before the 'batting stance guy'...

...i was the 'pitching motion boy'.  i also did batting stances in my front yard - everyone from steve garvey to rod carew to willie stargell and pete rose.  later, i even modeled my high school stance on don mattingly - a little bit pigeontoed to try to engage my hips.

but, this post is about windups.  i mimiced luis tiant and most of the dodger starters - sutton, reuss, valenzuela i remember well.  one i particularly enjoyed was rick sutcliffe.

there were some similarities to don sutton's windup, but sutcliffe was more extreme with the way he tucked the ball by folding his right wrist while keeping his left leg straight, as demonstrated on his 1980

and 1981 dodgers police cards

his windup was fun to do.  it was a little bit herky-jerky, and it sure didn't feel natural.  i believe vin scully once said "there's a lot of sutcliffe going on out there'.  anyway, i broke out the sutcliffe windup a couple of times in little league with poor results as i recall.  everything was high thanks to the straight leg and over the top delivery.  my coach told me to pick a different windup.

unfortunately, i couldn't quite master the juan marichal leg kick.