Took a major league umpire quail hunting a few times down here. He called many games behind the plate that Glavine and Maddox pitched in. He told me that all pitchers would test the corners to see how close they could get before it’s called a strike. Captain Obvious here, I know. But he said Maddox, and sometimes Glavine, were the only two pitchers he ever saw that could consistently bring their pitch in a quarter inch at a time until it hit Mark’s strike zone that day. After that it was bang bang bang...every pitch to that spot, relatively speaking.
Had a personal friend of mine that pitched for the Cardinals and another that was first base for the Indians during that era. Both told me the same thing: 80% of the payers were juiced back then, adding that if that figure was incorrect, it was 90%.
Let me guess
Hirschbeck and Lilliquist??
