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Win
Barry ZitoBarry Zito

Pro athletes often secretly root against their own team when they are benched or injured

This is a phenomenon that does happen. You're right. I'm just going to be honest... in pro ball you become an independent contractor... I'm thinking if they can lose this, it proves they don't need me. So I'm hoping that they lose. And also I was so miserable being in the dugout watching them [the 2010 Giants]. It was a nightmare.

This is a first-hand account of Zito's own feelings and his observations of peers in the industry.

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Loss
Oct 11, 2019
#2976
Big CatBig Cat

Clayton Kershaw is not a dominant playoff pitcher

I am starting to think that Clayton Kershaw is not good in the playoffs. Kershaw, yikes... He's not dominant Clayton Kershaw anymore. Still very, very good, but he's not like Clayton Kershaw of five years ago.

While Kershaw struggled in 2019, he eventually won a World Series title in 2020, pitching two gems in the World Series and shedding the 'choker' label.
Loss
Oct 11, 2019
#2978
PFT CommenterPFT Commenter

Clayton Kershaw should embrace Satan to fix his playoff struggles

There's only one more thing for [Clayton Kershaw] to do to try to turn this around and that's go completely satanic. Flip the script. Embrace Satan. Become goth Clayton Kershaw. Cornrows... mascara... black lipstick. Just like flip the script on God entirely. See if Satan will give you a hand.

Kershaw did not, in fact, become a goth or embrace Satanism to improve his pitching.
Void
Oct 11, 2019
#2980
Big CatBig Cat

Atlanta is the saddest sports city on Earth

Atlanta is truly the saddest place on Earth with sports... They gave up 10 runs first inning. I've never seen anything like that... 28 to 3 Super Bowl, which is the biggest collapse maybe in sports history... The Braves won 14 straight division titles and they had one World Series to show for it.

While subjective, the 'Atlanta sports curse' narrative was extremely strong in 2019, though the Braves did eventually win another World Series in 2021 and Georgia won back-to-back titles.

More from Barry Zito

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Win
Barry ZitoBarry Zito

Fastball torque is the primary cause of Tommy John surgeries

They just found out that fastballs are the main reason for all these Tommy John's now. It's actually not curveballs and sliders like they were talking about... They did this whole study on all these Tommy John's and they're saying it's fastball torque. So really I don't have to worry about that.

Modern research generally agrees that high-velocity fastballs place the most stress on the UCL compared to other pitches.

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