Sound pitching does not necessarily mean overpowering pitching, as four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves has demonstrated throughout his career with his masterful grasp of the hitter's mentality. It's such an approach that Brother Elephants' ace Jonathan Hurst strives to attain.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The 36-year-old former major leaguer is a native of the Big Apple, but chose to travel down South for his college education. At Spartanburg Methodist College in South Carolina, Hurst played on the same team as Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Reggie Sanders. He received first-team junior college All-American honors in 1987.
After spending two years at Spartanburg, the right-hander began a minor league career in 1987 and made his Major League debut with the Montreal Expos in 1992.
Hurst moved on to the New York Mets in 1994 for one season before joining the former Mercury Tigers of the CPBL in 1998. Though his first two seasons with the Tigers were less than spectacular, Hurst finally broke into his all-star form with the 2000 Brother Elephants where he posted a 1.82 ERA and a league-high 16 wins.
His stellar performance in 2000 won him a chance to play for the Yakult Swallows of the Nippon Professional Baseball league (NPB) in 2001, before he rejoined the Elephants last year, where he racked up 16 wins once again.
Hurst began this season with the Diablo Red Devils in Mexico as the closer, but that was before Elephants managers realized how much they really missed the veteran and asked him to re-join the team for the third time in four years. Since returning to the team in late March, Hurst has gone 6-2 in 10 starts with an ERA of 3.15. What he has brought to the team's young pitching staff is a sense of stability, something that had been missing during the Elephants' 3-9-1 run in the first month of the season.
"With Hurst around, we all feel more secure," ace closer Hsiao Ren-wen (
"Even though we don't speak the same language, all the guys know Hurst has an answer for all our baseball questions."
Hsaio was indirectly referring to Hurst's insight on the hitter's mentality. Like Greg Maddux, Hurst pitches more with his head than with sheer strength, because he understands how important it is for the pitcher to think like a hitter. Once a pitcher knows what pitches the hitters expect, he is less likely to get into trouble.
"I know I can't pitch forever, so I will try to outthink the hitters more, instead of blowing pitches by them," Hurst said. "Besides not throwing them the pitches they are looking for, location [of the pitch] is everything."
Hurst believes that he has a few more "good years" left in him and would not mind finishing his career with the Elephants in Taiwan. That spells trouble for all opposing CPBL hitters.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
BRING THE NOISE: Brazil’s Fonseca attracted a boisterous crowd that brought such dominant soccer-style energy the referee switched to Portuguese to ask for quiet Australia’s Alex de Minaur on Monday put an end to Brazilian talent Joao Fonseca’s challenge at the Miami Open, outlasting the 18-year-old 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in an enthralling contest. Attendance on stadium court had been sparse throughout the day, but the Hard Rock Stadium turned into a mini-Maracana Stadium for Fonseca’s match, complete with Brazilian flags and soccer-style chanting. Fonseca brought his energetic brand of ultra-attacking tennis, but De Minaur was up to the challenge, coping with blistering forehands and a partisan crowd. Such was the dominance of Fonseca’s raucous support that the referee switched to Portuguese for his appeals for quiet. However, De
RSS