As a child, I was a much bigger MLB fan and even had most of the American League Central lineups memorized. And I wasn’t an AL Central savant.
It was from the repetition of watching and listening to games that I learned about the White Sox’s underperforming powerhouse of Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura and, regretfully, Bo Jackson. The White Sox and Royals played all the time because there was no interleague play then.
Until the midway point in the season, AL and NL teams never played each other.
For John Kruk, then Philadelphia Phillies’ slugger, facing the Seattle Mariners ace Randy “The Big Unit” Johnson meant batting against a 6’ 8” alien that threw 101 mph. The crowd could read Kruk from the nose-bleed seats as he thought, “Well, what am I supposed to do about this?”
At the most recent MLB All-Star Game, any pairing of all-star pitchers and batters probably faced each other at least a dozen times before. Add in the drama of two teams playing in the World Series and one having to throw their pitcher in the batter’s box because the NL doesn’t allow a designated hitter, and it makes even a likely sweep drip with intrigue.
Baseball made fans wait until the Series and All-Star game to answer those lingering questions while leaving so many unanswered for next season, if ever.
