Royals Review · Mar 15, 2023
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.