Capping a Slow Comeback, but a Bit S … - 棒球

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Capping a Slow Comeback, but a Bit Slower

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: July 24, 2011

If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, as the saying
goes, few can relate as literally as Chien-Ming Wang. For him, the journey
of a thousand setbacks began with a single misstep in Houston, more than
three years ago. On Sunday it led him here, to a ballpark nestled in a
mountain, still seeking the deadliest sinker in baseball.

It may never return. “I try,” Wang said in the clubhouse at PNC Field
after a loss for the Syracuse Chiefs, the Class AAA affiliate of the
Washington Nationals. “I try.”

Wang threw one sinker at 94 miles per hour in his last start, against
Buffalo, but on Sunday, he topped out at 91. He tied up some hitters with
a slider but did not generate ground balls the way he used to. Eighteen
batters put the ball in play off him. Half were in the air. More than 15
Taiwanese reporters tracked every move.

It was Wang’s sixth rehabilitation start, and for the Nationals, there will
be no more auditions. He cannot make another start in the 30-day time frame
for a rehabilitation assignment, so Wang’s next appearance will come Friday
in Washington, against the Mets.

The Nationals have invested $3 million in Wang since the Yankees cut him
after the 2009 season, letting someone else rebuild his damaged shoulder.
Ready or not, it would seem, here he comes.

“I think he’s close to being ready,” said Randy Knorr, the Syracuse
manager. “Timetable- wise, obviously, you’d like to see some guys have
a little more time. We don’t have that time, but I think he can compete
up there, I really do.”

For more than three years, Wang competed at an extraordinary level for the
Yankees. He helped save the 2005 season with eight victories in 17 starts.
The next season, he was the runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award.
He won 19 games again in 2007, and twice was the Yankees’ No. 1 starter in
the playoffs.

He was off to a good start in 2008, his bowling-ball sinker bearing down and
in on right-handed hitters, as heavy and reliable as ever. But on June 15, in
an interleague game against the Astros, Wang stepped awkwardly while rounding
third base. He sprained a ligament and tore a tendon in his right foot, and
hobbled into oblivion.

As Wang remembers, the Yankees trainer Gene Monahan told him he might be
healthy for the playoffs. But there were no playoffs for the Yankees that
fall, and even if there had been, Wang would not have pitched. He reported
for spring training the next February, and everything had changed.

“I did not use my legs to pitch,” Wang said. “Only the arm.”

The 2009 Yankees were destined for glory, but Wang was little help. He went
1-6 with a 9.64 earned run average, the highest in team history for a pitcher
with at least 40 innings.

On his next-to-last pitch, against Toronto on July 4, Wang gave up a home run
to Adam Lind. Asked on Sunday to describe the sensation on that pitch, Wang
put his fists together, pulled them apart, and then pulled them back
together. It felt dislocated, he was saying, but only for a moment. The next
pitch, to Scott Rolen, was 86 m.p.h., alarmingly slow for his sinker.

當在星期天被問到2009年七月四日被打全壘打那球的情形時，王把手握成拳頭狀併攏，
然後把雙拳拉遠，然後又在併攏。他想說的是，感覺上是脫臼，但只有一瞬間。下一球
一個86英里的sinker，一個對他的sinker而言是警訊性的速度。

“I knew something was wrong,” Wang said.

He had torn his shoulder capsule and would be a spectator at the World
Series. Wang joined the celebration on the field; his smiling face bobs
along with the rest of the gang on the cover of the official World Series
DVD. He had a seat on a parade float down Broadway and received a
championship ring. But are the memories good or bad?

“Both,” said Wang, who never wears the ring. He stays in touch with A. J.
Burnett and Joba Chamberlain but does not closely follow the Yankees. He
still has his home in New Jersey and lived there for two months last year
with his wife and young son, J. J., whose name is stitched to the side of
his glove.

The family spent most of last season in Florida as Wang struggled to
strengthen his shoulder. Twice he felt healthy enough to start a throwing
program. Twice he shut it down.

He has built back slowly on his rehabilitation assignment this summer: three
innings in low-Class A, four innings in high-Class A, five innings, then six,
at Class AA. He went five and two-thirds innings in his first Class AAA
start, but just five Sunday, allowing eight hits and five runs. He threw 63
of his 96 pitches for strikes.

“He’s fighting to get the sinker as consistent as possible,” Knorr said.
“I think there’s times when he might have wanted to go to another pitch,
but he decided, ‘I need to get this sinker going — that’s the way I
pitch,’ so he chose to do that. That’s what they do when they’re down
here. They’re trying to find that pitch that made them successful in the
past.”

Wang said he still could add 2 or 3 m.p.h. to his sinker. He guessed that he
was 80 percent to 90 percent as effective as he used to be, and Knorr said
that would be plenty.

Wang will have his chance to prove it for real Friday.

“A lot of people tell me, this kind of injury, no one comes back,” Wang
said. “It would mean a lot.”

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