I recently interviewed former NY Mets closer Skip Lockwood,on my podcast MetsMusings Skip, has a new book out and was happy to discuss it with me. Here is an excerpt of that interview.
MM:
My guest tonight he is a former relief pitcher
for the New York
Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Milwaukee Brewers, he
even played for
the Seattle Pilots and
his name is Skip Lockwood
and he's got a
brand new book
out called" Insight Pitch:
My Life as a
Major League Closer" and
He's here tonight.Skip thanks so much
for coming on Mets
Musings.
Skip Lockwood: Great to be back
this close to New
York again.
I remember New
York very very kindly
We had wonderful
years there , we had a house in
Greenwich and Tom
Seaver was my ride to
the ball park. we
had friends, we
just had a blast,
I enjoyed playing at Shea
Stadium. I
pitched okay and I got a
chance to pitch
in important games.
I just love New
York and I'm in many
many cases I I
wished I had still stuck
around I miss it. I miss New York, I miss the people, Broadway.
MM:You
had a short but a very
nice career here
in New York and not a
bad ride to the
ballpark coming in with
Tom Seaver.
Lockwood: Now Gary, you know Tom was
very instrumental.
I think a lot of
players that
played with Tom will tell
you the same he
was a guy that you know
got up on your
grill, yeah and he was
a guy that could
teach, he was a guy
who was thinking
very
clearly about the
psychological
components of the
game I think he was
way ahead of his
time in preparation
physically and
emotionally mentally for
every game. He
really left no stone
unturned, you
know he went to the to the
ballpark every
single day with purpose
in mind. Everything
he did seemed like it
was designed to
help him pitch better, to
help them think
about pitching better,
he was really a
mentor for me, and very
inspirational in many
many different ways I
is listen,
sometimes he was confrontational sometimes with me he was
a guy that was a clear leader for me and a guy that I
thought influenced my career an awful lot.
MM:Now
in your book you
speak about how
you prepared for a game
and you did a lot
of a
mental imaging
can you speak a little bit about
that and how you
got into that?
Lockwood:Yes, the book is an attempt to be authentic. What
I tried to do is
write the book, and I
wrote every word
of the book myself, I
try to speak as
if I was taking you with
me out on the
mound, you and I are
throwing the
pitch, you're inside the
uniform you're
gripping the ball, you're feeling what it's like to be out there. I try to
be honest and I try to
you know do with
a sense of humility but
I wanted people
to, just like you would
ask somebody if
you're at a bar.
So the book was
an attempt to
take you with me
on my journey. Part of
my journey was good
and part of it
was great that
the part that was good
was in Milwaukee
and in California
that's okay.
I was a starting
pitcher for the Brewers and had
some pretty good
games but I never I
never really
turned it into something
that I could
count on something that was
repeatable. I
really didn't know why I
was pitching well
and then I started to
uncover ways to
relax and visualize what
was going to
happen on the on the mound
and use that
visualization as a tool
very specific
very detailed I was very
much in tune with
how the movie was
going to play.
I saw me pitching
and I would watch the movie,
me pitching
before I would ever go out
and pitch the
game it was something that
I prepared every
day.
I prepared every
pitch it was I saw Tom
do it and I saw
how he did it and I
tried to learn
from him I tried to learn
his techniques.
3 comments:
Nice, Gary.
He certainly had a great "mentor" in Seaver. I wish Seaver was still around to ride in from Greenwich with Zach Wheeler. What would a Seaver brain do today with Wheeler's physical tools?
Very nice interview
Nothing helped Wheeler when he was here years ago, before he changed his name from Pelfrey. At least he doesn't lick his fingers anymore. 😕
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