Copyright © 2011 Dr Richard Crowley
WILL BLASS FINALLY GET A GRIP ON BASEBALL?
A psychologist from Taos, N.M., who was trying to find and help Mark Wohlers in spring training might instead be helping Steve Blass exorcise the demons that painfully and prematurely ended the Pirates' broadcaster's pitching career in 1975. Richard Crowley is the man's name.
But Blass had never heard of him until one morning midway through spring training in Bradenton. "He'd been trying to see Wohlers and kept missing him," Blass said. "He told me everything he'd read about Wohlers had my name in it. He said it almost seemed that he was more meant to see me." Maybe. For sure, Blass' problem has had a longer life.
While Wohlers still has a chance to correct his control problems and pitch effectively
again in the major leagues, Blass never had a chance. He walked away from the game
in spring training, 1975-
Until now.
That morning in Bradenton, Blass and Crowley talked for perhaps 90 minutes. “He asked me if I wanted to explore getting rid of the problem," Blass said. "I'd been approached by hundreds of people over the years, and so I asked him a lot of questions. He came up with pretty good responses. I was impressed with him.
I don't want to get into a lot of what he said. That's his thing. But he called it a 'psychic virus.' He said, 'The thing to do is to get rid of it and replace it with something positive.'"
Blass took two days to think all this through. He had to battle against hope that maybe, perhaps, finally, he could pick up a baseball again and throw it where he wanted to, without worrying about hitting a batter.
He met Crowley again. "We talked for maybe an hour and a half, and then he left and went back to Taos," Blass said. A day or so later, Blass picked up a ball and a glove and played catch with fellow broadcaster Bob Walk behind the Pirates' clubhouse at McKechnie Field.
He threw fastballs. He threw sliders. He smiled.
"It felt pretty good," Blass said. "I'd forgotten how much I missed just throwing a baseball."
A few days later, Blass arranged to meet with Nashville Manager Trent Jewett at the
minor-
"I didn't feel the anxiety and the tenseness when I was ready to release the ball," Blass said.
But the big test was yet to come. How would Blass react when a "batter" stood at the plate? He would learn several days later.
Crowley flew back to Bradenton. The two met at the minor-
"I did hit him once," Blass said. "But it was all right to keep going. I threw 80 balls, and I'd say 80 percent of them were where I wanted to throw them."
"I had missed it more than I thought," he said. "I don't feel anxiety, but this is just the beginning of the process. I have no illusions about this.
I just want to be able to throw a baseball. If it worked into something where I could throw batting practice, that would be good, but...Just throwing again is something. I don't know if it's a big deal, but it's a nice thing. And I'm amazed at how good my arm feels. Well, after all... my arm should feel good after 24 years’ rest."
It appeared in Paul Myers’ article in the Pittsburgh Post-
Full Transcript and Testimonial of
Steve Blass
PITCHER, Pittsburg Pirates
