Robby Cochran can divide his baseball career into three distinct phases.
The third phase came to an end the moment he cracked open Atlanta Braves' third baseman Leo Boxley’s head, a blow that hemorrhaged Boxley’s cerebral cortex and killed him en route to Flushing Hospital Medical Center on October 15, 2002.
The second phase began when the Montreal Expos dumped Cochran’s salary in 1991 in a mass purge of expensive contracts, like they did before and since with other promising starters like Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Cochran was never in their league, despite what his agent professed, and his questionable rotator cuff and high price tag left him without any major league takers.
So following successful Tommy John surgery, and a year and a half off, Cochran ate shit and sushi for three years (‘93-‘95) with the Yomiuri Giants in the Japanese Baseball League where he earned the nickname Shinkansen, which in Japanese means “Bullet Train.”
Continue Chapter Two of the serial Blacksmith's Girl.
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