Somewhere along the way, every parent buys every child a first book. A Goodnight Moon. The Cat in the Hat. Some kind of ABC book. Something to help at bedtime...
Goodnight MoonAnd so it was with Al Leiter and his third-youngest child, Jack. He brought one home one day.“My dad’s not the biggest of readers,” Jack said recently. “So, it was about pitching.”
“It was a difference-maker,” Al said. “He was a difference-maker. The book turned my career and my life around. I miss him. I miss him every day. The things I learned from him, I pass on to Jack and every young player I talk to. Jack has heard some version of Harvey Dorfmanisms since he was born.”In the pitching fraternity, Harvey Dorfman and his series of books on the mental side remain legendary even more than a decade after he died at the age of 76 in 2011.
If Al made excuses, Dorfman had a way of calling him on it. If Al got too complicated in his thinking, Dorfman helped him unravel it. When Leiter struggled to understand why his “stuff” alone wasn’t allowing him to dominate hitters, Dorfman helped explain it. In fact, there are chapters from “Adjustments” to “Zeros.” And everything in between, including “Breathing,” “Excuses,” “Joy,” and “Nice Guys.” It is, after all, an ABC book.
Through his first 10 starts, entering Saturday, Jack had a 5.75 ERA. It’s hardly telling. The Rangers are pleased with what Young calls “peripheral” numbers, such as Fielding Independent Pitching and his robust strikeout rate . The Rangers are also fine with Leiter having to master challenges now; the challenges only get bigger.
It’s led Al to occasionally wonder this when he’s gotten off the phone with his son: What would Harvey say?
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