The man who led the Yankees’ pitching staff through the seesaws of this truncated regular season, and who will soon guide them into a unique postseason, never played professional baseball. The highest level he reached was pitching for the College of the Holy Cross. Before Matt Blake became a self-taught pitching instructor just over a decade ago, he was a salesman for a marketing company in his hometown, Concord, N.H. As recently as five years ago, he was coaching high school baseball, and now he is the Yankees’ pitching coach. “It’s for the better,” Yankees reliever Adam Ottavino said of Blake’s background. Baseball can be a slow-moving, ritualistic sport.

Source: New York Times September 25, 2020 17:26 UTC