Last week, I opened Friday's Daily to find a surprise waiting for me. Somehow, inexplicably, a debate has broken out among our columnists as to whether baseball (our national pastime, mind you) was worth watching.
Two writers who shall remain nameless (or, for simplicity's sake, let's just call them both "Matt") differed greatly on this issue, with one referring to the game as uneventful and boring, and the other calling it exciting and dramatic.
On one hand, this shouldn't even be an issue. Doubting the beauty of the game of baseball is simply un-American, and I'm appalled to see that kind of discussion in this newspaper.
On the other, at least no one in the sports section is wasting his or her time pissing and moaning about pre-med students. It could be worse.
So maybe I'll jump in for just a second. Here are my two cents' worth.
This is why baseball is and always will be my favorite sport: Baseball is an intellectual game. The game's history is so deeply ingrained in our culture that one could spend an entire lifetime learning it. After a childhood obsessing over learning every baseball statistic, anecdote and factoid I possibly could, I still have an unthinkable amount left to absorb. But here are some of the little tidbits of knowledge I have picked up ...
Did you know that Stan Musial had 3,630 hits, with exactly 1,815 coming at home and the other 1,815 on the road? And did you know that his final hit, a line-drive single on Sept. 29, 1963, was hit past the outstretched arms of a rookie second baseman named Pete Rose?
Or that Rose, when he broke baseball's all-time hit record on Sept. 11, 1985, lined a single for hit number 4,192 into a San Diego outfield manned by 25-year-old Tony Gwynn?
And then there's Gwynn. When he reached the 3,000-hit milestone on Aug. 6, 1999, his blooper into the right field grass of Olympic Stadium was fielded by none other than Vladimir Guerrero, Expos outfielder and future MVP.
Baseball history is full of strange coincidences like these, and no other game has such a well-chronicled past. In what other sport do the great past legends cross paths in such interesting ways?
On May 28, 1951, Giants rookie Willie Mays hit his first career home run off of Braves pitcher Warren Spahn. Mays went on to play in more All-Star games than any other player; Spahn appeared in more than any pitcher.
On June 21, 1989, Rangers rookie Sammy Sosa hit his first homer. His victim? None other than Roger Clemens. Clemens went on to win 300 games, retire, and then make a comeback in Houston - Sosa hit 500 homers, retired, and made a comeback of his own in nearby Arlington.
Also in 1989, Rickey Henderson had one of the best seasons of his career, walking 126 times and stealing 77 bases; however, Henderson's 1989 will always be best remembered for the night of Aug. 22, when he became Nolan Ryan's 5,000th strikeout victim.
On May 1, 1991, Henderson stole his 939th base, surpassing Lou Brock for the all-time steals record. The catch? Ryan overshadowed him again, as later that same night he became the first pitcher ever to throw seven no-hitters.
On November 27, 1971, a baby named Ivan Torres Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico. Later that same winter, the Red Sox decided to promote a minor league catcher named Carlton Fisk to the big club for good.
Both men became longtime major league catchers, and both adopted the nickname of "Pudge." On June 20, 1991, Pudge the Younger made his major league debut in Chicago, and Pudge the Elder was the opposing catcher. Both went 1-for-4 with one single and one strikeout. Fisk's single was one of 2,356 career hits; Rodriguez finished 2006 with 2,354.
The final of baseball history's great coincidences occurred on April 5, 2007 (or, as I like to call it, "Wednesday"). That was the day that Kansas City rookie Alex Gordon got his first career hit, and as luck would have it, it was a single off of none other than Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Someday, people will look back on last Wednesday and see it as a significant moment in baseball history, another day when two of baseball's greats crossed paths for the first time.
So far, their careers have had quite different starts - for Matsuzaka, Gordon's hit was one of the just six that he surrendered, as Dice-K turned in a stellar seven-inning outing in his debut. As for Gordon, the hit was his only one to date, as the rookie has struggled mightily in his adjustment to the major leagues, starting off 1-for-19.
But regardless, both have fine careers ahead of them. Gordon, whom Baseball America named College Player of the Year in 2005 and then Minor League Player of the Year in '06, is widely seen as the next George Brett, while Matsuzaka is the reigning MVP of the World Baseball Classic.
Because it's so hard to translate success in Japan to major league results, though, opinions vary on what will become of the latter. Even among the experts, it's hard to find a consensus.
David Gassko of The Hardball Times has Dice-K slated to be the AL's next Cy Young winner - winning his first Cy at age 27 would put him in the same company with Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton and Jim Palmer. Meanwhile, the statisticians at Baseball Prospectus have him projected for 12 wins in '07, putting him in the elite group of Brad Radke, Woody Williams and Claudio Vargas.
What does the future actually have in store for Matsuzaka, Gordon and the rest of the 2007 rookie class? The true answer probably lies somewhere in between the two extremes. Any one of this year's newbies could be a bust, but at the same time, don't blink. You could be missing your chance to see a future Hall of Famer.
In this game, anything can happen.
