Bringing the heat

“I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school

He could throw that speedball by you make you look like a fool, boy”

Bruce Springsteen – “Glory Days”

The Boss obviously never played any baseball. I’ve never heard anyone call a fastball a speedball. A speedball to my generation was a mixture of speed (or cocaine) and heroin, injected into the bloodstream. This is the nasty concoction that killed John Belushi, Chris Farley and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. A speedball also killed former major league star Ken Caminiti. But were here to talk baseball, and specifically about flame throwing pitchers.

As long as baseball has been played, fans and players alike have been fascinated by pitchers…