14 June 2012

Had it all the way

We don't feature much baseball in this space. Mostly because I think it's boring. However: big props to Matt Cain for pitching a perfecto last night. In order to pitch a perfect game you have to be some combination of good and lucky. Some pitchers are a bit more lucky than good, some are both good and lucky* (Dennis Martinez, for example), but others are more good than lucky. Cain is the latter. He did get some strong defense in the seventh. My favorite part about the video is the small fist-pump that Blanco allows himself after the catch. He did his part to keep the perfecto alive and the crowd is going bananas so he was feeling good in the moment. Then he remembers that he's not supposed to celebrate during the pursuit of perfection so he immediately studies the ball in the hope that no one noticed.

*Should point out that Martinez was a groundball pitcher, and as such less likely to pitch a  perfect game than a power pitcher like Cain because he has less control over what happens after the ball makes contact with the bat.

If the video doesn't embed you can watch it here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=22275319&topic_id=11493214&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_22275319&v=3

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was magic. All of it. I'm not kidding.