Dennis Marek: The first and the last

Throughout my life as a sports fan, I had to choose a bit between the Sox and the Cubs. My grandfather was a Cubs fan and my dad loved the White Sox. I really did not have to decide, but with Comiskey Park being a lot closer to Kankakee than Wrigley Field, I attended a lot more Sox games than Cubs.

But now I live in a suburb of Chicago, with the distance between the two fields not very different. The last couple of years, the Sox have stunk. Their attendance was miserable. The Cubs were a bit better and their team showed a bit more progress. As always, Cubs fans are extremely loyal and attend in big numbers even in the years that the team struggled to get some wins.

Then last year the Cubs showed some resilience. I found a station that broadcasts (is that even the right word anymore?) their games and I started watching them play.

This year the south siders also came alive. The Sox burst into first place in their division. The Cubs amassed more wins but couldn’t seem to get past the Milwaukee Brewers to capture first place in their division.

Then the test arose. Cubs in second place with a nice win-loss record versus the White Sox in first place with almost as good of win-loss record. The three-game series was to be quite a matchup.

The Cubs eventually won two and the Sox only one. But what was most amazing was the attack by the Cubs from the first pitch on in the first game. I was to watch something I had never seen before.

In game one, on the very first pitch Pete Crow-Armstrong blasted that pitch into the right field bleachers. Always a bit amazing to even swing at a game’s first pitch to the home team, but to crush it into the stands was amazing.

It was far from over. The second batter, Seiya Suzuki, also nailed a pitch into the left field bleachers. And the game went on with the lead changing back and forth. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the last at bats, for the Cubs with the score tied, Crow-Armstrong again stepped up to the plate. He again smashed the pitch into the bleachers and the Cubs had a walk-off victory.

But that is not what had shocked me more. Here is a man who hits the very first and very last pitches of the game for two home runs. What chance is there that anyone has done that before? So, I did a bit of research. Of course, baseball has more statistics than any other sport, but this was a fairly narrow question. It turns out that there are six players who have homered in their first at-bat in the first inning and also homered on the last pitch in the final inning. But the question still wasn’t answered This was the very first pitch to the Cubs and the last pitch of the game to them. And the same man homered on those two pitches.

Well, it turns out that he isn’t the only player in Major League history to pull off that incredible feat. In 1957, a player named Victor Power did exactly the same thing. As a member of the Kansas City Athletics, Power accomplished the same feat with a walk-off game-winning homer.

I am sure this is of little interest to most Americans. Baseball is a large part of professional athletics, but there are so many teams in the Major Leagues, and so many chances to accomplish unusual feats. I am a fan of baseball and now more of a Cubs fan than before, but when someone does the incredible, regardless of the sport, I am impressed.

I know there are other areas of the world that keep statistics on a number of different happenings. It can range from a prize fighter winning a record number of wins or knock-outs (with one knocking out his opponent only 8 seconds into the first round). Some lawyers keep track of the number of trials they have had or the total amount of money they have received for their clients. There is also data available about how many billions certain companies have earned such as IBM or Microsoft. Statistics really make a feat stand out.

So go Cubs, go Pete, and let’s make watching it so enjoyable even with all the statistics flashing on the TV screen as we watch.

From the source · Dennis Marek can be contacted at [email protected].