eat." It was the best year he ever had. He wasn't the best closer, in fact he pitched at the brink of disaster all the time. He pitched in 65 games, struck out 60 in 62 innings and had 43 saves. How quickly that was forgotten. Remember the soccer player who was the national goat of the '94 World Cup? He went home to Colombia and was shot dead in the street. Williams got death threats. Eggs and stones were thrown at his house. "I could take it," he said. "But my wife and kid were in the house." Threats on his life were phoned to the ball club. Cops were stationed near his home. "They didn't tell me until I saw cops at the park the next day," he said. He didn't sleep after Carter's home run, either. He was traded to Houston that December. He was what Boone called "an adrenaline-pitcher." He threw himself at the batter as hard as he could. "I always thought the pressure was my advantage," Williams said. "The hitter wants to be the hero - the ego thing. They swing at pitches they normally wouldn't. He went from 43 saves to six with Houston to none with California, to a struggling half-season in the minors. "The home run didn't change me," he said. "What bothered me was everybody saying my fastball was going away." So he tried to throw harder to prove them wrong. Ralph Branca said Bobby Thomson's home run didn't bother him, it was trying to prove it didn't bother him that ruined his arm. "I tried to throw 100mph and ruined my mechanics," Williams said. "I was going to prove them wrong. In the process I proved them right." My report just tells of two cases, of which a player "choked" and after that could not recover from it. I am sure there has been players that have given up the game winner and came back to have good careers. I can't use Mark Wohlers, who gave up the base hit to Edgar Renteria in the 1997 World Series, he also has hit a downfall in his career. I can't use him in my report because although the problem is psychological. I per...
