The Name Game (A Post without Stats)

This was the post I had cued up to send with the update, but the stats have not updated. Here’s the post, anyway…I think it’s still worth reading…=)

Yesterday Cottage ownership sent me an email that read:

“Not sure how significant this is, but tonight’s announced starting pitchers include Anderson vs. Anderson and Gray vs. Gray.” (He also said the Dodgers will trade the Will Smith for Will Smith, but I thought the Fresh Prince had retired?)

I thanked him for one thing out loud (sending an idea for the daily update) and one thing in my head (that he cares about the daily update). I told him I had noticed it and, all things considered, was planning to use it this morning. And it would have been good! The Grays (Sonny and Jon) both pitched 7 innings and the Andersons (Shaun and Chase) both pitched 5 innings. Do you think the managers were both watching the other, not willing to remove their Gray or their Anderson until the other did? It’s uncanny, really. Sonny Gray threw 102 pitches and Jon Gray threw 98 (only 5 fewer). Shaun Anderson threw 82 pitches and Chase Anderson threw 81 pitches. Talk about synchronicity! But believe it or not, that wasn’t the most amazing “name game” that happened last night.

Last night was the first game back at Angel Stadium for the Angels after the sudden death of their teammate Tyler Skaggs. The team invited Tyler’s mother to throw out the first pitch, and she threw a 60’6″ strike – how often does that happen at a game? Hardly ever. Then the Angels played a very moving tribute video to Tyler, and all the Angels players came emerged from the dugout wearing identical jerseys with “Skaggs 45” on the back. The Angels employed an opener for the game (A guy named Taylor Cole) and he shut the Mariners down for 2 innings. After his opening stint (it’s kind of like a concert or a comedy club approach, right? The opener loosens everyone up, sets the tone, then the real act comes on and hopefully wows everyone. I mean, the opener can’t be too good, because then it would make the headliner look bad, but they also can’t be too bad, because then people will leave before the featured entertainer takes the stage). Then Felix Peña entered, the headliner, and picked up right where Taylor left off. I tuned into the game in the 5th inning mostly because my player, Mike Trout, was about to be up again and had already gone 2 for 2 with a HR, a 2B and 5 RBI (and it was only the 5th inning!). Trout hit another double and got another RBI (we cheered) and then…I just kept watching.

And what unfolded before me (and the 40,000 fans in attendance and the thousands of others watching on TV) was something I would list as a top ten spectator moment for myself. If you have ever been fortunate to watch a no-hitter, it is a combination of amazing pitching and also a handful of incredible defensive plays. In the 6th inning, Mac Williamson stung a ball to the left side and the third baseman took one step to his left and dove, barely gloving the ball behind him, stood up and threw a short hop rocket to the first baseman who scooped is perfectly to preserve the no-hitter. I was impressed with the play, but because every player was wearing a Skaggs jersey, I had no idea who had made it (turns out it was a guy names Thaiss, who is hitting .071(!) but is apparently good with the glove. Two batters later Dee Gordon hit a 100MPH line drive but the second baseman – who was wearing a Skaggs jersey – stuck his glove out and snagged it. There were a few more Ks from Peña and then two more near hits; one from Gordon that was a swinging bunt to the left of the mound. Because Gordon is so fast, everyone watching thought for sure the no-hitter would end at this moment. Except Peña, seemingly possessed by something greater than himself, shot off the mound, grabbed the ball, turned on a dime and threw a laser to 1B to nab Gordon by a few inches in the 9th inning. Finally, with 2 outs in the 9th, Mallex Smith stepped to the plate, drilled a ball 102MPH up the middle, a hit in almost every circumstance, except for the fact that the Angles had shifted their Third Baseman, Thaiss, to play in exactly the right spot. He fielded the hot shot (I mean, how in the world can they cleanly field a ball hit over 100MPH?!?!) threw it to first, and the game was over.

The Angels, all wearing Tyler Skaggs’ jersey, threw a no-hitter on the very night that the Angels paid tribute to Tyler Skaggs memory. Can you say Disney movie? Talk about Angels in the Outfield. Oh, and his birthday was today, July 13th.

I am not an Angels fan. In fact, I root for the Mariners when I am not rooting for the Red Sox. But the moment that last out was recorded I stood up in my living room, lifted my hands into the air, and I kid you not, shed a tear as I watched the Angels players celebrating this incredible achievement, all of them dressed alike in memory of their teammate, none of us able to tell any of them apart, celebrating what only they could have accomplished as a team.

That, my friends, will preach. So while it was fun to see Gray vs. Gray and Anderson vs. Anderson, it was not the Name Game that had the most meaning for me last night.

Because for one night, there was one name that did what has never been done before – it pitched every perfect pitch, it made every perfect play, it hit every perfect hit, until it had recorded 27 outs and scored 13 runs – and thrown a (near perfect) game.

All done by a guy named Skaggs. All done for a guy named Skaggs. It might have been two guys – Taylor and Peña – who threw the no-hitter, but in my memory, it will always be Skaggs.