Ed Whitson will talk about the booing, the hate mail, the death threats, and what Javier Vazquez needs to do at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but first he would like to share a piece of trivia about his turbulent stay in New York.
He was 15-10 with the Yankees. That's 15 victories and 10 defeats. That's .600, better than the career winning percentages posted by Bob Gibson, Walter Johnson and Warren Spahn.
"A lot of people would take that record," Whitson said from his home in Dublin, Ohio. "Do you know how much money 15-10 gets you today?"
That's easy. Vazquez went 15-10 for the Braves last year and makes $11.5 million for the Yanks.
So Whitson was on the phone Thursday to give what he called the first extensive interview he's granted a New York reporter on the subject of the Yankees, and his hell-on-earth experience in the Bronx in the mid-'80s, since George Steinbrenner traded him out of his misery and back to his peaceful San Diego life.
Every time an athlete struggles to cope with the brightest lights of the biggest city, Whitson's name is summoned by default.