4C z FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2019 z USA TODAY SPORTS
team-oriented at his core, yet through
this postseason run, he seemed to re-
veal a little more about himself, as a
pitcher and as a person, and how far
he’d come since the Nationals famously
drafted him No. 1 out of San Diego State
in 2009.
Certainly, Max Scherzer’s mound-
stomping, broken-nose junkyard dog
persona puts his role in the Nationals’
winning culture at the forefront. But af-
ter Scherzer suffered a back injury this
year, Strasburg gradually supplanted
Mad Max as the Nationals’ most potent
starter, if not their choice to break No. 1
out of the gate in the playoffs.
There was much more beneath the
surface, too.
“There’s a lot of things that people
don’t know about Stephen Strasburg
because it’s not publicized,” says Na-
tionals pitching coach Paul Menhart,
who has coached Strasburg since the
right-hander made his debut in the Ari-
zona Fall League a decade ago. “This
man has personality off the charts. He
also is a team player. I call him my assis-
tant coach.
“He’ll go out and watch bullpen ses-
sions, not just with starters but reliev-
ers. He’ll pick their brains and see how
they can improve. We work so well to-
gether in getting the rest of the group
better.”
Beyond the numbers and the fortune- Strasburg is in the midst of a $175 mil-
lion contract and can opt out of it in
coming days to cash in even further – he
is a competitor with a genuine love for
the game. Strasburg had the good for-
tune to play for his idol, Hall of Famer
Tony Gwynn, when he attended San
Diego State.
In a sense, Gwynn – who passed
away from mouth cancer in 2014 – was
Strasburg’s first clubhouse mentor.
“Obviously his numbers were amaz-
ing,” Strasburg said. “But growing up in
San Diego and playing for him, being
around him, I quickly realized that the
impact that he had on the game was so
much more than just the numbers he
put up. And he took great care of me. He
kind of showed me the ropes.
“At the end of the day, it’s a team
game. I think as a kid you’re drawn to
this game because of being around a
bunch of other kids and you want to go
out there and play together and hopeful-
ly win. But it’s the camaraderie, it’s the
brotherhood that is the most satisfy-
ing.”
Strasburg never seemed like another
brother. Everything about him was dif-
ferent, from his record $15.5 million
signing bonus, his 97 mph fastball and
even the Nationals’ perpetually debated
decision to shut him down before the
2012 playoffs to better manage his re-
covery from 2010 Tommy John surgery.
When the Nationals signed Scherzer
to a $210 million deal before the 2015
season, he had a running mate atop the
rotation – and an obvious contrast.
“There’s a lot of differences between
him and Max,” says reliever Sean Doolit-
tle, who joined the club in a July 2017
trade. “People may have overlooked
Stras and how good he is because Max’s
personality is a lot louder and Stras’ per-
sonality is more quiet and measured. So
they’re very different personas and I al-
ways thought Stras didn’t get the credit
he deserves.”
Even when he puts the work in – on
his behalf and on others’.
“I came over here in ’17,” says Doolit-
tle, “and got to know him and got to see
that when he finishes his throwing pro-
gram, he goes into the bullpen just to
watch guys throw (side sessions) and
pick their brains. He wants to have a
constant dialogue because he’s con-
stantly trying to pick something up.
“He’s asking me for advice on me-
chanics stuff, and I’m like, ‘You’re Ste-
phen Strasburg, man. I’ve got nothing
for you. I can’t help you.’ ”
This season, that cross seemed light-
er to bear. Strasburg stayed healthy,
making more than 30 starts for just the
second time in 10 seasons, and struck
out a career-high 251.When Menhart saw Strasburg in that
Arizona Fall League stint a decade ago,
he confirmed the predraft reports that a
blind man could almost see – blazing
fastball, devastating curve. He also had
a giddier evaluation for GM Mike Rizzo.
“I said, we’ve got a change-up unlike
any other besides Pedro Martinez,”
Menhart said after Game 7.
That pitch mix was unbeatable
throughout the playoffs. Strasburg
bailed out Scherzer with three scoreless
innings in the NL wild-card game and
helped slay the 106-win Dodgers in
Game 2 and Game 5 starts in the NL Di-
vision Series.
His fastball doesn’t sizzle as it once
did, but his ability to throw his curve
and change-up in the zone for swinging
strikes or out of the zone to make oppo-
nents look foolish more than makes up
for a tick less velocity.
And his playoff strikeout-to-walk ra-
tio – 71-to-8 – reflected his preparation,
both mental and physical.
Little wonder, then, that the MVP tro-
phy eventually found its way into his
hands. Strasburg’s command and con-
trol are always impeccable.
“Through all the adversity, I think I’ve
learned a lot about myself,” he says.
“When you have the ups and downs, I
think you can learn just as much from
the downs as you can the ups.”
And at this point, Strasburg can’t get
much higher.Strasburg
Continued from Page 1C
“He handles it really well,” fellow
tight end Hayden Hurst said. “He has a
system set up and he kind of follows
things pretty closely. He does a really
good job with it.”
The American Diabetes Association
estimates that 1.25 million Americans
have Type 1 diabetes, but it is extremely
rare among NFL players. While retired
quarterback Jay Cutler, longtime Steel-
ers offensive lineman Kendall Simmons
and a handful of others played with
Type 1, Andrews is believed to be the
only active NFL player with the disease,
which has no known cure.
Andrews has dealt with diabetes for
the majority of his life. He was 9 years
old when he received his diagnosis. His
parents, Paul and Martha, were worried
that their youngest child was repeatedly
subbing out of youth soccer games to
use the bathroom, so they took him in
for a checkup.
“It was the first time I’d ever seen my
parents break down and cry,” Andrews
said. “I knew at that point that some-
thing serious was going on in my life.”
Andrews said his parents were a bit
wary, at first, about their son playing
sports – at least right away. But he loved
soccer, and his team had a big tourna-
ment coming up the weekend after his
diagnosis.
So despite their nervousness, they let
Andrews play. And he proceeded to
score three or four goals in his return to
the field – proving to himself that he
could still compete and showing his par-
ents that he was going to be alright.
Football didn’t become Andrews’ fo-
cus until high school, when he was a
lanky wide receiver in a suburb of Phoe-
nix, carrying a drawstring “diabetes
bag” filled with snacks and other sup-
plies that help him check and maintain
his blood sugar levels during every
game.
Andrews still carries one of those
drawstring bags with him now, as a sec-
ond-year player with the Ravens,
though managing his blood sugar has
gotten a bit easier thanks to technologi-
cal advances. He wears a continuous
glucose monitor that gives him real-
time information on his phone about his
blood sugar levels – and shares it auto-
matically through an app with familymembers, his agent and Ravens head
trainer Ron Medlin.
“I’m always checking this thing be-
fore the games and making sure that my
numbers are flat and steady and ready
to go,” said Andrews, who added he pre-
fers to prick his fingers during games for
convenience and immediacy.
The 6-5, 256-pounder also keeps a
relatively strict diet, especially leading
up to games, to keep his blood sugar
from fluctuating. He has four eggs be-
fore every game, and two peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches – one the day he
plays, and one the night before. (“A lot of
peanut butter, not a lot of jelly,” he said,
noting peanut butter’s value as a com-
plex carb.)
During games, and while at practice,the training staff fills separate bottles
for Andrews with Gatorade Zero – which
has no sugar or carbs and therefore
doesn’t affect his blood sugar levels.
If those levels get too low at any
point, he’ll eat a pack or two of fruit
snacks for a quick jolt.
If the levels get too high, which is
rare, he’ll have to reconnect his insulin
pump.
“He’s got to manage all of that while
he’s still playing football,” said Dr. Rob-
ert Gabbay, chief medical officer at the
Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. “And
the margin of error is not great. If he gets
too low, his muscles won’t work as well.
... Too high, he can get dehydrated. And
physical performance can be affected,
as well.
“It’s sort of an added thing that he
has to do and juggle that other people
don’t.”
Andrews views diabetes as a compli-
cating factor but not a limiting one. And
he’s gone out of his way to become a vis-
ible advocate and support system for
others with the disease – particularly
children, and their parents.
He doesn’t want any high school foot-
ball player with Type 1 to wonder if they
can make it to the NFL, or any college
coach to be concerned about recruiting
a player with diabetes.
“I tell this to everybody: Diabetes is
incredibly difficult, but I wouldn’t
change it for the world,” Andrews said.
“I’ve had people tell me I can’t do things
and doubt me, whatever it may be, be-
cause of my diabetes. So I’ve used it to
kind of fuel me and just shape who I am
as a person.
“It’s why I’m at where I’m at and why
I’m playing the way I am.”Diabetes
Continued from Page 1C
In his second season in the NFL, Ravens tight end Mark Andrews (89) already has
equaled his TD total (three) from his rookie year. JOE NICHOLSON/USA TODAY SPORTSboard of directors voted to keep the
event at Santa Anita, which will be host-
ing the Breeders’ Cup for a record 10th
time.
Favel has dismissed the idea that his
accepting a new job with the Stronach
Group, which owns Santa Anita Park,
influenced the Breeders’ Cup board’s
decision to keep the event here.
“It wasn’t really that hard a decision
because it was the right thing to do and
we needed to acknowledge people were
taking the right kind of steps that we be-
lieve are important for the whole indus-
try to take,” said Favel, who after the
Breeders’ Cup will become CEO of rac-
ing operations for the Stronach Group,
which owns six other thoroughbred rac-
ing tracks.
Unable to slow the alarming rate of
horse deaths, Santa Anita shut down
racing for almost all of March. Two ex-
perts were brought in to inspect the
track. The Stronach Group later an-
nounced the track was deemed fit to re-
sume racing.
Reform followed.
The use of race-day medication was
banned with the exception of Lasix, and
the Stronach Group has committed to
phasing out permitted use of the potent
diuretic. Jockeys faced new restrictions
on the use of whips. The Stronach
Group also said it has invested in poten-
tially life-saving diagnostic equipment
designed to detect horse injuries.
USA TODAY Sports requested an in-
terview with a member of the Stronach
Group’s executive team but none was
made available.
Despite racing reforms at Santa Anita
and throughout the state, Gov. Gavin
Newsom in September put California
horse racing on notice during an inter-
view with The New York Times.
“I’ll tell you, talk about a sport whose
time is up unless they reform,” Newsom
told the Times. “That’s horse racing. In-
credible abuses to these precious ani-
mals and the willingness to just spitthese animals out and literally take their
lives is a disgrace.”
Besides the horse deaths, Newsom
pointed to another troubling matter: In
September, the Times reported that
Justify, winner of the 2018 Triple Crown,
failed a drug test after winning the San-
ta Anita Derby, which preceded the
horse’s sweeping the Kentucky Derby,
Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.
Yet California horse racing regulators
disposed of the inquiry behind closed
doors, the Times reported.Earlier this week, Jim Gagliano,
president and chief operating officer of
the Jockey Club, said the sport of horse
racing is facing a reckoning.
“Safety and integrity, those are fun-
damental matters for any sporting com-
petition,” said Gagliano, who is helping
spearhead a push for federal legislation- the Horse Racing Integrity Act – that
would establish a central body respon-
sible for drug-testing horses. “This is a
gambling sport. Integrity has to be of the
highest variety.”
But reality has cast a shadow over
talk of reforms. During buildup to the
2019 Breeders’ Cup, the horse death toll
at Santa Anita continued to mount.
On Oct. 25, G Q Covergirl, a 6-year-
old mare, was euthanized after injuring
her front legs while on the training
track. On Sunday, Bye Bye Beautiful, a
2-year-old filly, was euthanized after
she injured her front right leg during a
race.
“Like I’ve been arguing for a long
time, they can’t stop the killing,” said
Patrick Battuello, an animal rights ac-
tivist focused on the death of race-
horses. “It’s built-in to the system.”
Yet Favel, wearing a purple Breeders’
Cup sweatshirt as he sat in front of the
Santa Anita grandstands this week,
looked serene with the view of the San
Gabriel Mountains in the distance.
“I take comfort in the fact that we’ve
done everything that we can to control
the controllable,” Favel said. “What mis-
fortune could occur that we can’t avoid,
I worry about it, but that’s just because
I’m a worrier, not because we haven’t
done everything we can do to address
it.”
Santa Anita
Continued from Page 1C
Racehorses work out at Santa Anita Park on Thursday on the eve of the annual
two-day Breeders’ Cup championship races. KELVIN KUO/USA TODAY SPORTS