Giants Pre-Season Special, 1999, on KTVU
Narrator (Fred Inglis): Will the real Shawn Estes please stand up?
Last year, Estes followed his 19-5 record with with an injury plagued 7-12 season. Now he admits trying to prove he was no fluke started his funk.
Shawn: Even though I didn't say it, I didn't tell anybody I did, I look back on it, and I definitely felt the pressure.
Narrator: So last spring in Arizona, he threw too hard, too early. And by July, Shawn was on the disabled list with a left shoulder strain. He was ineffective long before summertime.
Shawn: I don't think anybody knows that it started in Spring Training last year, because I had such a successful spring. And that was just because my focus was to put up zeros, not getting better, making progress. I wasn't strong, so it played on my mind a little bit, played on my confidence. And I'm all analytical and very competitive, and I'm a perfectionist on top of that, so sometimes it's not a very good combination. It's been my worst enemy, growing up and in the minor leagues.
Narrator: Nobody talks more about the mental part of pitching than Shawn Estes. And after conferring with manager Dusty Baker, "Mr. Perfect" went out and hired himself a psychologist to help him with his game.
Shawn: He just turned me on to a thing that I think is going to really help me out, and that's visualization and relaxation. I mean, when you get out onto the mound and things start getting tough, got the bases loaded, nobody out, how do you focus on the next batter? What needs to happen and why hasn't already happened? So he's giving me techniques and methods on how to do that.
I feel almost at peace a bit more because for the first time in my career I'm not worried about what other people think. You know, more than anything, maybe what my peers think, the guys I'm playing with, I want to get their confidence back. And me, I think the only way I'm going to do that is when I go out and
Not just pitch well but pitch with a game face every time out and let them know I'm going to pitch and be prepared and give it 100% every time out there and then I'm going to earn their respect again.
Narrator: And like his teammates, the Giants fans would also welcome the return of the 1997 edition of Shawn Estes.