a pitch he had never thrown before. then he tried it several more times again and again. kept working. at the last second his fastball was really an incredible thing, came the cutter. he had suddenly developed that lethal pitch which -- are people throwing that pitch today? i have never noticed. they don't have your success, i can tell you. they may be throwing it, but it doesn't work quite the same way. and many players would come to consider it the greatest pitch ever in baseball. it would break many records and many bats. in a 1999 game against the atlanta braves, his cutter snapped a big strong guy, ryan klesko. he's a big powerful guy. he broke his bat three times in one plate appearance. that has to be like a record. in 2001, mariano's heavy fearsome pitch destroyed 44 bats