Interesting article in the Lehigh Valley Express-Times with Brad Lidge. It's your fairly straight-forward "Albert Pujols almost killed his career and it's lucky for Lidge the Phillies had those chest paddles, because now he's The Man" story. But there are a couple of nuggets in there. Regard:
On pitching in Citizens Bank Park, as opposed to Minute Maid:
"I didn't think this was ever a bad place to pitch. I mean, a lot is made about how short the park is and stuff, but I think for me, when you're pitching outside, some days the wind blows in, some days it blows out, some days you don't know what's going to happen and it's not always easy for a hitter to deal with those conditions. Whereas when you're pitching in Minute Maid Park, for example, every day the roof's closed, every day the ball carries. I think that's a little bit tougher, to be honest, for a pitcher. So I actually enjoyed pitching here last year."
And on Astros fans:
... The fans in Houston, I'm not trying to knock on them, they don't quite have that same level of intensity toward baseball as the Phillies fans do, which for me was incredible."
That's true, but it's because we all held our breath while Lidge was on the mound.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
