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Some things never change
The fastball is still the most overpowering weapon in American sport. That is the lesson to remember as Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Roger Clemens of the New York Yankees skate home this week with Cy Young awards. Clemens has now won six of these things and Johnson has won four and the reason for both of the guys' success has been the ability to throw a baseball harder and faster than anyone else. The basic idea is this: Here comes the freight train. Maybe the freight train is going to fly across the plate. Maybe the freight train is going to come straight at your head. Figure it out, boys. Do the best you can. The idea of standing tall with a bat in your hand, waiting for one of those 100 miles-per-hour bullets to come your way, puts a chill into most of us. I know I'd rather have Gilbert Brown sit on me, have Mike Tyson hit me with one lights-out left hook, have Brett Hull unload a slapper at my well-padded body than face an ill-intentioned fastball. I think I'd even rather be driving through traffic, trying to catch Jeff Gordon. Things change in sport. Stadiums grow larger. Players become bigger. Equipment is improved. Salaries move into another universe. There are some things at the core of the games, though, that stay the same. Fear is one of them. Hit against Randy Johnson? Hit against Roger Clemens? No thank you. Just hand out the awards and let the rest of us go home, please. Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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