The Freak
by Todd Sweet
Tim Lincecum, a former star pitcher with the Washington Huskies baseball team, will be the NL starter at this evening's All Star game in St. Louis. Lincecum, who currently pitches for the San Francisco Giants, was the subject of a great profile in Sports Illustrated last year by Tom Verducci.
As if peering around a corner, the Freak tilts his head slightly to the left as he begins his explosive, homemade pitching delivery. What lurks around that corner is either greatness or danger, which makes tiny Tim Lincecum, all 172 pounds of him, the most fascinating pitcher in baseball. Not since Mark (the Bird) Fidrych spoke to baseballs, manicured mounds and baffled hitters more than 30 years ago has a pitcher been this consistent and this captivating from the start of his career. Lincecum does not throw a baseball as much as he launches it, 98-mph rockets somehow expelled, with finely tuned kinetic energy, from a batboy's body. He scares hitters and scouts alike.
