An ode to Jamie Moyer

Tonight is game three of the 2008 World Series, and the series is moving to Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia. My prediction of a five game championship for the Tampa Bay Rays is holding up so far, and both teams have played well, despite some fielding errors and the Phillies avid interest in leaving their players on base.

Frankly, the games have been pretty slow, but there is definitely one point of interest tonight: the ball is going to be put into forty-five year old Jamie Moyer's hand. He had a good season with 16 wins, and 123 strikeouts, but he'll be sorely tested against twenty-five year old phenom Matt Garza. Insert joke about dusting off his best pitches here.

To put it in perspective, B.J. Upton, the Rays slugging center fielder and presumptive World Series MVP should the Rays pull off their miracle season, was born in 1984. Two years later, a young James Moyer took the mound for his first career start with the Chicago Cubs. And people say John McCain is old.

Be clear: This is not to mourn Jamie Moyer's life, but to celebrate it. He is, actually, one of the most dependable starters in baseball, and has been for, well, over two decades. Although he's only average just over 10 wins a season, he had a reduced workload when he was younger and had two injury shortened seasons. He was also, of course, affected by the shortened 1994 strike season. He's had a twenty win season and a twenty-one win season. He's likely not bound for the Hall of Fame, but he will be remembered as a hard working, conscientious player. In John Feinstein's Living on the Black, he is often quoted and comes across as intelligent, likeable and very respectful of the stars of the book, Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina. In particular, his reverence for Glavine's style of play is enlightening. This is why Moyer (who Feinstein describes as "Glavine-lite") will be interesting to watch tonight.

Moyer, like Glavine, will not overwhelm batters with speed. In fact, his fastball will likely top-out at an agonizing 89 kph. Instead, he'll use his perfect location and change-ups to keep the Rays off balance. He's mastered the circle change-up (you can see it in the above photo) and will work away at each one of the Rays batters. He will be is methodical and surgical. He'll have done his homework on each and every player on the Rays, and he'll take his time to throw the tough pitches. Moyer is going to be happy to have a ten pitch at bat, as long as it results in a strikeout.

All that matters to Moyer is to get the Phillies a win.

The ultimate plodding pitcher, old enough to be many players father, might actually be the most exciting story to unfold in tonight's World Series match-up.