I must admit that I've been in a sort of Baseball-funk lately. Disasters dominate the news - both man made and natural. Work gets more and more demanding. Other personal projects take precedence. And as much as I try to make this blog about baseball in general, and not just the Oakland A's, my first and foremost team for which to root, when you're boys are slumping in the early goings, it makes it that much harder to pay attention to other stuff around the league. A flurry of disabled list moves (including catcher Kurt Suzuki and lefty starter Brett Anderson), the failure to notch any hit bigger than a single for games on end - these things wear on the casual and devoted fan alike.
So imagine my surprise when I walked into a restaurant for a nice Mother's Day dinner and saw the TV showing a recap of today's A's/Rays game... which ended in Dallas Braden completing the 19th perfect game in Major League history! Just a couple of weeks after going toe-to-toe with one of the game's biggest (and highest-paid) stars (on the mound and via press conference), Braden retired 27 Rays in a row on the day devoted to mothers. A date that's all the more poignant considering Braden's mother passed away while he was in high school.
His grandmother was one the scene to congratulate him, after his teammates finished their barrage of bearhugs and high-fives. What better way to bring your team up to .500 on the season?
Congratulations, Dallas! Let's hope this act of perfection can act as a jump-start not only for a middling A's team, but also for my attention in this our nation's greatest pastime.
No comments:
Post a Comment