(#54)
Ricky Chisolm was the poster boy for the old school mentally tough competitor. Of all the great pitchers I’ve ever coached in 30 plus years, including three former big leaguers and many other great hurlers and competitors, if I had only one game to play and had to name a starter, it would be #12.
And of course, in those days the starting pitcher always finished what he started. He always competed, he was fearless, one of the most confident, motivated, and determined players I ever coached and most importantly, he had what I like to call “intestical” fortitude. Most don’t.
If it was time to leave on a road trip, I would always look around and make sure he was on the bus before I drove off and left everyone else who was late. If he wasn’t on the bus, I would find something “I needed to do” until he got there.
He won 32 games on the mound in his three-year career as a Raider and won 13 in both the 1978 and 1979 seasons at Magnolia Academy (Jackson, Mississippi).
The fact he didn’t pitch much, if any, in his two seasons at Hinds still baffles me.
Steven Dickey modeled that same toughness that he probably learned from watching his idol Chisolm.
During the 1981 season, he won an unbelievable 16 games and struck out 154 batters in 113 innings when the Raidiers became the first Mississippi high school baseball team to win 40 games in a season.
He went from a little guy throwing balloons to a tall and lanky fearless pitcher, throwing gas in what seemed like something that happened overnight and long before steroids.
That 40 win season would have never happened without the physical maturity of Steven Dickey.
And he, like Chisolm, didn’t pitch in junior college at Hinds or at Mississippi College either.
It’s also ironic these work horses pitched so much, were never on a pitch count, never missed any starts, pitched on short rest, and never had serious arm problems or the popular modern day surgeries.
I used to joke that the only pitchers I ever abused all ended up in the big leagues… Pat Rapp, Steven Bourgeouis and Chad Bradford, who each logged a lot of innings in their stays at Hinds. Others included Warren Guerriero, Mark Anders*, and even my son Josh, although I didn’t coach him in high school and college. Josh can still throw 1000 pitches in batting practice each day. Only Anders gets an asterisk by his name; see the story “Season of a Lifetime” – #19 on the blog).
In today’s game, if a guy pitched two innings, which usually ended up being 50+ pitches, he needed to have his entire body wrapped in ice and couldn’t pitch again until the next week.
I always wanted to take the ice pack off their shoulders and elbows and wrap it around their heads.
I guess it just goes to show that the pitching muscles of tough competitors are connected to a lot of things in the body that keep them strong.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 