OK, saving the best for last. Your curve ball is one of the best pitches for any pitcher who has played the game and that’s not hyperbole. Pitching Ninja is still out there putting it on Twitter showing you freeze George Brett and the comments are great. I guess my question is how does that pitch happen? Obviously, you have to be blessed with the ability and work hard at it, but there are tons of Major Leaguers who have incredible ability and can’t match it. What is the origin and evolution of that pitch?

My dad taught it to me when I was 13 but wouldn’t let me throw it in a game. When I was 14, he let me throw it once a game. I would spin it and it would be that big 12-to-6 curve. I go to college and get my butt kicked. I came out my sophomore year and realized that every time I try to dial up the velocity on this curve, I do what everybody else does and leave it spinning. It’s not even a hanger, it’s just spinning around and not doing anything. I wanted to figure out how I can throw it harder and still create the spin needed for the break. So, I started to shorten my stride and depending on where I wanted the ball to land, I made an adjustment. My whole process was, “What’s my stride line?”

I would land on my toe and that was my whole focal point. Everything about my curveball was my stride length. It was just, OK, here’s the height level that I want it and then threw it as hard as I could throw it. That was kind of it. Then I went to college and all of a sudden, it became an out pitch. Then I got to the Major Leagues and it was one of those pitches where the batters just didn’t like it. So, I started throwing it more and getting guys out. Then my whole focus was just where it was landing in the zone. I started fell off the mound to the left, so it ended up away to righties and in to lefties. Lefties really struggled with it.

Later on, in ’93 I was playing in a simulated game and we had David Segui hitting. Afterwards, he came up to me and said he never realized my curve was that deep. He said he had seen a bunch of them now and it was two or three inches below where he thought it was going to be. That made me realize I had two or three inches on the bottom of the break that guys were swinging right over,

I love hearing you get into the details of that and all the science behind that great pitch. This has been a lot of fun and I enjoyed getting to talk to you about all of those moments you encountered in your career. Wrapping it up, do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

I’d say for a journeyman career, I’ve had a bunch of unique circumstances that made it really fun. You’ve interviewed a bunch of guys and in the grand scheme of things, I end up being a journeyman Major League baseball player. I just had so many things happen to me. How many guys have all of these things?

It’s one of those just like, magical careers. It should have been one thing, but I had the injury and it wasn’t. Then I look at it and I have all these stories and all the crap I went through. The Bonds walk, closing the no-hitter, all this stuff happens to me and I’m like, “This can’t be normal.” I think, “Does everyone have these unbelievable game tales?” Because I feel like I have so many. There’s a whole bunch and it’s hilarious. And in parting, I would just say that I just hope everybody is staying safe and we’ll all get through this together. Thanks for having me, it was a lot of fun.