Q: How does age affect your pitching skills?

A: What I've lost in velocity, I've more than made up for in experience. I've played a lot of years in this league, for a lot of teams, and I've picked up a lot of tricks along the way.

I've played with a lot of different players and all of them, from All-Stars to benchwarmers, from the has-beens to the never-were's, from rookies to veterens, all share one thing in common: They have deep secrets that they will do anything to protect.

Anything.

They'll pay any dollar amount, they'll turn on old friends, betray loved ones. Some will even kill, murder a complete stranger to stop the truth from coming out.

Once you consider all they would do to protect themselves, you realize what I'm asking isn't all that much. How hard is it for them to make an old man look good every once in a while? All they have to do is swing at a few pitches, knock a few hanging curves into the dirt, let a 74 MPH fastball go by every couple of innings.

I'm not asking much. Not until I retire, anyway.