Crappy Old Player Eager To Prove He Still Belongs

Have you ever read an article with such a fascinating premise? Can you even conceptualize it? This is the pinnacle of captivation. This guy used to be really good... now he's not, but he's still just good enough to stay in the league... so he's (surprise!) going to put in some extra work to try and compensate for his declining ability. I know what you're thinking- they should make a movie about this. I agree. Someone get Michael Eisner on the phone.

"I am 39," Mussina says, wry grin creasing his face. "It's no rumor."

Old man acknowledges his oldness. Wryly.

"I think every spring is a little bit different, and this one's different in quite a few ways," Mussina says during an early-morning conversation.

Old man mumbles the kind of nonsense you would expect an old man to mumble.

"I'm trying to show myself and everyone else that I can still pitch."

Old man rattles off a cliche that basically amounts to an admission of age.

"When you're getting older and you have a bad year, the first reaction is, 'He's losing his skills.'

Old man says what everyone else knows is true, but does so in such a fashion that shows he refuses to acknowledge said truth.

"I'm sure I'm not the same pitcher I was 10 years ago, but I think I can still pitch. And I want to prove to myself that I can still do this the way I think I can."

See above. This is a weak-ass post, so I'll just cut to the chase. Based on these eye-opening quotes (be glad I spared you the filler in between them), did this article need to be written? Mmmmmm.... um..... uh..... nope.

"I understand from the baseball people that he's been working his ass off," Hank Steinbrenner, senior vice-president and son of George, says. "That's the thing that makes me confident. He has a tremendous desire to come back and have a great year."

Team implies crusty old player is getting his ass DFAed by June.