Dewayne Wise, the perfect pitcher.

Dewayne Wise was a reserve outfielder for the White Sox in 2008 and 2009, a role that he now has with the Yankees.  He is best known for preserving the perfect game of White Sox southpaw Mark Buehrle against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 23, 2009.  Wise saved a home run late in the game with a spectacular leaping catch.

In last night's Yankee loss to the White Sox the 34 year old Wise faced his former team in a unique role.  The Yanks were being blown out 14-7, more like the Giants losing to the Bears, perish the thought.  Yankee manager Joe Girardi was desperately trying to not use another relief pitcher in a game the Yankees were very unlikely to win.  Yankee reliever Corey Wade was up to 55 pitches and climbing and Girardi finally changed from having Wade take one for the team to saving his pitcher's arm from damage.  Girardi walked to the mound to remove Wade.

I was, of course, watching the game the next morning on DVR and fast forwarding between each pitch as a real American would do.  I hit the fast forwarding to wiz through the commercials during the pitching change expecting to continue it through the final stage of the pitcher change ritual: the new pitcher warming up.


I was shocked to see the new pitcher ready to with a runner on first and one out.  One reason he was already out there, according to Yankee announcer Micheal Kay, was because he had warmed up in an area behind the dugout, not in the bullpen.


On the mound and ready to go was Dewayne Wise, a southpaw, making his Major Baseball League (MBL) pitching debut.  Wise had never even played the infield before.  He threw nice and easy, retiring both batters he faced on, I think, six pitches at speeds in miles per hour (mph) of: 79, 79, 79, 82, 80, 80.  I'm pretty sure about the speeds but not positive.


No throws to first.  OK, the White Sox wanted to complete the game expeditiously.  No jerking around.  No stepping off the pitching rubber.  Just throw the ball like he was playing catch.  In other words, the way the game must have originally been intended.  The objective of pitching is to facilitate having the batter put the ball in play.  Period.


 Dewayne Wise was the perfect pitcher, proving my contention that the count can be started at 3-2 and that free substitution is viable even for pitching changes, which should be made on the fly like all other substitutions.  These improvements would also help to get games within my two hour time limit. Perfect!