Rookie Litsch gives Jays a lift

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi wasn't sure what to expect from starter Jesse Litsch, given that the kid was taking two big leaps with one move, from Double-A to the big leagues. "But I know this," Ricciardi said on the phone, a few hours before Litsch made his major league debut Tuesday night against the Orioles. "He won't be afraid."

No, he was not afraid; he looked like he'd been in the big leagues 10 years, after some initial nervousness. Seven of his first nine pitches were out of the strike zone, and just when you thought that maybe he was in for a rough night, Miguel Tejada helped rescue Litsch by swinging at a first-pitch fastball and grounding into a double play -- the first of three double plays that Litsch induced in the first five innings.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

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