Strike Three!

Strike Three! My Years in the 'Pen is presented from the perspective of the observations of the Indians' bullpen catcher for the years 1964-1966. The author's personal experiences offer insight into the behind-the scenes activities of the bullpen and batting practice catcher, in the clubhouse and on the field, with comparisons afforded of the 60's to modern-day practices. The major focus of the book is the impressive strikeout records of the Tribe's pitching staff of those years. It was led by the Big 3 of Sam McDowell, Sonny Siebert, and Luis Tiant. The Big 3 enjoyed individual records as well, especially McDowell who continues to hold individual records and still remains high on the all-time strikeouts list. The accomplishments of the three collectively, all in the first five years of their major league careers, will likely never be repeated.The author examines how some of the individual-season records of the Tribe's staff were ultimately surpassed in the era of performance-enhancing drug usage, with probable causal relationship. The attention to drugs has been primarily directed at their impact on home run records, this book refocuses on the potential effect on pitching records that may also have been operative. Recent acknowledgements by players, such as by Mark McGuire and Andy Pettitte, that they used performance-enhancing drugs including steroids and human growth hormone (hGH) raises the spectre of a complicated interaction of their effects upon the forces of offense and defense in conflict on the field. Accusations by Ferguson Jenkins that McGuire should apologize to pitchers ignores the fact that some pitchers should apologize to hitters. The story is supplemented by a collection of photographs that recall people and places, especially historic old Cleveland Municipal Stadium.