Jeff Fletcher's profile on Oswalt shows a man whose success is a curse:
"If you win 20, they want you to win 22. If you win 22, they want you to win 32. You can only do so much. If you give 100 percent on the field, that's all you can. If it works out, it works out. You can't do anything else. I don't try to live by other people's standards. I try to do my own thing. If it's not good enough, it's not good enough, but I can live with it when I go home."
While 32 wins would be pretty great, I don't think anybody is expecting 22 wins. 20 will be fine. 16 will be fine. But the fact is that Oswalt is too tough to take himself out of a game, says Hunter Pence:
"(He) was obviously battling through some health issues that he's too tough to talk about."
I like Roy Oswalt, a lot. You can make a strong argument that he has been the best pitcher for the Astros since Nolan Ryan - in fact, I'd like to see someone outline why he wouldn't be - and he takes the game very seriously. There's no lolly-gagging, or dogging it, or any other verb you want to use with a double-G. He's fun to watch, I just hope we get to watch him for a lot longer.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
