Milestones

So it's been 10 long days since my last blog entry, and it feels like an eternity for me. Time passes in such odd ways for us sometimes. And yet there are milestones that we reach which help us keep track of our achievements in life. I've been busy with some personal milestones; my birthday, my girlfriend's college graduation, and my involvement with a tremendous theater show. And once again, the baseball world mirrors real life. A ball player hits a certain milestone in his career, and "attention must be paid." (Do you know where that's from?) So let's take the time to remember the moments and the people who recently have strode past another milestone in baseball, and we'll remember those who finally reached that last spike in the road.
In the past few weeks several prominent players have reached important statisical numbers. True, their just numbers, but they tell the story of a career, and what is still left to come of it. Take hits for instance. To have 1000 hits in a career is a great achievement. It means you stuck around long enough to play around 5-8 years of quality baseball. That could be a lifetime goal for some, but for Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies and David Wright of the New York Mets, it is merely the opening salvo of two stellar careers. Utley is only 31 years old, and Wright is just 27. Both of these players still have time to potentially double their hit totals.
Hideki Matsui, of the Los Angeles Angels doesn't quite have that opportunity as he is already 36, having played a good deal of his career in Japan. He's reached 1000 hits all the same, however, and that is something to be congratulated. Meanwhile, Magglio Ordonez of the Detroit Tigers has already done what Utley and Wright hope to accomplish. Magglio notched his 2000th hit while playing the Twins a few weeks back. The likelihood of Mags getting around to 3000 is a bit low as his production has fallen in the past few years, and he, like Godzilla, is 36. But 2500 hits is realistic enough, and in addition to a career .312 batting average, the Hall of Fame is something Ordonez might sniff one day.
Hitters weren't the only ones having fun reaching milstones though. Roy Oswalt stuck out his 1500th batter this year, and is just 11 wins shy of 150. He might not make it to that goal as an Houston Astro however. Oswalt has agreed to be traded, if it helps the Astros rebuild, that is. Not to be outdone though, Oakland Athletics' pitcher Dallas Braden went ahead and put everyone else's accomplishments on the back burner by pitching the 19th perfect game in baseball history. And he did it against the hottest team in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays. If the number 19 doesn't tell you that a perfect game is a rare feat in baseball, then just let me explain what a perfect game is. For a pitcher, a win is great. A shutout is a career highlight. A no-hitter is sensational. A perfect game, is all of those things, and more.
And Braden did it with class. He could've told A-Rod to shove it, who he'd had a tiff with a few days earlier, but he didn't. Instead he was quoted as saying, "It's without a doubt a team effort. You got eight guys out there chasing balls and knocking balls down for me. So this is ours, not just mine, this is ours." That is old-school, and it's the right way to go about things.
And speaking of the right way to do things, let's end this blog by mentioning a few guys who did that their whole lives through. Baseball mourned the passing of broadcaster Ernie Harwell and pitcher Robin Roberts recently. Harwell, a gentleman of the highest caliber, broadcasted Detroit Tiger games for 41 years, and was known for his down-home southern charm. When a batter was struck out looking, Ernie said "he stood there like a house on the side of the road." And when a double play happened, it was "two for the price of one." Classic.
Roberts, on the other hand, was merely 'the greatest right-handed pitcher the Phillies ever had.' Between '52 and '55 Roberts had 97 wins. In four years! He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1976 with 286 career wins to his well-respected name. Author James A. Michener may have summed up Roberts best when he stated, "For two generations of fans, he symbolized the best in athletic competition." These men knew that the game is more than numbers. It's an appreciation for those who play it the right way, every time they go out there. Harwell may not have been on the field, like the other guys mentioned, but he meant just as much to the people of Detroit, and others around the country. To find an athlete or media personality with class is a rarity in today's world. Not quite as rare as a perfect game, but rare nonetheless. Let's honor it while it's here, and miss it when it's gone.
Thanks go to my brother Ernie for his great drawing of Dallas Braden. And thanks to www.baseball-reference.com for some wonderful quotes.