European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 6, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday August 6,1988 the stars and stripes Page 23 the Boz confesses advises youth Seattle a Brian Bosworth gets hyper with caffeine tablets and cof fee before National football league games and delights in his outlaw image but advises youngsters who would copy him to be  the Seattle sea Hawks Star linebacker known for his colourful Mohawk hair do needs no Pep talk before games. To me it s like giving a truckload of ice to an Eskimo the Blond ear ringed nil hit known As the Boz divulges in a soon to be released Book the Boz confessions of a modern  if anybody tried to give me the gip per speech or something i d probably rip their head off their neck. I m like a rocket waiting to go off. Touch me from be Hind and you d have to scrape me off the ceiling with a blow  in its aug. 25 Issue rolling Stone Magazine excerpted Bosworth s Book co written by Rick Reilly. In it bos Worth whose High Jinks started during his All America Days at Oklahoma tells of a pregame ritual that includes Down ing eight caffeine pills each with the Power of four cups of Coffee. Then he swallows a cup of Coffee just before the game and adds two caffeine pills at halftime. By game time i feel like mrs. Olson on a Binge Bosworth Wise cracked. Then he adds i Don t take any up pers or drugs before a game. I would never put that stuff in my  caffeine is a Legal drug in the nil. Football is serious to me Bosworth said. I May thrive on the show before the game anything to have a few laughs but when i m on the Field i m As serious As a funeral. I la hit anybody  in the 11-Page Magazine spread bos Worth also touches on such Boz watcher topics As his haircut earrings personal Hygiene clothes last season with the sea Hawks and his image. I can t Tell you How Many people come up to me and say look at you. Look at your hair. Imagine what god must think of you yeah i can imagine god spends his whole Day thinking about my hair. More than anything it s a Way to express my individuality. It s a Way to show that i Don t buy the established Way of things conformity. I am not a bad person. I Don t break the Law snort Coke or attack women. I be never been arrested. I had a 3.3-Grade Point average in College. Just because the hair on top of my head is strange does t mean what s going on inside of it  but while the attention is All self Cen tired his advice to youngsters indicates they should t take him seriously. I Don t buy it when people Tell me a sports Star has a responsibility to be bet Ter than everybody else. I Don t want kids emulating me. I Don t want them emulating anybody. I want them to be them  last year he told the Washington Post he was unhappy in Seattle catching the attention of Boz lovers and Boz waiters alike. It was All True he said in the Book. I mean i was still trying to Cope with How much Fame and pressure i Sud Denly had on me after the lottery thing. Plus i was depressed about never being Able to even leave my apartment. It s hard enough on anybody moving to a new City having to make All new friends without the whole world staring Down on you asking what you eat for breakfast every Day. All i was trying to Tell people in that article was to scale Down their expectations to treat me As a human being. Don t Send me to school and then on the first Day give me a final  Brian Bosworth tells kids to be themselves in his autobiography. Few can follow flight of the butterfly7 by Colman Mccarthy the Washington Post Baltimore when the unregulated safety Hazard goes into motion its potential victim takes caution with Pru Dent self Protection. At dusk recently in the right Field Visi tors bullpen at memorial stadium Charlie Hough of the Texas rangers is throwing knuckle balls to Geno Petralli his taking no chances Catcher who wears a face mask. They re Only warming up for the game at 7 30 p.m., but damage control against baseball s least controllable pitch the Knuck Leball is mandatory. Hough believes in safety too. In 23 years of professional baseball and More than 2,500 innings for eight teams the 40-year-old right hander has seen so Many of his catchers All but helpless As his knuckle balls Bob flutter or Butterfly toward the plate that he supplies them with specially designed oversized mitts that look like Large pizzas. Petralli is using one now and still he keeps drop Ping and chasing pitches. Hough who has an infancy functional Windup with Only a moderate lift of the left knee is throwing three Quarter Speed. It s slow pitch baseball with knuckle balls already Only about half the Speed of fastballs. But his throwing is an artistry All but extinct in the majors. Of the 260-Odd pitchers currently on rosters Hough is the Only one who relies on the knuckle Ball to win and survive. A Knuck Leball is slow but catchers often can t think fast enough to catch it. It s skinless but the Ball can break two or three times. It looks like an underpowered Meatball but overpowering slug Gers routinely confess they would rather face smoke balls. Sports writers dismiss it As a gimmick pitch yet its throwers Wilbur Wood rangers Charlie Hough. 96 wins since 1982 dutch Leonard Hoyt Wilhelm Phil and Joe Niekro Hough All lasted into their late 30s or 40s. High school and College coaches Are Down and outs in their knowl Edge of the Knuckles. In the game against the Baltimore Ori Oles Hough throws Well giving up Only two earned runs and six hits in seven innings. The rangers make Bonehead errors score but once and Hough is relieved seven outs from a Complete game. He gets the 4-1 loss and has an 8-9 record. Hough recounts his Early years. After being drafted out of Hegji school by the dodgers in 1966 As a hitter he went to the club s Rookie league in Ogden Utah to be managed by an sex minor league Pitcher named Tommy Lasorda. Hough was on the Way to being re leased when the Ogden pitching coach seeing weak fastballs suggested the Knuckles. Hough tried it meeting with mixed Success. Four seasons later he had the Luck of still being on the Way up and playing on the same Spokane team on which Wilhem 47 in 1971, was on the Way out. Wilhelm persuaded Hough to stake his future on the Knuck Leball. He did and went to los Angeles for the next eight seasons. On the question of Why so few Knuck Leb Allers Are in the major leagues Hough replies that it s part of the same reason for there being so few in High school and College Ball if a kid is on a High school team who pitches the Guy with the Best fastball and the Guy with the Best curve Ball. High school hitters can t hit a curve Ball. The Guys who get a scholarship to College have the Best Arm. The major league scouts who do they look for great arms. So a Knuck Leball Pitcher As a kid is certainly not going to get a Chance to pitch. From babe Ruth leagues through High school and College you have to win to get a Chance. The Knuck Leball is not something the average High school or College coach can teach somebody How to do. There s probably not 10 people in the world who know How to throw a Knuck Leball  As one of the gang of 10, Hough did t really begin throwing the pitch right until his mid-30s. The end had almost come when the dodgers let him go in 1980 at age 32. But Lasorda a loyalist to his players and a manager who did not deride the Knuckles convinced the Texas rangers to take Hough. The team that traded away Ron Dar Ling Dave Righetti and Walt Terrell among others made room for Hough. Whether it was the new scenery or a resurgence in self Confidence Hough threw Well and was used regularly. In the five seasons from 1983 through 1987, Hough was second among All major league pitch ers with 80 wins. From 1982 through 1987, his 96 victories were 22 percent of the rangers wins the highest winning percent age of any Pitcher for his team. An irony of the Knuck Leball is that the better a Pitcher throws it the worse it can get for the team he plays for. Last year in an 18-13 season Hough allowed Only three hits in seven innings in a game against Detroit. All of the tigers seven runs were unearned the result of six passed balls by Petralli. It tied a major league record. It was t Petralli s fault Detroit manager Sparky Anderson said. It was Hough. His Knuck Leball was the Best i be Ever seen it. You can t win with a Knuck Leball breaking that  although the Knuck Leball s slowness gives the appearance that the Pitcher and Catcher Are having Only a game of catch inner discipline is needed if Only to Ward off the jibes and snickers. It is called an old Man s  when a slugger hits a Home run off a fastball he is cheered for his Power. When he hits one off a Knuck Leball the Pitcher is booed for serving up a Gopher. Knuck Leball pitchers themselves tend to be unemotional with a taste for self Depre cation. Wilhelm who pitched a no hitter and went to the Hall of Fame with his Knuck Leball said there s no Art to it. It s just like any other pitch. When you re get Ting the Ball Over then it s artistic. When you re not it s  final fake out of the Knuck Leball is that maybe it is after All an old Man s pitch. Wise elders like Wilhelm Niekro and now Hough went into their 40s High in their athletic prime. The kids in their 20s, still thinking that great pitching is throwing it through Walls usually end up wondering Why their arms gave out. The problem was their Heads gave out first. They never gave the Knuck Leball a thought nor themselves a Chance