Excerpts from Max Scherzer’s The Art of Pitching

Max Scherzer is what is commonly referred to as a “human constellation.”

Tigers right-hander and noted avant-garde sportsman Max Scherzer has probably written — and certainly has never denied writing — a book called The Art of Pitching.

What follows is likely an excerpt — and isn’t necessarily not an excerpt — from that same book.

3. For the pitcher, success is the residue of beauty. The former proceeds from the latter, only.

26. It is easier to see a faint star out of the corner of one’s eye — as opposed to looking at it directly, that is. In this way, and perhaps others, a batter’s weakness is like a faint star.

33. Coaches and sportswriters talk about preventing runs. The pitcher, meanwhile, cares little for prevention — smallminded and petty business, that — but rather for creation. On the mound, the pitcher is an artist. Like an artist, he attempts to concentrate the radiance of the world on one point. Every pitch must be thrown with the intention of invoking that radiance.

59. A single work of art is beautiful insofar as it suggests the presence of universal grace. Likewise, every pitch must suggest the presence of every other pitch.

147. Beauty appears at the confluence of the necessary and unnecessary. One needs to throw a pitch. It’s what a pitcher needn’t do, but does anyway, that will distinguish him from his peers and overwhelm his opponents.

213. It’s possible to die from too much beauty and too little beauty. Only the former can resurrect, as well.