D-Train's Derailment, and Others

How strange and sad it is, now and over a lifetime of watching and loving the game, that as often as not the players who are the most fun to watch become the players whose careers derail soon enough after they get their first tastes of success. Dontrelle Willis is the latest such casualty. The sad part is that the D-Train won't be the last, even if he might take comfort in knowing he wasn't even close to the first.

It's no contest. Willis was the most fun pitcher to watch of his time. The left-hander had about as many windups as Juan Marichal; his high leg kick was six parts Marichal and half a dozen parts Vida Blue; the skyward glance harked to Fernando Valenzuela, even if Willis looked only a little less as though enjoying a private joke with God; the turning of his back to the hitter referenced Luis Tiant; the cheerful insanity of his mound demeanor, rolling all the foregoing into one animated package, telegraphed Mark (The Bird) Fidrych, even if Willis never thought of hand-manicuring the mound dirt or giving the baseball a pep talk before delivering.

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