The Green Fields of the Mind
It breaks your heart.
It is designed to break your heart.
The game begins in the Spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the Summer, filling the afternoons and evenings.
And then, as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the Fall alone.
You count on it, rely on it, to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then, just when the days are all twilight, when you need it the most, it stops.
Today, October 2nd, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.
-- «A Great & Glorious Game» by A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938-1989), National League President, chosen unanimously as the seventh Commissioner of Baseball in 1988. |
"Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world."
-- Babe Ruth (Born George Herman Ruth), 1895-1948, Major League Baseball Player, Boston Red Sox & New York Yankees
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Can a pitcher get four strikeouts in one inning?
Yes, striking out the side - plus one... A batter at the plate has a two-strike count. The pitch is delivered and the batter takes a swing for strike three (a recorded strikeout). However, in this instance the catcher does not catch the ball cleanly. 99% of the time, the catcher simply picks up the ball and tags the batter or throws it to first to record the out. When the batter makes a safe run for first base... 3 more strikes are required, making it a total of four, to take the other side out.
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