AS GOOD AS IT GETS

One of the greatest joys of being a baseball fan is that every season brings something new and exciting. How many times do you say, “Wow, I’ve never seen that before,” or “That was the best _____ I’ve ever seen?” Well, it usually happens several times each year. A few weeks ago my cousin told me that D. Erstad made a catch against the Mets—I missed it—that was clearly “the greatest catch I’ve ever seen.” And just this week, Rob Neyer ^[1] made the following observation:

I’ve watched it a dozen times, frame by frame, just to make sure. And after those dozen times, I remain confident that I’ve never seen a pitch quite like the curveball with which Mike MacDougal struck out Albert Pujols on Sunday in the bottom of the ninth.

And you can’t beat that with a stickball bat.