| Wilson is a special teammate -Jamie Moyer (Veteran left-hander Jamie Moyer is participating in his 20th Spring Training, his seventh with the Mariners. During the six-week camp, he is sharing some of his thoughts with MLB.com. In this guest column, Moyer talks about his close working relationship with Dan Wilson. The tandem has been "playing catch" for nearly eight years, and Wilson is the godfather of Moyer's latest child.) PEORIA, Ariz. -- The relationship between a pitcher and catcher is special, and I've been fortunate to have Dan Wilson behind the plate in a lot of my games the past eight years. It would be nice if we played together and retired at the same time. . .when we're both 50-something years old, but I doubt that. Who knows how long he's going to play? Our relationship has kind of evolved. He's learned me, I've learned him and we've kind of come together. Our pitcher-catcher relationship has grown over the years, and I think that's one of the many important aspects of the game of baseball that sometimes goes unnoticed. We are not only on the same page, but we're on the same frequency. To me, he is the steadying factor when I pitch. He is always there when things are going well and when they're not going so well. It's important to have someone like that you can lean on, and vice versa. People might not realize it, but Danny is a tremendous competitor and the game affects him. When things go well, he takes a lot of pride in it. When things don't go well, it bothers him. I can't remember much about the first game I pitched to him -- that's too many years ago -- but it has been a lot of fun. We've won and lost together, and even did a TV commercial together a couple of years ago. We had been eating some pretty messy buffalo wings and there was sauce all over my face and on his hands. He came out to the mound and patted me on my butt, leaving his handprint. I wouldn't let just anyone do that. I like and respect Danny because he's himself. He doesn't try to emulate anybody else. He's a student of the game, a student of the hitters and very intelligent when it comes to watching hitters and their tendencies, what they're doing, what they're not doing and the adjustments they are making. I also think he is a student of his own pitching staff. He knows his pitcher very well. He knows what makes a lot of us tick. I take pride in trying to know the hitters in the league and trying to be honest with myself to know when I'm having a good day and when I'm having a bad day. When you are back there, catching 11 guys and about 200 pitches in any given game, that's a lot of pitches. I don't want to call it pressure, but you have to be on top of your game all the time, and Danny is great at that. In any pitcher-catcher relationship, I think a catcher can make a pitcher better and a pitcher can make a catcher better. There has to be trust both ways. A pitcher has to know and trust in what the catcher is doing, the pitches he's calling. The catcher has to know what the pitchers' abilities are, what they like to throw in certain situations and have the confidence to put a certain finger down. There are times when I'll shake off the sign Danny gives, but there are a lot of things to that. There can be some strategy behind it because there are a lot of games going on within the game. There are reasons why we shake, sometimes to confuse the hitter and some times for legitimacy. He is a special guy, he really is. He and his wife, Annie, and their children are great people, great in the community. He sets a great example for me and a lot of players in this clubhouse. He's pretty special. He really is and our relationship is special. |