Mike Boddicker

"Few sights in baseball are as pure a joy to watch as a sleek, handsome, graceful pitcher with complete command of his art." -- Tom Boswell on Boddicker, Washington Post, May 16, 1984

"I struck out 14? No wonder my arm hurts." -- Mike Boddicker, quoted in the Washington Post after his playoff win over the White Sox on October 6, 1983

"[Hitters on their way back to the dugout] scream at me sometimes. They scream, 'Challenge somebody!' and things like that. I like that, I like to hear guys screaming at me, I like guys throwing their helmets in the dugout, or bats flying, or to hear crashing down there. That means you've got them." -- Mike Boddicker, quoted in The Boston Globe, September 10, 1988

Boddicker telling kids at a baseball clinic about going to hear Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk speak in 1976: "OK, I'm a kid just out of high school. After the program was over with, I went over to Carlton Fisk and I said to him, I said, 'Mr. Fisk, could I please have your autograph?' And he said, 'Yeah, sure kid,' and he signed it. And I said, 'Someday I hope to be able to pitch against you in the big leagues.' Carlton Fisk looked at me and he said, 'Yeah, right, kid.' And that hurt me. He didn't believe I could do it. So, I got to pitch against Carlton Fisk. Carlton Fisk, I think, has one hit, lifetime, off of me. I betcha I've struck him out 25 to 30 times." -- quoted in The Des Moines Register, August 10, 1994

Photos

Gothic Baseball: Riemenschneider Meets Boddicker (84K)