Wilson finally fulfilling promise

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Email

Wilson never felt that way 10 years ago at Florida State University, where he embraced gun readings for the sense of validation they provided. It was comforting to know that if you missed your spot and threw a fastball down the middle, the pitch was traveling 96 mph and the hitter might swing though it regardless.

Then Wilson blew out his shoulder and elbow in the mother of bad-luck quinielas. Nothing changes a man's perspective like two surgeries in three years. And nothing cultivates loneliness like the solitude of rehab, which teases an athlete by allowing him to be just close enough to the action to realize how desperately he misses it.

Now Wilson, 31, is in Cincinnati preaching the gospel of finesse. He's 2-0 with a 0.63 ERA for the Reds, and pitching the way people expected when the New York Mets chose him first overall in the 1994 draft.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Email
• Subscribe

Jerry Crasnick | email

ESPN.com MLB Sr. Writer

• Follow
• Archive

• ESPN.com senior writer
• Author of "License to Deal"
• Former Denver Post national baseball writer