Is This A Great Game or What?

The last day and a half has been particularly difficult for me, having lost one of my heroes in Harry Kalas, the announcer that brought baseball to life in the city of Philadelphia and who helped introduce me to the wonderful nuances of the game. This week has been one of even more terrible news with the untimely and unfair death of Nick Adenhart and the passing of Mark Fidrych. Even with the sadness, this tremendous game of baseball is still doing its part to entertain and bring joy to its dedicated followers. While this in no way cancels out the losses it certainly helps to heal the wounds.

The regular season is basically just a week old and we have already taken in two monumental feats, been entertained by the soft-tossing of a non-pitcher and have bore witness to some incredible and surprising starts from players and teams alike.

Earlier this season, Felipe Lopez and Tony Clark of the Arizona Diamondbacks became the first teammates to homer from each side of the plate in the same game since 2000, a feat that had never before been accomplished on opening day. There aren’t a ton of switch-hitters in the league, let alone on the same team, and both of these guys managed to jack the ball out of the park as a lefty and a righty in the same nine-inning span. Amazing.

Yesterday, Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko entered their game against the Tigers sitting on 299 HRs. Neither are hall of famers or icons but hitting 300 HR is definitely a feat in and of itself. In the top of the second, Dye hit #300 off of Zach Miner. The very next batter was Paul Konerko, who promptly proceeded to hit his own 300th dinger. These two longtime teammates entered the season with the milestones an inevitability and got to celebrate together, becoming the first two teammates to hit century mark home runs in the same game, let alone right after one another.

If that wasn’t enough, we got to witness our first position player pitching outing of the season yesterday, as Nick Swisher of the Yankees tossed an inning against the Rays. As RJ noted this morning he even struck out a batter… swinging no less.

In the incredible performance department, we have the scorching starts of Evan Longoria, Kevin Youkilis, the aforementioned Swisher, and Miguel Cabrera. And don’t leave out the dominance on display from pitchers Johan Santana, Josh Johnson, and Erik Bedard. With regards to teams, sure it is a small sample bound to regress over the next 150+ games but even teams with playoff hopes ranging from slim to none this season like the Padres, Royals, and Mariners have shown the ability to compete.

Baseball has always been a game of hope that gives its fans a reason to cheer. Even when it seems that the pile of terrible gets thicker and thicker, this wonderful game provides anecdotes and moments that make us remember why we love it so much in the first place.