Ever wonder why baseball is the greatest game of all? Aside from the fact that it was my first love as a kid. Yeah, I would play from sunup to sundown. Hell, I even played by myself, making up games in the yard, taking on the part of all nine players myself.
More than five decades later, I still love baseball, and it never disappoints.
First and foremost, it is the one game that is contested without a clock. It takes its time. Some people are considering changing that. They say the games are taking too long.
Of course they are. This is the addled thinking of a generation raised on video games. On short, staccato bursts of information on Twitter. They lack patience, and an appreciation for what truly is a thinking man’s game.
If patience is indeed a virtue, then we are fast becoming a virtueless society. Need a piece of information? Google it. Need a quick dinner? Toss it in the microwave. Need to reach someone? Send them a text.
There is a belief by these so-called experts that baseball is boring. They point to declining attendance and TV ratings.
Boring? The only thing boring about baseball is these old arguments from people who want to change it.
It’s timeless, like a long, sultry, languorous summer day.
Like Thursday.
Want to appreciate the beauty of baseball?
Take Thursday’s Phillies game.
Aaron Nola and Mets starter Zack Wheeler hooked up in a pitcher’s duel. Neither
Nola threw 7 innings of one-hit ball. He flirted with a no-hitter and did not allow a base hit through 5 innings.
Wheeler was matching him goose egg for goose egg until Bryce Harper hit a bomb into Ashburn Alley in the 6th inning.
Neither starter figured in the final decision.
Nola has now give up one run in his last 15 innings, taking on the mantle of “ace” once again after some early-season struggles. And yet he did not win either of those last two starts.
The Phillies and Mets combined for all of one run through eight innings - then combined for eight runs in a rollicking 9th inning.
Hector Neris had been gold this season, converting 16 of his last 17 attempts. Of course he entered the game in the 9th with the Phils clinging to 1-0 lead and promptly gave up a 2-run bomb to the Mets’ Todd Frazier.
The Mets suddenly led, 3-1.
Not for long.
Maikel Franco hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th off Edwin Diaz to tie the game. And Jean Segura provided the exclamation point by lining a pitch into the seats in left for the 6-3 walk-off win.
The Phillies played 80 games without a walk-off homer.
They now have two in the last two days.
The Phillies had lost 7 straight after being swept - at home - by the lowly Marlins.
Now, after the arrival of Brad Miller and his lucky bamboo plant, they have won 4 straight with a sweep of the Mets.
It unfolded in 3 hours and 24 minutes of bliss on a sultry, sunny, summer afternoon.
That’s baseball.
A timeless beauty.
Comments