Righetti on Lincecum: 'He grasps it'

SAN FRANCISCO

After the news conference ended, after Tim Lincecum had answered questions about winning his second consecutive Cy Young Award and after he had read a statement apologizing for his pot bust in Washington, well after all that I went up to Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti, who had lingered in the interview room.

Righetti is salt of the earth. He is sincere and earnest and when you ask a question he gives his best answer always. Plus he’s Lincecum’s pitching coach. In his remarks during the news conference, Righetti had mentioned Lincecum’s name along with Greg Maddux, Bob Gibson and Pedro Martinez. This is elite company. This is as high as anyone can reach.

So, I asked Righetti how Lincecum is like Sandy Koufax, another who won two Cy Youngs in a row. For a moment he didn’t answer. I found that surprising. Then he shook his head and said, “The comparison is off. Koufax didn’t grasp it right away. Koufax became the prototype for late-developing left-handers. After him, everyone said lefties develop late.”

Righetti looked over at Lincecum talking to reporters, Lincecum with dark straight hair down to his shoulders and that thin pale face, and the tableau made him look like a martyr in a medieval painting.

“He grasps it,” Righetti said.

He meant Lincecum at 25 is ahead of Koufax, who took his time to grasp it. The thought is dizzying and wonderful in its way.

Righetti, a connoisseur of great pitching, looked at his left hand and swept it through the air, rippled it through the air. “Tim feels it,” Righetti said. He was talking about feel in the hand, a prerequisite for great pitchers just like, one imagines, feel is essential for concert pianists. “Greg Maddux felt it and so did Pedro.”

Again Righetti looked at Lincecum.

“No matter what anyone says, Tim is a power pitcher,” he said. “The next step is what Maddux and Pedro did; they played with you.”

Right. That’s what they did, confused batters, never let them know which pitch was coming or where it was going. Playing mind games. And loving it. Probably laughing inside.

“Can Tim do that?” I asked.

“It’s the next step. I don’t see why not.”

Who knew Lincecum has anything left to learn? It’s nice to find out there’s a next step and he has more to accomplish. It’s also kind of scary, mostly for hitters. When he came to the Giants, he was a fastball-curveball pitcher. The usual. He added a changeup in the majors and that changeup is his out pitch. The Lincecum changeup is his best pitch. It’s also the best pitch in the major leagues.

The mystery is how he generates all that power with his average-size body. Teams passed on him in the draft, even though they knew he was good. The fear was his body would break down under big-league stress. But he hasn’t broken down. Last season he threw 225 innings and hefting that load almost certainly won him the Cy Young.

He is the best athlete in the Bay Area. But it’s more than that. He is the only Bay Area athlete of national stature, the only one who matters coast to coast. This is an indictment of the Bay Area, and a distinction for Lincecum. Other good athletes play around here, sure.

Patrick Willis is a fine linebacker and he’s getting better, but no one thinks of him the way they thought of the 49ers when the 49ers were good — Montana, Lott, Rice.

Monta Ellis is a good basketball player who has an awful attitude and is too small to play his position and cannot carry his team and may get traded.

JaMarcus Russell is noteworthy in a national sense for being a bad quarterback with a bad mindset and for failing colossally.

Name one other athlete who matters at Lincecum’s level. Or walk around Fisherman’s Wharf and ask people who the elite athlete is in the Bay Area and they will say Lincecum and draw a blank on every other athlete unless they dig down for Andrew Luck or Toby Gerhart, amateurs.

That brings us to the question reporters were asking Lincecum at the news conference: What comes next?

It’s a misleading question. Sure, Lincecum needs to learn how to play with batters and he needs to win more Cy Young Awards and if he stays healthy and good, he needs to enter the Hall of Fame. But all that is off the point.

What comes next is up to the Giants. They currently are a few good pitchers surrounded by a bunch of so-so players, except for Pablo Sandoval, who needs to prove he can do it again.

They owe those pitchers — and Lincecum is the crown jewel — a supporting cast. That is the next step. The Giants owe those pitchers runs so every game isn’t a squeaker resulting in heartburn. The Giants owe Lincecum players at his level, or if his level is out of this world, then they owe him some damn good players to make his glorious job less lonely.

The Giants owe Tim Lincecum a team.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at blog.pressdemocrat.com/cohn. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.