The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but it is the most difficult to play.
The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball.
It took me five years to learn how to sing.
I started singing when I started talking.
I always loved those songs. And with my high tenor, I thought I was pretty good - you know? - almost as good as Dennis Day.
Cleaning up that lack of the definition between the two, and then leaning on the four-seam, having it become my primary fastball over my two-seam, it's just benefited me as a whole.
I've never had anything as formal as vocal lessons.
We do scales, vocal exercises every day. I run the voice up and down, get as high as I can and as low as I can. I work on breathing, too.
You cannot enter a studio and just start crooning before the mike. It is essential to understand the mind of the composer, mood of the song, and meter of the tune.
When you're spinning a two-seam, getting on the side of the ball to get more run or sink can be good, but it can really be detrimental to your four-seam.
But actually just yesterday we raised the key of one of my songs two steps up, so my voice is obviously responding. It's a muscle, and the more you use it, the more you use it right, the more you should get out of it. So yes, I sing.
Typically, being under the strike zone with the sinker isn't a big issue. I need to be a little bit higher with the strike zone earlier in the count. If you miss under with one here and there when you're ahead, it's really not an issue.
I went to this vocal coach, Ron Anderson, who has worked with Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, to train my voice and learn a whole new way of singing.
Everybody here has the ability to throw a fastball down and away or throw a breaking ball in the dirt for a swing and a miss. But are we able to stay in that moment and understand what we're trying to accomplish and see it in our mind before we execute and then make the pitch?
I have a talent, I can sing.
That's when I'm at my best. When I can throw a fastball over in the count, just throw strikes both in and away, it just sets up all my stuff.
I've always loved to sing.
The only thing I miss on stage is the falsetto.
My pitching philosophy is simple. I believe in getting the ball over the plate and not walking a lot of men.
I think the changeup has become more popular recently by pitchers like Pedro Martinez and the success he had with it.
The curve and the fast one are important; the change of pace and the other trick deliveries are great but they're not worth a plugged nickel unless you have control to go along with them. And by control I don't mean the ability to put the ball over the plate somewhere between the shoulders and knees. I mean the ability to hit a three-inch target nine times out of ten, the sort of control that lets you put the ball in the exact spot you want it, and to play a corner to the split fraction of an inch.
I only know one way to pitch. I really do.
I've been having singing lessons whenever I can fit them in.
Learn what pitch you can hit good; then wait for that pitch.
My vibrato was my weakness. With romantic pieces, I could be a lot more schmaltzy. My wider vibrato fit that.
