extremely frightening in his prime. I was at Game 2 of the 2001 Series in Arizona, when Joe sat Tino, O'Neill, & Justice against him, and he completely shut them down. Our southpaw got smacked around. Tough fuggin' series.
That asshole Rocker brought out something like fear in me, but more like fear of seeing him succeed.
Lyle Alzado scared me. Tyson scared me. LT would have scared me if I didn't worship him.
Jim Rice scared me as a kid.
Manny Ortez still scares me, but their chainsaw butchery of the Yanks has become predictable. I don't even look away anymore, not since Farnswacker froze Papi with that soft slider a few years ago with runners on.
Wilker's scorpion in a box image is a nice piece of writing.
The most feared Yankee opponent that I remember was Edgar Martinez. What made things worse is he seemed to be kryptonite to the Yankees superman (Mr. Rivera). Pedro in his prime never really scared me because ultimately I always thought the Yankees would find a way to stay close and bet the Red Sox late. I am not sure if the Unit really scared me either because the Yankees seemed to handle him pretty well, outside of the 2001 World Series, unfortunately.
Outside of baseball, the young Mike Tyson didn't scare me personally, but I can remember actually being nervous for his opponent, which, in many ways is more significant.
The Little League southpaw who scared me was a tall lean kid, one year older than me named Mike Lane, aka Nighttrain Lane. High tight fastball, knee-buckling curve. Was never lucky enough to have him on my team. I was happy to make any sort of contact against him. Dinked an opposite field dunk against him once, and that was probably the extent of my success against him. Always choked up and opened my stance facing him. I think he K'd me more than 50% of the time.
3 I was actually more afraid of Ken Griffey Jr. than Edgar Martinez. The Kid always seemed to come through against the Yanks.
I was afraid, in the early 90s, of one of the Yanks' TV announcers saying, of the hitter at the plate, "So-and-so has not hit a home run in some time." In my likely faulty memories, a home run by so-and-so always followed, and usually turned a lead into a deficit, one that was almost never overcome.
My brother scared me as a kid, and still does now, even though I understand him a whole lot better now.
4 There was this older kid in my Little League named Charlie Scott that I'd heard about, by legend a real a hard thrower and sometimes scary-wild. People were kinda eager to see me face him in Senior League when I was old enough to play against him, but nature prevented the match-up on my end.
In school there were known bullies and there were kids people just didn't mess with for any reason. I ended up in the second category for being just a little too "quiet". The only guy I came close to fearing was this older kid named Trayon who was straight-up street and was constantly suspended or expelled from schools or locked up for one reason or another. It's not that he acted crazy, he was a manchild; he had that kind of quiet confidence or laughing indifference given what may be a hostile environment or situation. He wasn't at all a big guy like other street cats I'd known of with reputations like his, but he was certifiably dangerous. That he respected me was of considerable wonder to me, until I realized it never occurred to me to treat him any other way than as an equal. When someone gave him a chance, they'd find that he was really bright and I respected him for that among other things.
To this day I remember that when I walk through some really rough areas in this or other cities, the one thing he, she or they want around here is respect and human decency. Not hard to do, and it's free of charge >;)
That asshole Rocker brought out something like fear in me, but more like fear of seeing him succeed.
Lyle Alzado scared me. Tyson scared me. LT would have scared me if I didn't worship him.
Jim Rice scared me as a kid.
Manny Ortez still scares me, but their chainsaw butchery of the Yanks has become predictable. I don't even look away anymore, not since Farnswacker froze Papi with that soft slider a few years ago with runners on.
Wilker's scorpion in a box image is a nice piece of writing.
Outside of baseball, the young Mike Tyson didn't scare me personally, but I can remember actually being nervous for his opponent, which, in many ways is more significant.
I was afraid, in the early 90s, of one of the Yanks' TV announcers saying, of the hitter at the plate, "So-and-so has not hit a home run in some time." In my likely faulty memories, a home run by so-and-so always followed, and usually turned a lead into a deficit, one that was almost never overcome.
4 There was this older kid in my Little League named Charlie Scott that I'd heard about, by legend a real a hard thrower and sometimes scary-wild. People were kinda eager to see me face him in Senior League when I was old enough to play against him, but nature prevented the match-up on my end.
In school there were known bullies and there were kids people just didn't mess with for any reason. I ended up in the second category for being just a little too "quiet". The only guy I came close to fearing was this older kid named Trayon who was straight-up street and was constantly suspended or expelled from schools or locked up for one reason or another. It's not that he acted crazy, he was a manchild; he had that kind of quiet confidence or laughing indifference given what may be a hostile environment or situation. He wasn't at all a big guy like other street cats I'd known of with reputations like his, but he was certifiably dangerous. That he respected me was of considerable wonder to me, until I realized it never occurred to me to treat him any other way than as an equal. When someone gave him a chance, they'd find that he was really bright and I respected him for that among other things.
To this day I remember that when I walk through some really rough areas in this or other cities, the one thing he, she or they want around here is respect and human decency. Not hard to do, and it's free of charge >;)
just made myself hungry for lunch.
https://cardboardgods.baseballtoaster.com/archives/929500.html#29
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