On the final day of spring training in 2012, Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti stood a few feet from Scottsdale Stadium's bullpen mound in nice slacks, a blazer and dress shoes. He watched silently as Barry Zito went through a bullpen session in a stadium that was otherwise nearly completely cleaned out.
Zito was lost, stuck in a desperate search to find a fix. A few months earlier, he had contemplated walking away from one of the richest deals in MLB history. A few days earlier, he had been sent to pitch in a minor league game because that was the only place the staff could guarantee that Zito would get his pitch count up without getting hit so hard he had to get pulled from a game.