Another Pittman

Wow, it has been so long since I have blogged I almost forgot my login info!

This blog is not about me or my work. It's about my older brother, Scott. His life was cut short at 28, many years ago, but he was one great brother. Where I excelled in music and arts, he excelled in sports. I was playing drums in the high school band when I saw him return a kickoff 99+ yards for a touchdown! A state record at the time! His high school football team had a state championship record where they were not only unbeaten, but every game they were unscored upon!

In baseball, I saw him pitch the only perfect game I ever saw. And I mean TRUE perfect game-- three batters up, three batters down for every inning. No balls, no fouls-- every pitch a strike!

As it was getting near the last inning, the opposing team had a hitter come to the plate who was renowned for hitting a home run almost every time up. My brother had struck him out each previous time at bat, but certainly not this last time at the plate. No one could fan this amazing slugger every time.

Then I saw something I'd never seen before-- my brother switched his pitching style. Instead of taking a wind-up as most pitchers do, he simply faced the batter and all of a sudden tossed the ball! "Quick pitching" it is called. I never even heard of it. It gets the timing of the batter completely off as they see no wind-up and no notice of when the ball is going to be released.

And it worked! The slugger was completely bamboozled! Swinging sometimes before the ball reached the plate, and sometimes after it was already in the catcher's glove.

My brother was always proud of my academic, musical, and artistic accomplishments. I wish I had told him how proud I was of his sports ability. He was the best natural athlete I ever saw.