Looking Back At The Break

A season full of surprises stops to catch its breath this week as Baseball Nation readies itself to enjoy its annual mid-season classic, the All-Star Game, which will be played this Tuesday, July 9th, in Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium. Other events taking place during this break include the Home Run Derby and the Futures Game, where top minor league prospects square off against each other. The long slog known as the baseball season has featured a mind-boggling number of story lines, all serving as grist for the mill for baseball fans eager to exchange opinions on the unfolding drama through any number of outlets, whether they be podcasts, blogs, twitter, or in some truly rare cases, actual face to face conversations. It will be fun to review some of them; but where to begin?

Perfection is a good place to start. Baseball fans will have to look long and hard to find a finer gentleman than Matt Cain, the durable right hander who pitches for the San Francisco Giants. In the jewel by the bay that is known as AT&T Park, on an charmed June evening, Cain achieved baseball immortality by throwing a perfect game against the Houston Astros, winning by a margin of 10 to 0. The three-time All Star was as good as it gets, taming the Astos with a overpowering fourteen strikeouts.  By doing so Cain joined Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax as only the second pitcher to achieve that total while pitching a perfecto. Ladies and gentlemen, that is rare company. The consummate team player, for years Cain uncomplainingly accepted a level of poor run support from his offensively challenged teammates that would have driven most men crazy, yet the stoic Giant never once pointed a finger at others in an effort to explain his middle of the road won-loss record. At the break he is among the National League leaders in every pitching category.

And he is not alone in what must be viewed as an exceptional season for pitchers. An equally compelling story line has emerged from Citi Field where R.A. Dickey has taken his mystifying knuckleball to dizzying heights. If there were a Cy Young Award for half a season, Dickey would win it hands down. He enters the break with  twelve wins against only one loss, a 0.96 WHIP, and in a category that is undervalued, has not permitted a single runner from an opponent to steal a base while he’s on the mound. At one point he pitched 32.2 consecutive scoreless innings. It was during this dominating stretch that he threw two complete-game one hitters in a row. Off the field, the erudite Dickey published a memoir in which he revealed that at the age of eight, he was sexually abused by two separate perpetrators. His book, “Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball,” moves on to chronicle how he toiled for ten years in the minor leagues.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the baseball world has been scratching its collective head wondering just what is going on with Tim Lincecum, of the San Francisco Giants. The two-time National League’s Cy Young Award winner is enduring a miserable season. At the break, he has a record of three wins against ten losses, with a 6.42 earned run average. What’s wrong? In no particular order, breaking balls hang, fastballs are up, locations are missed and velocity is down. Some analysts claim his arm slot has changed, while others note the angle of his elbow to forearm immediately before he releases the ball has changed. To me, he no longer looks like he knows how to put hitters away. We hope he regains his effectiveness, however, sometimes pitchers don’t. Just last week Dontrell Willis, the former fireballer who stormed the baseball world back in 2003 with the Marlins with a dazzling fastball and a high-kicking, unorthodox pitching motion, retired. This came after years of futile attempts to regain his previous winning form. We hope this isn’t Timmy’s fate, but who knows? We hope to see Tim Lincecum smiling again, just like we did in the past.

Among position players, a superstar has emerged. Andrew McCutchen is consistently putting up numbers worthy of a legitimate Most Valuable Player. He’s been very good in the past, but in this season he has undergone a metamorphosis that has taken him from very good to great. With minimal assistance from a willing but less talented supporting cast, McCutchen’s dominance has helped launch the Pirates to the head of their NL Central Division’s standings. His offensive numbers bulge at the seams and include two stats that are first in the National League: a .362 batting average and a .625 slugging average. Other lusty numbers include a .414 on base percentage, a 1.039 OPS, 18 home runs and 14 stolen bases.

California Angels center fielder Mike Trout, a rookie who made a brief appearance late last season but did not get enough at bats to exceed rookie status, has made contributions worthy of the American League’s Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player Award consideration. The Angels were languishing, but from Trout’s first appearance with the team on April 28th, they have gone a league best 42 – 24. The twenty year old Trout is hitting .341, has stolen 26 bases, hit 12 home runs and is among the league leaders in every other offensive category. But this is only part of the story, because his prowess with his glove is equally remarkable, and possibly better.

Bryce Harper is another rookie making a stunning impact for his club. Since being called up to the big club in early May, the nineteen year old has impressed everyone with his hustle and spirited play. Like Trout and McCutchen, Harper is a five-tool player, which means he has a great throwing arm, can his for a high batting average, hit for power, run fast enough to steal bases and field exceedingly well. We have already seen him throw a 300-foot perfect strike from center field to his catcher, just narrowly missing the runner with his throw. Forget the outcome of the play, everyone, because that threw was sheer perfection. It is difficult for a guy who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the words “Baseball’s Chosen One” at the age of sixteen to live up to the hype, but Harper has, and if anything, may be even better than advertised. If you get a chance to see his team, the Washington Nationals, play ball, by all means do so.

While on the subject of the Washington Nationals, we have to mention that they are one of the surprising teams of the season and lead their NL East Division at the break. Other teams who have played better than expected are McCutchen’s Pirates, the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Mets. The Mets may be the most surprising team of all. Picked by many experts to come in dead last, with the emphasis on “dead,” under Manager Terry Collins the Metropolitans have turned into a scrapy bunch of fighters who are relentless in their pursuit of victories. They may not be good enough to win a World Series Championship yet, but the Mets are nonetheless serving notice to the rest of the National League that they are no longer to be taken lightly.

Injuries have effected many teams, but perhaps none more so than the Los Angeles Dodgers. Without their two best hitters, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, the Dodgers have limped into the break having lost fifteen of their past twenty games. The Philadelphia Phillies only recently had two of their wounded warriors return to the lineup. Without first baseman Ryan Howard and second baseman Chase Utley, the Phillies have languished in last place in the NL East, clearly unfamiliar territory for them. It remains to be seen if they can return to contention, and with an aging cast of characters, their window of opportunity may be rapidly closing.

This season has already featured some wonderful happenings. Foremost among them was Fenway Park’s 100th Birthday celebration. In a moving ceremony hundreds of former Boston Red Sox players took the field wearing the jerseys they wore during their playing days with the club. It was a real treat to see so many different Red Sox looks on the field at the same time. The current players wore throwback uniforms from that era as well, and the game that day featured the  Bostons and the New Yorks playing in their Red Sox and Highlanders outfits. Other teams have gotten into the throwback spirit. Just yesterday we attended a game in Oakland the featured the Oakland Oaks hosting the Seattle Rainiers. The San Francisco Giants have appeared once again as the Gigantes, and Los Mets took the field the other day. Banner Day returned to Queens, too, after a long period on hiatus.

These are some of the stories that have caught our attention here at Grubby Glove. We’d love to hear about some of yours. In the meantime, it’s time to stock up on wings, chips, suds, cola and other refreshments and beverages you prefer, for the mid-summer classic is about to begin. Enjoy the game, everybody!