Three cheers for ex-Husky Tim Lincecum, who’s on the cover of SI this week. Here’s the terrific lead of the story from the mag’s top baseball writer, Tom Verducci:

As if peering around a corner, the Freak tilts his head slightly to the left as he begins his explosive, homemade pitching delivery. What lurks around that corner is either greatness or danger, which makes tiny Tim Lincecum, all 172 pounds of him, the most fascinating pitcher in baseball. Not since Mark (the Bird) Fidrych spoke to baseballs, manicured mounds and baffled hitters more than 30 years ago has a pitcher been this consistent and this captivating from the start of his career. Lincecum does not throw a baseball as much as he launches it, 98-mph rockets somehow expelled, with finely tuned kinetic energy, from a batboy’s body. He scares hitters and scouts alike.

Verducci’s long profile prominently features Tim’s dad Chris, a Boeing employee who I interviewed for a story on Tim in his UW days, and who is one of the more entertaining people in the universe–opinionated, profane, with the heavily-graveled voice of a longtime smoker.

Chris–a former minor league pitcher–developed Tim’s unique pitching style. Verducci does a terrific job of describing how Tim’s style is different, and what the ramifications are and could be for his arm. It ends up, satisfyingly, as a story about the violence of pitching and what it means for it’s practitioners.

But of course you want to hear the painful part of the story: “Six of the first seven teams to pick in that draft selected pitchers. All of them passed on Lincecum, even the Seattle Mariners, who played it safe in choosing the strapping 6′ 3″ righthander Brandon Morrow — a guy they use in relief at that — rather than the Freak in their own backyard.”

The Freak: Lincecum’s had that nickname since his college days at UW, for his outstanding athleticism along with his amazing velocity.

Lincecum is, I think, the third Husky to be an SI cover selection.


Sonny Sixkiller and Bob Schloredt both appeared on SI’s cover as Huskies. As far as I can tell, no Husky alum has ever been on the cover as a pro (I searched for Hugh McElhenny, Warren Moon, Brandon Roy, Steve Emtman…let me know if you think of anyone else). There was that regional cover that Ryan Appleby and Jon Brockman were on, but that doesn’t count in my book.