Yesterday was on of the best day's of baseball I can remember watching in a long time. For me, it was the perfect storm of sporting days. It started around noon when the maintenance staff at work came to me to discuss painting my office. I had my laptop and with my office building Wi-Fi enabled I was able to relocate to the lounge where I flipped on the Phillies/Rockies game. I did everything that was asked of me work-wise and was able to kick back and enjoy some day baseball. The Phils looked good, getting timely hits and capitalizing on some Colorado defensive struggles. The ninth inning served as a stress test having to watch the inconsistent Brad Lidge nearly give the game away before finally nailing down the save.
I drove home listening to my favorite local sports radio talk show and knew it was going to be one of those days. I planned on watching my Indians take on the Yankees with Alex Rodriguez sitting on 599 career home runs. Cleveland hung in there against the best team in baseball despite the fact that the Tribe have a team payroll totaling 25% of the mighty Yankees. As Cleveland attempted to tie the game in the 9th against the greatest closer of all time, I felt safe in bouncing around the channels to see what else was going on in the wide world of sports. Much to my delight, I find out Matt Garza of the Rays is 3 outs away from this season's 5th no-no. Stumbling upon history like that is truly remarkable. I don't think I'd be as happy if a found a $100 bill sitting on the sidewalk as I walk to work.
Garza was dealing and managed to get the 27th out without surrendering a hit. My favorite part of any no-hitter is watching the teammates mob the star of the night. The jubilation on the face of Rays' ace David Price nearly brought me to tears. Price could be seen throughout the game sitting on the top step of the dugout hopping around like a little girl. When the bullpen guys come sprinting to the mound to tackle their comrade, I always get choked up. After watching the celebration and obligatory pie-in-the-face, I jumped over to watch the Twins hang 19 runs on the Royals.
I picked the White Sox to win the Central before the season began and they haven't disappointed so far, but the Twins play such a unified game and really do the little things that make teams successful. I'd be surprised if they didn't make a run at the division before all is said and done.
The night ended for me with the Red Sox and Angels. Clay Buchholz took the bump for Boston. I remember watching Buchholz toss a no-hitter against the Orioles in only his second big-league start. Opposite Buchholz was the newly acquired Dan Haren. Haren is anchoring my fantasy team staff this year so I wanted to see how he responded to the trade. Unfortunately for Haren, he was struck by a line-drive in the forearm, prematurely ending his night. The game was still a great one to watch as the rejuvenated Big Papi smacked two balls deep into the night.
As I laid in bed watching SportsCenter, I had this tingling feeling running through my body. I wanted to call everyone I know and tell them about how amazing the baseball played on this night was. LeBron James had a humungous billboard in Cleveland with the text 'We Are All Witnesses' plastered on the side of a building outside the Quicken Loans Arena. Well last night we were all witnesses to the greatest game ever invented and I can't wait for the action to resume today to see what history will take place.
