The best, to the best

Nolan Ryan was a great pitcher.   Tony Kornheiser is a great writer.  And so when Tony Kornheiser profiles Nolan Ryan, even 31 years ago for Inside Sports, you figured they would avoid cliches like the plauge.  And yet...and yet...

This is what is now important to Nolan Ryan as far as baseball is concerned — that he is a pitcher, not a thrower.

Before Doing Comes Understanding

You might think that people just pitch, not throw, without really thinking about it.  It just starts to happen.  And maybe that's so for some guys.  But Richie Mascheri, pitcher for the Kitsap Bluejackets of Kitsap, Washington doesn't just do it, he understands it.  Or at least his manager, Matt Acker, thinks he does, as he told the Kitsap Sun.

"He understands the concept of pitching, not throwing," Acker said. "He finds a way to compete every day."

Don't laugh...if he didn't understand it...he might just be up there pitching and not knowing why.

Thanks, Zach

Sometimes a writer's job is not just to tell you what happened, but explain what happened.  Or, in this case of Zachary Levine writing about Astros pitcher Brett Myers for the Houston Chronicle's blog. explain what was said:

“I just think I pitched a little bit more, used my head a little bit better,” Myers said, using “pitched” as a contrast to simply throwing.

Thank you, Zach. Without your help, I would have been confused something awful.  Why would throwing more pitches, which I would have thought he meant by "pitched a little bit more," help someone?  I thought they wanted to be efficient, to pitch less.  I am still confused, however, as to how he did it with his head.  Did he throw it with his head?  Or just use his head for other things, like stopping the ball after it was hit?  Help me, Zach!

Bad News For Parnell

Oftentimes you'll have to wait until halfway through an article or blog post to find our favorite phrase.  Not with Matthew Cerrone and his Metsblog.  No sir - he gives Bobby Parnell the kiss of death right in the title of his post:

About Last Night: Parnell is just throwing, not pitching

In case you missed it, Cerrone explains later in his piece:

he still looks like just a thrower, not a pitcher.

Poor, poor Bobby Parnell.  Best watch out, Bobby, we all know the Mets have Scott Moviel in the minors, and I have a feeling Matthew Cerrone might have a soft spot for him.

 

Minor Miracle

Some players are blessed with the pure athletic ability that allows them to get to the Majors on Stuff, and then their eyes are opened.  Some, like St. Lucie Mets (A) pitcher Scott Moviel need to see the light a little lower down the ladder, as he told TCPalm.com reporter Laurel Pfahler:

I'm pitching now, not just throwing, and it's starting to come along well for me.

With an attitude like that, we'll see Moviel in Sheati Park soon enough!  Of course, the way the Mets are pitching, we might see me pitching for them soon.

Getting It

Cody Kukuk, Lawrence (KS) Free State High senior pitcher, knows what it takes to be successful on the mound.  I mean REALLY knows, as he told Dean Backes of MaxPreps.com:

This year I've done a better job of not being a thrower, but a pitcher. Pitching is more than just throwing as hard as you can.

He has pitching, not throwing, down in every format of the cliche.  Watch this kid - great future ahead of him.

Madness!

Shawn Armstrong started the CUSA tourney opener for East Carolina against Houston.  According to Kevin Travis, of the Sun-Journal in New Bern, NC, Armstrong has "lifted his game the the right time."  To what did Armstrong attribute this game lifting?

"I've been working on my delivery and really just going out there and not worrying about pitching," said Armstrong, who went 3-1 with a 3.89 ERA during the regular season. "I'm just going out there throwing the baseball like I have my whole life.

"I'm really going out there and not even thinking; just throwing the ball."

"Just throwing the ball."  Wow, we must have found the anti-cliche, the guy who doesn't even need to "worry about pitching."

Armstrong gave up 3 runs in 3 1/3 innings in an ECU loss.

Never mind.

What's better than saying it? SAYING IT!

Mavo, a commenter on the San Jose Mercury News Giants blog "Extra Baggs" (from either Carl Steward, according to the "posted by, or Andrew Baggarly, of the blog title) wants you to know that Tim Lincecum pitched a good game today.  He also wants you to know he did not "throw" a good game today.  But how to get that across to the average reader, who might miss the subtlety of "pitching, not throwing"?  The answer, of course, CAPS, the currency of the commenter:

What a dominating PITCHING performance from Timmy today! And I mean PITCHING … not just throwing!!

And he remembered the cardinal rule of commenting: when in doubt, use exclamation points!  POINTS, not POINT!!

A Prayer for the Children

 MLB Reports (seemingly his full name) just cares.  He's looking at the guys leading the Majors in walks, and he knows what's wrong.  It's what's wrong with every pitcher having trouble.  He just wants them to get it.  And since obviously their pitching coaches, managers, and teammates have all failed to get the message through, he lays it out for them:

The emphasis is on pitching, not throwing: I hope these guys understand that one day.

We all so, MLB Reports, we all do.

A Cliche is Born

I thought I had heard them all.  Pitch, don't throw.  Throw, don't aim.  Yet, much like baseball itself, the well of baseball cliches is deeper than we ever imagined.  Xavier Candela, a pitcher for Cathedral Prep in Erie, PA, told Tom Reisenweber of the Erie Times News:

I just tried to throw and not think

Unfortunately, Xavier did not make clear if he was just skipping "aiming" and going right to "throwing" on his way to the Holy Grail, "pitching," or if thinking comes between aiming and throwing, and he had already stopped aiming and started thinking.  We'll be sure to let you know if we get any updates.

 

Aiming, not Throwing - The Forgotten Cliche

Sometimes we get so caught up in pitching, not throwing, that we forget there's something WORSE than throwing: aiming.  *shudder*  Nick Anderson of St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN knows this, as reported by Andy Rennecke in the St. Cloud Times:

I’m just trying to command it and not aim the ball. Just [go] out there and throw it. 

We have hope for Nick, though: at least he's not trying to go straight to pitching.  For those keeping score at home, it's aiming, THEN throwing, then, eventually, if you're lucky and good, pitching.

Turnabout is Fair Play

We learned back on May 9th that most injuries happen when throwing, not pitching.  Or so we thought.  Kyle, Webmaster and Founder of Driveline Baseball, begs to differ:

Throwing – not pitching – more frequently does many good things

See?  You blind proponents of pitching not throwing!  Throwing, NOT pitching does many good things.  Many! Not, like one or two.  MANY!  Eat it!

Even commenters know

Who is Walt?  Walt is an Orioles fan.  Walt is someone who, at 3 in the morning, was struck by the need to share the following piece of information as a comment on Mike Gonzalez, Orioles reliever, on the O's Baltimore Sun blog.  Gonzalez is having a tough time this year, with an 8.53 ERA, well above his career 2.92 mark.  Why?  There are many possibilities.  Could be age catching up with him - he's 32, though that's not really old for a reliever, where the Jesse Oroscos of the world toil into their 70's, seemingly.  Maybe he has an injury he doesn't want to disclose.  No, none of these things.  Walt's got it figured out:

Hard fought game, but once again, Gonzalez forgot to pitch and not THROW.

Thanks, Walt.  We'll be sure to pass that on to Mike.

It can be cured...

Justin Amlung is a former walk-on for the University of Louisville baseball team.  Yet last year he pitched and won the last game of the season for the Cardinals.  Why would someone who could be trusted in such a situation be a walk-on, and not a scholarship player?  You can guess...when Amlung started, according to C.L. Brown of the Louisville Courier-Journal:

He classified himself as a ‘thrower' and not a pitcher.

The implication?  No, not that throwing isn't something real because of the use of quotes.  That he has now, finally, reached the Nirvana of being a true pitcher.  Congratulations, Justin.

It can be learned

You might think that pitching, not throwing, is something you're born with.  Or, as many hacks would have us believe, something you stumble on to as your career progresses and you find that pumping 'em by them is resulting in too many created souvenirs.  But, according to Laura Oberle of the geographically accurately named Columbia Missourian, this is not how Eric Anderson of the Missouri University Tigers found his way there:

Anderson spent this season learning how to pitch a baseball, not just throw one

So for those of you wondering, it takes one (1) season to learn how to pitch, not throw.

The Yahoo answer? You know what it is...

JJ is worried.  JJ wants to know how to pitch a faster fastball.  Deadhead feels his pain.  Deadhead doesn't want him to panic about not having the heater that some of his teenage companions must be chucking.  So Deadhead gives him the advice he took hours crafting, putting into just the right words:

Many great careers have been made out of pitching, not throwing.

Specifically - mine.  He should have just told him to become a left-handed reliever, then he could pitch forever.

Scouts Say it - Must be True

What's lazier than using cliches?  Citing unnamed sources as using cliches.  Yet that's what Razzball.com decided to do in its analysis of Danny Duffy, the Royals' minor league hurler:

 Scouts state that Duffy knows how to pitch, not just throw hard.

I guess I should give them credit for saying "throw hard," instead of "not just throw" - but I won't.

This Stuff is IMPORTANT

I admit, we make light of the whole pitching vs. throwing debate here.  But this is no laughing matter.  According to Kieran J. Fogarty, a researcher at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, in a study published in the March Pediatrics magazine:

Most of the softball injuries, 68.2 percent, happened during throwing, but not pitching, during practice

 So, kids, c'mon, be a pitcher, not a thrower: it hurts less.

Cole in your Stocking

How do you know you've made it?  Is it when you make the All-Star game?  Win the World Series?  Heck, win the World Series MVP?  Nope.  It's when you make it to the Hall of Fame...the CLICHE Hall of Fame.  Welcome, Mr. Cole Hamels, thanks to your pitching coach, Rich Dubee, and/or Matt Gelb, Philadelphia Enquirer Phillies beat man:

The 24-year-old kid who won a World Series MVP by throwing a fastball and change-up has become, in Dubee's estimation, a pitcher - not a thrower. 

Whether Dubee used those words or not, one way or another, you, Cole Hamels, have made The Big Time.

HERESY!

"I'm a thrower, not a pitcher," Zolk said.

What?  WHAT!?!?  You can't say that!  That's like admitting you wish failure on yourself and your team!  Why not just say you hate your mom!

Oh, wait...he's not a pitcher...he's Mike Zolk, a 2nd baseman for Neumann-Goretti high school outside Philadelphia who had to serve time on the mound due to a lack of arms on the team.  OK...the Baseball Cliche Police will let uo go this time, Zolk...but watch it!

Starting 'Em Young

Whether or not Matt Lawson, senior pitcher for Glen Rock (NJ), goes on to a successful career in the majors is not something on which I will speculate.  I will, say, however, that he is ready for the bigs right now, interview-wise.  When NorthJersey.com wanted to talk about his stellar control, Lawson went right to his pro stuff:

Baseball, pitching, is so much more than just going out there and throwing.

Darn tooting, Matt.

Turning It On Its Head

Every reporter knows to look out for that Man Bites Dog story out there, that to reel in your reader you need to turn a cliche on its head.  Obviously, BraveTiger of the OperationSports.com blog message boards knew this maxim, as he took our beloved old chestnut and flipped it on us when discussing how to throw a curveball...in MLB The Show:

Anyways, start off throwing not pitching, otherwords don't think just do.

Granted, he's talking about a VIDEO GAME, but hey, points for originality.

Mystery Cliche

What happened here?  After he threw a no-hitter against Southern Academy, did Pickens Academy (AL) senior Chase Davidson switch into auto-pilot and go to the cliche well when interviewed by Adam Minichino of The Dispatch?  Or did Davidson give a long, in-depth answer to a question, about how he has worked on really understanding his craft, which Minichino lazily boiled down to the bane of my existence?  We'll never know, thanks to this implied, but not directly attributed quote:

He said he now feels more like a pitcher and not a thrower.

I'm giving the kid the benefit of the doubt. This one's on you, Minichino.

Cliche Averted

For once, the cliche...is not a cliche but just a fact.  It's true: throwing is not pitching.  However, it has been generally treated as a lazy way of saying that a pitcher is not working his craft, but merely throwing the ball as hard as he can.  But Ashley Burnett, coach of Gilbert High in South Carolina, actually used the phrase to differentiate between two radically different activities performed by Austin LaBounty, as reported at TheState.com:

For the last few weeks, he was able to start throwing. We put out of a bucket of balls for him, but that’s not the same as pitching.

Thanks you, Mr. Burnett, thank you.

Over the Hurdle

When you're managing the worst team in baseball over the last decade+, why not break out the worst cliche in baseball?  Pirates manager Clint Hurdle on James McDonald:

He needs to pitch. I don't think he's been pitching. There's been more throwing going on.

Double bonus for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Colin Dunlap throwing (not pitching) it into his headline:

Pirates Notebook: McDonald must pitch, not throw, says Hurdle

If at first you don't cliche...

Travis Swachik, of the Charleston Post and Courier, wasn't sure if you'd understand that throwing hard wasn't as useful as throwing accurately and well, so he went to the well, though throwing "synonymous" definitely took the old saw up a level in sophistication describing a Clemson pitcher.

Still, to prove velocity isn’t everything, to prove pitching is not synonymous with throwing is exhibit A: Jonathan Meyer

Going South

As old school as Rays Manager Joe Maddon's glasses are, so are his cliches, this time to the St. Pete's Times about Wade Davis:

So as of right now, I'm liking what he's doing. I like the feel. He's using all of his pitches. He's pitching. He's not just out there throwing.

The Kids Aren't Alright

Like a kid on the playground imitating his favorite player's stance, Sheffield, AL coach Chuck Smith obviously takes his cues from the pros, as he told the Florence, AL Times Daily:

The main thing now is that they have learned how to pitch. A lot of high school kids know how to throw, but not how to pitch.

Yahoo and the Yanks

Yahoo's Joba Chamberlain fantasy advice (through Rotowire) features our favorite chestnut:

Recommendation: Unlike fellow Yankee Phil Hughes, however, there's no real reason to be concerned about Chamberlain's velocity, as he's reached 96 mph multiple times this season. He believes he's become more of a "pitcher" and less of the throw-as-hard-as-possible "thrower" he was when he was first called up. He has pitched very well at times this year, and although he's also had three shaky outings, he remains the Yankees' first choice in the seventh inning.

Was WFNY listening?

Following up on the PD's lead, Tribe blog Wait For Next Year threw this out on their 4.17.11 post:

 What separates Tomlin from others though is his ability to “pitch”, not simply throw as some pitchers do.

(Nod, again, to Nikhil Rao on the notification)

Leading Off: The Plain Dealer

Cleveland Plain Dealer headline from 4.4.11:

Pitching, not throwing, at the heart of Cleveland Indians starter Josh Tomlin's formula for success

(Thanks to Nikhil Rao for the heads up)