The Wax Pack by Brad Balukjian

Author:Brad Balukjian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPO003030 Sports & Recreation / Baseball / History
Publisher: Nebraska

10

Leader of the Pack

I don’t get to write the script. Whatever it is, I just get to respond.

—Don Carman

Days 21–23

July 9–11, 2015

Miles driven: 5,129

Cups of coffee: 49

Sarasota FL to Naples FL

August 15, 1989

Don Carman can’t sleep.

Tired of tossing and turning and disturbing his wife, Sharon, he finally gets up and faces the wall, turning his head ninety degrees to examine his posture in the bedroom mirror. He imagines his fingertips rubbing against the coarse red stitches of a baseball as he feels for his fastball grip, his index and middle fingers extending over the seams in four places. His heart thumps as his mind races through each of the nine Dodgers hitters he will face the next day and how he will approach each one.

Attack, attack.

Before throwing a single pitch, Don maps out the entire game in his head, drawing on input from the voluminous scouting reports collected by the front office and his past encounters facing a particular opponent. The battle plan for each individual hitter is specific and exact, a finely tuned conspiracy between him and his catcher—pound Alfredo Griffin with fastballs down, jam Willie Randolph inside, keep the ball away from Mike Marshall and make him hit to the opposite field—but the overall strategy is simple: be aggressive, no matter what. Stick to the game plan even if you give up a hit or a home run.

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