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Cincinnati (AP)--Cincinnati Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky stunned many around baseball today when he made the surprise announcement that a 41 year old rookie pitcher may be the leading candidate to be the closer in the Cincinnati bullpen this season.
"He walked away from baseball twenty-one years ago to pursue a musical career," said Krivsky, "he called me this week and said that he had regained the passion to attempt one more shot at major league baseball."
He is Sidd Finch, a 41 year old former french horn player, who first attempted a baseball career as a 20 year old in 1985 with the New York Mets.
Finch had never played baseball, but was said to have "learned the art of the pitch" through Tibetan mind-mastery taught to him by the great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa in Tibet, where he travelled after a short stint as a student at Harvard University.
Unfortunately, Finch suffered a loss of his pinpoint accuracy near the end of that 1985 spring training and walked away from the game.
"I spent the last three years living alone in the mountains of Nepal to reflect on my life." said Finch, "I believe that I can help make the Cincinnati Reds a strong contender in the National League Central in 2006."
Scouts who saw him throw on the side yesterday were stunned that Finch appears to have regained that control that made him so highly regarded 21 years ago. One pitch was even clocked at 113 miles per hour.
Krivsky put his arm around the six foot eight inch pitcher, smiled, and with a wink, said, "He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga —and his future in baseball."
