'El Duque' once tried to sneak a second eephus pitch past A-Rod, and A-Rod hit it a loooong way
A-Rod smacks El Duque's second eephus pitch for homer
Throughout his career, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez was one of the craftiest pitchers in baseball. He had that leg kick, of course, to go with a seemingly endless array of arm angles and speeds that kept most batters off balance.
Alex Rodriguez, however, is not "most batters," as El Duque would discover during his Aug. 26, 2002, start against the Rangers at Yankee Stadium -- which, coincidentally, also happened to be the first game ever streamed on MLB.TV. Hernandez first looked to get ahead in the count with one slow-motion beauty of an eephus pitch, but just missed high. He then decided to try it again, and, well, that didn't quite work out:
As the old saying goes: Eephus me once, shame on you; eephus me twice, and I'll probably send it 400 feet.