NY Times蠻不錯的文章...看了心情會很好...呵呵~

By PAT BORZI
Published: May 18, 2005
SEATTLE, May 17 - Poised and surprisingly confident, Yankees pitcher
Chien-Ming Wang took on one of the biggest challenges of his brief major league
career Monday night - after the game.

The winning pitcher in the Yankees' 6-3 victory over Seattle at Safeco
Field, the Taiwan-born Wang took reporters' questions in English near his
locker with the Yankees' media relations director, Rick Cerrone, alongside.
The scene was curious, since Cerrone speaks no Mandarin, and no one else in
the vicinity appeared to be Chinese. Wang was doing this without an
interpreter.

When someone asked a question, Wang turned to Cerrone with a measure of
eagerness and puzzlement, and Cerrone repeated the gist of the question in
English, slowly. And Wang answered simply.

"I kept the ball down, on the inside corner and outside corner," Wang
said. Explaining how he maintained his composure, Wang said, "I stayed focused
on the catcher."

Still, this showed progress for Wang, who in spring training politely
declined to be interviewed in English because he said he was not comfortable.
And it showed a fearless side that reflected in his pitching Monday night,
in his fourth major league start since coming up from Class AAA Columbus
to replace the injured Jaret Wright.


After a shaky first inning, when his pitches stayed up and Raul Ibanez
smacked a two-run double over Bernie Williams in center, Wang retired 17
consecutive batters until the seventh. Wang did not walk a batter in six and a
third innings and struck out four in beating Seattle for the second time
in a week. By the sixth inning, he was throwing harder - 94 miles an hour
on the Safeco Field radar gun - than he had all game.

"Nothing fazes him," catcher John Flaherty said. "I never seen a young guy
do what he does. When he gets out of whack, he finds a way to get out of
it."

This was the first time Wang faced a team for the second time, and
Flaherty - who also caught Wang's previous start - wondered before the game if he
might need to pitch differently, working in more off-speed pitches.

But Flaherty said the Mariners made no major adjustments for Wang, whose
five-pitch repertory includes a slider that breaks down rather than across,
a sinker and a split-fingered fastball. Not surprisingly, Wang got 11 of
his 19 outs on ground balls.

"He just got the ball down and let it work," Flaherty said. "Later in the
game, he was just popping it."

Manager Joe Torre said: "He was absolutely great. After the first inning,
he just went after people, and got through some innings without very many
pitches. He handled it like he's pitched longer in the big leagues than
four starts or so.

"He certainly is carrying his end of the load taking over for Jaret right
now. Whatever he's getting out of this will make him a better pitcher."

Signed for a $1.9 million bonus in 2000, Wang opened eyes by going 5-0
with a 1.05 earned run average in his last five starts for Columbus last year
after advancing from Class AA Trenton. Wang missed several starts to pitch
for Taiwan in the 2004 Olympics.

Though Wang idolizes Roger Clemens - hence the splitter and slider - his
windup is more like Hideo Nomo's. Wang pauses at the top of his delivery
with his hands high and twists back, though not as substantially as Nomo.
That, Flaherty said, adds deception.

Though it is too early to judge if Wang (2-1, 4.39 E.R.A.) will be an
effective major league pitcher, many in the Yankees' organization like his
chances because of his nature.

He impressed many Yankees with his gumption this spring. When he had to
run as punishment for botching a fielding drill, he tabbed Randy Johnson as
one of the two teammates he could choose to join him - a heady move for a
rookie. Wang knew Johnson from training together in Phoenix, but as
Flaherty said, "It took some guts."

The Yankees' bullpen coach, Neil Allen, who was Wang's pitching coach at
Class A Staten Island in 2002 and at Columbus last year, said he was
convinced Wang would be an effective starter for years.

"In my mind, this guy is the real deal," Allen said. "He's something
special.

"When I was with him in Triple-A, he was the talk of Triple-A baseball the
last two months. Scouts would talk to me, but I didn't want to say
anything, because I didn't want to reveal what we had. He's the coolest customer
I've seen in a long time. He doesn't get rattled. And if he does get
rattled, you won't see it."

But with days off scheduled for Thursday and Monday, Torre said the
Yankees were likely to skip Wang's next turn so the veterans Mike Mussina, Randy
Johnson, Carl Pavano and Kevin Brown could stay on normal rest. Wang
almost certainly will not face the Mets this weekend, unless it is in relief,
Torre said.

"If he doesn't happen to start for eight or nine days," Torre said, "what
he's done here will make it easier for him to keep it together."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/sports/baseball/18wang.html
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