"A View from the Cheap Seats," Scott Butherus' Spring Training Tour, Mar. 6:
“Number 131, you’re up!†yelled a grizzled coach in a Tigers hat. It was my turn to try and achieve my childhood dream of being a big league ballplayer. Although the chances of that happening were approximately the same as a snowstorm blowing through the Sunshine State, I found myself on a pitcher’s mound in Lakeland at the spring tryouts for the Detroit Tigers. 
I wasn’t sure if it was a case of the butterflies or the Kobayashi impression I did at the Pirates game yesterday, but my stomach had the jitters. I guess that was why my first pitch sailed three feet over the catcher’s head, ricocheted off a pole and nearly drilled the handful of catchers waiting on the other end of the battery. I’ll chalk that one up to being rusty and spending the last five years
of my life in front of a computer screen. After that, the rest of my
bullpen session in front of the coaches went well; I spotted my
fastballs, my breaking balls were sharp,and thanks to a little extra
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2007.