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What happened to perfection?
This one comes a bit out of left field, but I'm way overdue for a blog, and I'm just going to write about what I'm thinking about: baseball.
My big question is what's up with the perfect game? Felix Hernandez threw one on Thursday, and caps should certainly be tipped to him.
He's only the 23rd man to do so in something like 130 years of baseball. (OK, we all know it's really 24. Sorry, Armando Gallaraga.)
Taken by itself, that makes it impressive. What's so strange, though, is that six of those perfectos (plus Galarraga's) have taken place since July 2009. That's 26 percent of the times it's ever happened.
Three have happened this year.
Take it out a bit further, and 14 of 23 have happened in just over 30 years.
I don't have any answers, but it seems weird that, living in the era of increased offense, we actually see more perfect games. Are hitters less disciplined and more inclined to just being hackers at the plate?
Maybe.
Is baseball a game of weird stats that can't really be explained?
Absolutely.
I guess all we can do is sit back and enjoy a guy like King Felix when he accomplishes something like this.
I just hope that we don't start to take it for granted. Let's hope the Philip Humbers and Dallas Braydens of the world aren't de-mystifying baseball's rarest of feats.
Thank you, Melky
It seems weird to thank a man who just received a 50-game ban for taking testosterone, but give Melky Cabrera credit for this: He owned up to it.
Regardless of the evidence against them, nearly every player who tests positive goes the deny, deny, deny route. They play dumb. The say they took a tainted supplement. They beat their breasts and question the system.
(Of course, Ryan Braun managed to make it work, but still.)
So what did Cabrera do? He said he did something he should have done and he accepted his suspension.
Don't get me wrong, the guys not a hero, but at least he's acting like a grown up about it.
Pretty good for a guy who plays a kid's game.
BLOGGER'S NOTE: Disregard what you just read. It has come to light that Melky launched a fake website as part of a ruse to fool major league baseball about the "supplement" he took. The ruse failed.
So I take back these last few paragraphs. This guy's an idiot.
Seeing Red
The Reds won their 71st game on Thursday behind a complete game from Mike Leake.
The pitching performance was a surprise, considering it came from a guy who wouldn't be in the playoff rotation if the season ended today.
But that's what this season has been like as a Reds fan -- pleasantly surprising.
Sure, some nice offseason moves had our hopes high, but an injury to Ryan Madson before he ever threw a pitch for the team and a terrible April tempered those hopes.
Even as the team has played better, they've weathered injuries to three Gold Glove infielders (one of them an MVP candidate), leadoff men who can't get on base and an offense that can disappear for days on end.
But here they are, 25 games over .500, leading the division by seven games and looking for all the world like a Pennant contender.
Will they get there? I have no idea. I can only say as a Cincy fan, I'm having as much fun following this team as I ever have.
That's what it's all about, right?
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