Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

Charles Bender was a pitcher’s pitcher. Though he could throw hard, he wasn’t one of those guys who relied on the strength of his arm. He used a variety of deliveries — often flicking his leg high; he was one of the first pitchers known for a big kick — and threw an assortment of pitches at varying speeds. He had good stuff, as they say, and yet his greatest strength was the stuff between his ears. He thought his way through games.

Bender was, in some respects, like Greg Maddux. Of course, Maddux has had a longer (and more successful) career. But the two pitchers’ approach was similar and, funny enough, if you thumb through baseball-reference.com’s objective similar-by-age feature (near the bottom of the page) you’ll see Bender and Maddux coupled through their age-32 and age-33 seasons. As I write in the book, there are reasons Bender’s performance dropped off … but I won’t get into it here (don’t want to spoil it for you — hint-hint).

I enjoy reading articles that probe the mind of Maddux and here’s a good one. No one has played baseball’s head game better than Maddux. As the article points out, more than anything else, he relies on an otherworldy instinct — another attribue that makes me think of Bender.

This post was added on Saturday, May 17, 2008 by Tom Swift at 01:01 and is filed under Albert, Reading Material.