review: 'How Tiny Tim Became a Pitching Giant' by Tom Verducci

Tom Verducci’s article about pitching phenom Tim Lincecum in the July 7 issue of Sports Illustrated was one of the best articles written about this kid, because of how in-depth and thorough the author researched, as well as his unique angles for the story.
He started off with an anecdotal lead, a scene of ‘The Freak’ pitching, which makes the reader curious as to who the kid is behind this violent and quirky windup. I thought Verducci’s actual physical descriptions were spot on, which was incredibly impressive because I’ve seen Lincecum pitch, and I know how hard it is to put his windup and pitch into words, but I thought Verducci gave a spot-on image. Along with that, after the visual image of him pitching, the author gave a physical description of Lincecum himself, from his boyish, lanky body, to his skateboarder clothes.
Verducci also uses a lot of credible sources, including quotes from Cleveland Indians general manager Mark Shapiro, Giants manager Bruce Bochy, ex-Baltimore general manager Jim Duquette, Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti, Doctors and clinicians from the American Sports Medicine Institute, the former New York Mets pitching coach, San Francisco infielder Rich Aurilia, Nationals first baseman Aaron Boone, and others.
I really liked the angle that Verducci used for the article. He centered it around two main points, the mechanics of Lincecum’s windup and pitch, and the family aspect. Verducci was able to make an article mainly about this one pitcher, Tim Lincecum, apply to a broader point about pitchers, injuries, and bodies in general. He gave statistics such as how the shoulder rotates forward at 7,000 degrees per second when pitching, or how at ASMI, a cadaver’s ligaments blew apart after just 40 pounds of force. One of the most striking facts was that the normal stride length for a pitcher is 77% to 87% of his height, and Lincecum’s stride is 129%, or roughly 7 ½ feet. There was talk about g-force, why a pitcher can’t throw 110 mph, and why there are so many pitchers on the DL.
Lincecum learned how to pitch from his father, and his father was really adamant about teams and coaches leaving Lincecum’s mechanics alone. I thought the interweaving of Lincecum’s father’s quotes was well-done, because the man is hard-working and humble, but at the same time compares him to Sandy Koufax, Gibson, and Feller. It definitely showed the stern coach, and proud fatherly sides of the elder Lincecum. The biographical angle also worked Lincecum’s rise to fame, from his high school stats, to different teams’ hesitance to draft him because of his unorthodox windup. Verducci also gave statistics of other pitchers that were drafted before him, and current pitchers in the game, to show Lincecum’s flexibility and athleticism compared to them.
Through these two angles, I learned not only about Tim Lincecum, the person, but Tim Lincecum, the athletic pitching machine, as well. I also learned new things that didn’t necessarily pertain to Lincecum, like how two former G.M.’s along with ASMI have formed a private start-up to bring pitching biomechanics mainstream, and are looking to make the lab portable.