Thrown for a loss

If you read Thursday’s blog entry, you know that Josh and I settled a long overdue bet. It started last summer, when I inexplicably claimed I could throw a baseball 75 mph. I had pretty much conceded 75 going in, but my goal was at least 70.
So to settle this, we went to In The Zone Baseball Club in Fall River, Mass., where our friend Ron Westmoreland, the owner, hosted us.

We took a number of cuts in the cage as a warmup, and Josh and I threw around the baseball for a good 10-15 minutes before Ron put the gun on me. As you can see in the top video - not to mention I have a motion that is a cross between Kevin Appier, Keith Foulke and Daisuke Matsuzaka - I start off strong.

“64,” Ron says.
“67,” he said on my next pitch.

On my third clocked pitched, it wasn’t a strike. In fact, it hit a Rubbermaid barrel nearby, but more importantly, it was fast.

“69, and 30 dollars for the security deposit,” Ron Joked.

OK, I’m about five pitches in, and I’m 1 mph away from 70. From there, though, I topped out. I hit 69 twice more, as you can see in the top video, and then Ron wanted to give me a few tips.

He told me that I wasn’t getting enough power out of my push-off leg, and that I needed to gather all of my power in that leg before pushing off. Apparently, I was drifting forward and losing my power.

He was right, but the problem was this: Instead of concentrating on throwing, I was only concentrating on the tips he gave me, and I was losing velocity. Not to mention that, at 32 years old and as someone who hasn’t touched a baseball in six months, I was running out of gas in a serious way.

The second video is like watching a slow car crash. I’m going downhill and downhill fast. I don’t think I get above 67 in the second video, and I’m pretty sure I get as far down as 61.

Overall, I was disappointed but not discouraged. Josh may have won this round of the bet, but it’s not over yet. Here’s to hoping a little more throwing and conditioning, and I’ll get to that mark of 70.

On a side note, if you're serious about baseball or softball, or have a son or daughter serious about baseball or softball, check out In The Zone. It's not a far drive from Aquidneck Island, and it really is a top-notch, year-round facility.

Spouting off at the brain

A few random thoughts before Josh Krueger and I settle a long-standing bet - whether or not I can throw a baseball 75 mph:

- I like tennis, but not enough to watch it at all hours of the night. The Australian Open, the first major tournament of the season, is under way, but the marquee matchups take place while most of us are sleeping. And because I read the recaps in the morning, I have little interest to watch the tape-delayed version in the afternoon. In fact, the only time I can remember staying up to watch a live sporting event is when the Red Sox played in Japan a few years ago and the 2002 World Cup quarterfinal between the U.S. and Germany. And the latter is because I had yet to go to bed.

- To Scott Zack, the fan who repeatedly called Celtics forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis a “fat boy” and then filed a complaint with the league after Davis responded with an obscenity: Get a life. Or at least go back to your mother’s basement and play a little more World of Warcraft. You’re the annoying little brother that nobody likes. Davis could be both fined and suspended, and Celtics coach Doc Rivers called Davis’ actions “unacceptable.” While I don’t disagree with Doc, I’d have done the same thing if I were Davis. Punched him, too.

- I know I wrote about the America’s Cup yesterday, saying how ridiculous all this fighting has been, but Wednesday’s revelation took it to a new level. Alinghi president Ernesto Bertarelli accused BMW Oracle, the American team, of using a French boat. This comes on the heels of another lawsuit filed by the Americans, one that claims the Swiss boat had its sails made in Nevada, which goes against the Deed of Gift.
“I am in it for the sailing. I am not in it for the legal fight,” Bertarelli said. “Now we are on BMW Oracle’s ninth lawsuit. Our boat is Deed (of Gift) compliant, but if BMW Oracles continues to contest our sails, they should consider their own issues, beginning with the fact that the ‘USA’ is a French boat.”
Look, I don’t know what to believe anymore, but my patience is running thin with this whole thing. Let’s scrap it and get another Volvo Ocean Race going — complete with a Newport stopover.

- Tiger Woods, apparently, is in a sex rehabilitation clinic in Mississippi. So what? So the guy has issues. Personally, I hope he takes care of those issues and gets back on the golf course as soon as possible. And if anyone really cares about Tiger’s personal life so much as to buy the rags that exploit him, you should look up Scott Zack’s number. You’d be great friends.

- The aforementioned bet between Josh and I started last summer, when I was playing in a wiffleball league and Josh was a member of an adult volleyball team. We argued over which sport was cooler. I told him that I had a rocket for an arm, which led to this exchange:

Josh: What would happen if you tried to throw a baseball now? Would your rocket arm fall completely off, since a baseball weighs about 1,000 times more than a wiffleball?

Scott: If I warmed up my arm, I truly believe I could get high 70s

Josh: You're on crack. You'd hit 55 on the gun and throw out your arm in the process. Your wiffleball career would be over.

So today we settle the bet. Stay tuned.

Cup of tears

Because I'm apparently a "carpetbagger," I don't have too much experience with the America's Cup. I only know what I read. But I am very much interested in the competition for the oldest trophy in sports.

Then again, I might be the only one interested in the competition (at least outside of a courtroom), because that seems to be the last thing on anyone's mind. Thanks to a billion-year-old document, the Deed of Gift, the American team and the Swiss can't seem to come to terms on anything.

The latest flap is the fact that the Americans are concerned that the Swiss had their sails made in the United States, Nevada to be exact, and that is a violation of the Deed. Since Alinghi, the Swiss team, won the Cup in 2007, nothing but courtroom drama has occurred, marring what should be a good event, which is scheduled to start Feb. 8.

But should the fighting continue, and we have no reason to believe it shouldn't, that start day is in serious jeopardy. Personally, I think the BMW Oracle team, which sails out of Golden Gate Yacht Club, needs to stop crying, suck it up and just sail.

In a New York minute

What I love about the NFL playoffs is the fact that even the biggest so-called experts can’t tell you what’s going to happen. I mean, did anybody give the Vikings a chance on Sunday? How about the Jets?

Will anyone give the Jets a chance this week? Probably not. But why couldn’t they beat the Colts? They took down the Chargers, who had scored at least 20 points in every game this season. They confused Philip Rivers, who was playing as well as any quarterback in the second half of the season. Offensively, the Jets play smashmouth football and have a quarterback that simply manages the game. He makes the throws when they’re there, doesn’t when they’re not and minimizes his mistakes.

As a Patriots fan, I’m legally supposed to loathe the guys in green and white and have a pure hatred for Rex Ryan. But I don’t. Personally, this team reminds me of the first Patriots championship team, when Tom Brady was in his first season as a starter.

Now, Tom Brady did a lot more for those Patriots than Mark Sanchez does for these Jets, but they both play a very schematic defense that is based on speed and toughness. I can see them going into Indy and – much like the Pats did to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI – containing the Colts.

New York will need a couple of big plays, say, maybe an interception return from Darrelle Revis, and another long TD run from either Shonn Greene or Thomas Jones, and it could be another missed chance for Peyton and the gang.