We all know Josh Beckett is a cocky, hard-throwing, fist-pumping, ass-kicking winner. But in a great story in USA Today, we learn, well, he was always like that.
“Last year (Beckett) pitched much like he did in ’03. Now, I don’t see him resisting finesse. Before, it was, ‘I’m going to throw the ball through a wall because I can, even if that wall is 6 inches thick.’ “
That Beckett had the nickname “Kid Heat” at Spring (Texas) High School, throwing 97 mph and striking out 155 in 75 1/3 innings as USA TODAY’s High School Pitcher of the Year as a senior in 1999. He was so dominant his youth league coach in the summer had a special rule for the teenage phenom. “He could not throw a changeup until we had at least a four-run lead after the fifth inning,” says Gerald “Butch” Ghutzman, whose son Stephen was Beckett’s catcher at Spring High.
That is not one of my typical typing errors, he actually struck out 155 batters in 75-and-a-third innings. Damn.
Can’t you just see him in the above picture holding Travis Hafner’s head instead of a deer?
See you at 7:00…
