We’re at the well-take-what-we-can-get stage of the season and so what’s not to like about Friday night’s game? C.C. Sabathia pitched his best game in recent memory, Alex Rodriguez broke a 1-1 tie in the 7th with a grand slam, and Mariano Rivera retired the Giants in order in the 9th. Yup, a tidy, send-’em-home-happy win if there ever was one.
Too little, too late? M’eh, let’s not think like that. It was a good time.
Especially nice to see Sabathia in control. Rodriguez, who has been in a terrible slump with his leg injuries, was able to use his upper body to smack a fly ball to the shallow part of the park in right for his grand slam. He’s now the career record holder with 24, passing The Iron Horse.
And Mo, ah, Mo. A strikeout, broken bat pop out and a ground out. Made to order.
Final Score: Yanks 5, Giants 1.
(Story of the night in the AL playoff race was that the Rays outlasted the O’s, 5-4 in 18 goddamn innings.)
[Photo Credit: Mike Fitzpatrick/AP]
I have to admit, I feel a little bad for Gehrig. I was sort of hoping he could stay on top of that list.
Records are meant to be broken. Legends do not fade. Lou is safe.
[2] I've never bought into that axiom. One of the things I like about baseball is the degree to which players from the olden days can be compared to today (at least in terms of statistics). Sure, some aspects of the game have changed dramatically---we'll never see a 500 game winner again, etc---but in many ways the basic balance of offence and defence has not changed too much, and the length of the season has not changed much (unlike in, say, football), and the length of great players' careers are more or less the same. Thus, you can still find old names in the record books along side new names. I prefer that to a situation where "records are meant to be broken" and thus every benchmark is necessarily surpassed by more recent players.
Besides that I read once that Gehrig himself was conscious of his place in what was then baseball history, and was acutely aware of that he played in the shadow of Ruth, who basically held all the records at the time of his retirement. Gehrig was always Mr. #2. That is why he was driven to set a consecutive games played streak that he and most others thought would never, could never be broken.
Of "historical players," Gehrig is among my favorites, and so it does sadden me to see his counting stats (like career HRs) slide down the list. I was hoping he would keep ahold of the grand slam record (a fairly meaningless record at that).