And this is what Ed Lopat told me at the very beginning, when he was introducing me to strategic pitching. He put it this way: “Figure out what the batter is looking for—AND DON’T GIVE IT TO HIM.” He said, “Stay away from the middle of the plate, or middle-in, because batters are looking for such a pitch.” He told me about working the corners, throwing strikes or what looked like strikes, moving the ball in, out, high, low, everywhere BUT the middle of the plate. Believe me, I followed his advice, and I won a lot of games and rescued a lot of games and never threw a gopher ball. What a great feeling!