Of course, my Sports Illustrated subscription just expired so I’ll have to buy this one individually.
The Star-Ledger offered an excerpt from Tom Verducci’s lunch date with Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. Here it is:
SI: I want to go back to 1992, when Andy was throwing to Jorge, a converted second baseman, in Class A in Greensboro, N.C.
Posada: Go back to 1991. I was catching a bullpen from him [at short-season Class A] Oneonta, and he’s throwing me knuckleballs. The ball hit me right in the knee. I said, ‘No more knuckleballs.’
Pettitte: I had a knuckleball when I signed.
Jeter: Yeah, you’re still throwing knuckleballs.
Pettitte: I’d get two strikes on somebody and throw it as hard as I could. Struck everybody out. And then they told me after the first year, “You’ve got to can it.” They said, “After you’ve pitched for 10 years in the big leagues, if you want to break it back out, you can.”
SI: So now you can throw it again.
Pettitte: It’s no good now. I lost it.
