Haves and Have Nots

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Colby Lewis has a truck driver’s approach to a job that is anything but blue collar.
Colby Lewis has 14 wins which ties him for second most in the American League this season.
Colby Lewis has a fake hip. Not really fake; resurfaced. Which means his hip was replaced.
Colby Lewis has a positive effect on every Rangers player but especially on the pitchers.

colbylewisThose are some of the things Colby has. Now for a few things he does not have. Colby Lewis does not have an ego. Twice this year we have lined up at his locker after a Rangers win, he has started the interview by saying, “why are you guys talking to me? You should be talking to (insert name of hitter here).” The truth is one of those nights Adrian Beltre hit for the cycle, but guess what, we talked to him too. The answer to Colby’s question, “why are you talking to me…?” says everything you need to know about his ego or lack of it. Colby really believes he is just doing his job when he pitches well and does not seem to recognize that a 36 year old man who has had hip replacement surgery is a good story.

Colby Lewis does not have a memory. At least not when it comes to games. He forgets the last game as soon as the post-game interviews are finished. They say a relief pitcher must have a short memory but Colby is a lifelong starting pitcher who puts the past behind him in a way that is healthy. Sure there might be things he can learn from his last start. However, Colby knows that the most important thing he can do between starts is concentrate on the next one, not dwell on the last one. That is a great trait for a pitcher and leads to pre-game sound bites that are not super enlightening. But when Colby says, “I just want to go out and throw strikes and give my team a chance to win…” he means it. More often than not, this season, he has done just that.

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Colby Lewis does not have electrifying stuff. When baseball people refer to stuff they typically mean God-given natural ability to throw hard and/or movement on those well thrown pitches. Once upon a time Colby had a power arm with electrifying stuff. Now he is considered a pitcher not a thrower and he is more successful than he has ever been.

Colby Lewis does not have any intention to quit pitching. He knows the hitters will tell him when it is time to quit. There was a time early last season, say around late May, when he thought the hitters were sending that message. He was struggling to get big league hitters out with his surgically replaced hip. He admits that he began to think that there is a reason no pitcher has ever come back from hip resurfacing. Then sometime around the All Star break things began to click. The truth is he figured out his new body, it had changed through the various surgeries and since he was pain free he kept working on his mechanics until he got it right. He won’t commit to a number of years he has left but he knows he wants to pitch next year.

Colby Lewis does not have financial concerns. There aren’t that many jobs that pay millions of dollars per year, but baseball is one of them.

Colby Lewis has a light go-kart track in the backyard of his Bakersfield California home.

Colby Lewis has a great wife and adorable kids who will be great athletes themselves. And believe it or not, at 36 years old with a fake hip, Colby Lewis has a bright future in baseball.

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John Rhadigan has called Texas home for nearly 25 years, having spent 11 years at NBC 5 as a sports reporter/anchor and 13 years as an anchor at Fox Sports SW. Rhadigan is the recipient of more than a dozen Emmy Awards for sports reporting and anchoring.