Pittsburgh’s Wild Thing

There is a time in the mid-1960s when Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Bob Veale is among the most feared pitchers in baseball.

In part because he throws the ball so hard.

In part, too, because the 6-foot-6 Veale is nearsighted and needs to wear glasses while pitching, giving the appearance that, hey, maybe, he is not quite sure where the ball is going.

Veale, whose fastball reportedly approaches 100 mph, still holds the Pirates’ single-season record for strikeouts by a left-hander with 276.

All of those strikeouts come in 1965 – the same year Veale also leads the National League in walks with 119, one of four times he leads the league in walks.

Certainly, left-handed batters do not enjoy facing Veale, who limits left-handers to just a .219 batting average while striking out 30 percent of the lefties he faces. Not nearly as good, though, against right-handers, who hit .240 off of Veale and strike out only 19 percent of the time against him.

“(Left-hander) Lou Brock was a little scared of Veale sometimes, because Bob was nearsighted and would take off his glasses and pitch anyway,” longtime Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen once tells author John Bird.

“Willie McCovey, too,” Sanguillen says. “One day, Bob took those glasses off and threw the ball 100 miles per hour at McCovey. I asked Veale what happened, and he said, ‘My glasses were too wet, and I wanted to show him I could throw a strike without my glasses.’

“That pitch,’’ Sanguillen says, “was 10 feet high.”

Veale celebrates his 88th birthday today and, just guessing, he still may be able to throw a baseball at least 70 mph.