Andy Sonnanstine anyone?

Mine is an unreasonable passion for the cut fastball.

It began in 1999 when I bought Ken Griffey Jr’s Slugfest for my Nintendo 64. Slugfest had a few things that the previous title did not, including a “Cut Fastball” as an option for a pitcher’s “specialty pitch.” (Every pitcher in this game had a fastball, change up, breaking ball and specialty). Back then, I knew little about the mechanics of baseball, so this was the first time I’d ever heard of the cutter, and I thought it was awesome. I remember Gred Maddux had it, and I would give it to almost all of my create-a-pitchers (including a 7 foot submariner who I still make in video games).

My brother claimed the cutter didn’t exist and it was just something for the game, but I didn’t believe him. Eventually, ESPN the Magazine had an article about the best pitchers and their specialty pitches, and included was Greg Maddux’s cutter. I looked at how it was thrown and then went outside and threw it for hours upon years.

Eventually I learned about how phenominal Mariano Rivera’s unhittable pitch is, I bought a baseball game purely because a designer advertised how it made the movement and usage of Al Leiter’s cutter accurate, and Scott Feldman had a solid season on the back of an amazing cut fast. The love affair has only grown. I don’t know why it really started, probably because “cutter” is a cool sounding pitch, and because, from the standpoint of pitching strategy and handedness, it makes a ton of sense, but I love it.

Anyway, yeah. I like this story.