Great true pitching story I heard in person from the professional ballplayer involved while at a golf tourney in Ruston LA (home of La. Tech).
He was a reliever for the Texas Rangers in the 80's when they really sucked. Said he got put into a game and he was more focused than he had ever been in a game; all he saw was the catcher and the catcher's mitt, nothing else, not the ump, the batter, the crowd, nothing. Just him and the catcher and the catchers's mitt.

He saw the catcher glance towards the dugout so he looked over and sure enough, the manager was headed to the mound and to his great surprise he knew the manager was going to take him out of the game. When the manager reached the pitcher's mound, he held out his hand and simply said "Give me the ball." He responded "Skip, you can't be serious. I struck this guy out the last time he was up." The manager responded "Yeah, I know hoss, but the problem is we are still in the same inning. Give me the damn ball!" Still makes me laugh whenever I think about it.

If I have already posted this story, sorry, but I tend to forget stuff like that every now and then.