Image Source (sick graphic---dead ass)
The 2022 Major Baseball Season started last week; I think it was Thursday. My MLB preview used to be one of my favorite blogs of the year, but I haven't done one since 2019. The first blog I ever wrote on DOL was a prediction that the 2016 Red Sox would be good. As I typed that intro, it's still sort of hard for me to fathom how the game I once loved more than blood relatives has become so meaningless to me.
It all started with the Boston Red Sox (one of the wealthiest organizations in all sports) trading away their best position player since Carl Yastrzemski to save money. I am not going down that rabbit hole today, but if you wanna see what I've said in the past, I've gothcuuu. -The CEO of a Dodgers Fan Group (I Guess That's a Thing) Put Up a Billboard Outside of Fenway for Thanking the Red Sox For Trading Mookie Betts -As if the Red Sox Weren't a Big Enough Joke Already, Lebron James Now Owns (Governs) Part of Them! -I Want to Believe But I Don't Know If I Can -Well, This (Potentially) Changes Everything -Not Only Do the Red Sox Suck at Paying Generational Talent, but They Suck at Twitter Too! -It Looks Like The Dodgers Are About To Sign Mookie to a Giant Deal -Some Telling Stats About The Future of The United States of America -How to Induce Vomiting (in New England) -Mookie Betts Buys Groceries and Pizza For People Shopping and Working in Tennessee -John Henry FINALLY Addresses The Mookie Betts Trade (and I Address My Future as a Red Sox Fan) -After Nearly A Week of Hold Ups The Curse of Mookie Is Official (R.I.P. My Red Sox Fandom) -So You're Telling Me There's a Chance? -I Officially No Longer Love The Boston Red Sox
Despite trading away my favorite player and denouncing my fandom, I miss baseball and want to get back into the game. If you've watched #DozVsTheDozen you know, I still have a vast encyclopedia of baseball knowledge, but the last two seasons have been a wash. I recently switched cell phone carriers and got free MLB.tv from T-Mobile, but I can't use it to watch the Red Sox because baseball hates its fans and is greedy at Bezos levels. But that's another blog, for another day.
The ways the game has changed in the last five or so years annoys the fuck out of me too. I hate how big of pussies managers are now with starting pitching. We've seen it countless times on the biggest stages. Wahhh don't go three times through the line-up. Blake Snell getting yanked in the 2020 World Series comes to mind immediately, but Dave Roberts has been pulling pitchers who are cruising for years. Poor Rich Hill. So today, Clayton Kershaw, arguably the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, who has had some injury issues the last few seasons, made his first start of 2022 against the Minnesota Twins. Through 7 innings, Kershaw was perfect and at only 80 pitches. 80! But that was enough for Dave Roberts, and with a 6-0 lead, Kershaw's day was over.
Now I get it; Roberts obviously knows his guys better than me and is a brighter baseball mind, blah, blah, blah, but come the fuck on!! Baseball is on life support. The fact that people like me are out on the game should terrify you (big baseball) because I used to be one of the people banging your drum. There was just a lockout because owners are greedy and don't want to compensate their players fairly. I know it's not on you to directly win the fans back, but a perfect game by one of the best players of the 21st century could've been the shot in the arm that baseball desperately needed.
Jeff Passan put it perfectly. If it was a regular no-hit bid, sure, who gives a fuck?
But we're talking about perfection. The one thing missing on Kershaw's resume. I just don't get it man. If he was at 95 pitches through 7, maybe I'd understand playing the long game, but were talking 80 pitches bro. Not even 12 pitches an inning. Kershaw was cruising. Let him go out there and as soon as someone gets on, you pull him.
Of course, Kershaw didn't throw his manager under the bus. Borderline hashtag good guy behavior.
But doesn't he want this? Have a little fight or bulldog in you one time, Clayton. Sure, you won a Covid Championship in Texas to get rid of that playoff choker label, but to me this is some heartless baseball by a guy who's struggled in the brightest moments. I understand playing the long game, but like my future co-worker Chris Castellani said, are these really gonna be the innings that make his arm snap??
Maybe we'll forget about this in a few days, but Dave Roberts robbed baseball (and its fans) of a potentially incredible moment that it desperately needs. Baseball is broken and a Clayton Kershaw perfect game wouldn't have made things worse. You gotta at least let him fucking try.
P.S.
The real ones know there's really been 24 perfect games.
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