Core Four Sports Illustrated cover, May 3, 2010

May 3, 2010, Sports Illustrated cover, "The Core Four"

4/27/2010, "Yankees' Core Four featured on cover of Sports Illustrated," Marc Carig, The Star-Ledger

"The Yankees' Core Four is featured on this week's cover of Sports Illustrated. Senior writer Tom Verducci interviewed Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte over lunch during the team's recent West Coast swing.

The magazine hits newsstands on Tuesday. For now, here's an excerpt:

SI: I want to go back to 1992, when Andy was throwing to Jorge, a converted second baseman, in Class A in Greensboro, N.C.

Posada: Go back to 1991. I was catching a bullpen from him [at short-season Class A] Oneonta, and he’s throwing me knuckleballs. The ball hit me right in the knee. I said, ‘No more knuckleballs.’

Pettitte: I had a knuckleball when I signed.

Jeter: Yeah, you’re still throwing knuckleballs.

Pettitte: I’d get two strikes on somebody and throw it as hard as I could. Struck everybody out. And then they told me after the first year, “You’ve got to can it.” They said, “After you’ve pitched for 10 years in the big leagues, if you want to break it back out, you can.”

SI: So now you can throw it again.

Pettitte: It’s no good now. I lost it."

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