What It Means To Be The 1

CLYDE: I joined the team in Minneapolis, and the first guy—I'm not naming names—said, "Hi, my name's so and so and I don't think I'm going to be your friend." Some guys would ask me to go to the bars with them, but I was 18. I don't know if they were trying to make me feel like part of the team or trying to take advantage of me.

PETTIT: I was 18 when I started out with the New Orleans Pelicans, the Pirates' Triple A team. There were three newspapers in town, and I was in the paper almost every day. The first game I pitched, there were more than 10,000 people in the stands. The outfield was roped off. Looking back, it might have been better to start at a lower level.

The Show

WITT: I went 0--6 in the minors and didn't win my first game until I was in the big leagues. Things you get away with in college you don't in the pros. That breaking ball you throw down and away? They spit on it.

MARK PRIOR, '01: When I got called up, I was replacing a guy who was 1--7, and Don Baylor was getting fired and we were on our way to losing 95 games. Joe Girardi was my catcher and he said, "Be professional, know your job, know your responsibilities on the field and off." My transition happened so fast, I don't think I appreciated what it took to get there.

CLYDE: The only way I can describe that first big league game I pitched: Imagine your biggest dream come true and getting to live it. As I warmed up, the coaches called the bullpen to tell me to sit down. The game was delayed 15 minutes due to a traffic jam outside the stadium. That's how many people were coming.

ANDERSON: I was only in the minors for 2½ months when I got called up in 1998. We're in the old Tiger Stadium, playing an interleague game against the Cubs, Kerry Wood pitching for Chicago. It's the seventh inning, crowd stands up, bullpen door swings opens, and they start playing Wild Thing for me. It was just like the movie. I threw missiles.

KRAUSSE: I went right from high school to the big leagues and threw a three-hit shutout in my first game against the Angels at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City. When I gave up a home run in the second game, I thought, Holy s---, the world is going to come to an end tonight. It was the first home run I had ever allowed in my life. In the third game, my elbow started to burn.

WITT: What Strasburg has is very, very special and doesn't come along every year or five or 10 years. Take care of your arm. Just take care of that thing.

The Fall