I know there are a lot of people out there, myself who used to be one of them who have said that American League play is the superior league. Better hitting, better pitching, better teams, and most importantly they don't have pitchers being an automatic out at the bottom of their lineups, but does that really make it better? Indeed, as time as gone on and specialization has become a greater part of the game the concept of all around excellence seems to be lost. So often the leagues are littered wiht players who lack this quality, a guy who can steal bases well but can't hit a lick, a guy who hits home runs, but who wouldn't know what to do with a glove on his hand and so on and so forth. But it seems that this trend of specialization is a little less, managers have to manage a little more, strategy is slightly more in play. In short, the more I watch baseball national league baseball seems more of a game and watching some of the pirates-brewers game last night reminded me of this, in perticular the performance of Yovani Gallardo.
If you haven't seen the boxscore of this 1-0 thriller, I'll give you the all you need to know, Gallardo, the starting pitcher that night was the star the evening, tossing eight shutout innings giving up only two hits and striking out eleven. But as if this wasn't enough of a performance in between that he provided all the offense for the entire game, smacking a solo shot into the left field stands for the only run of the game. I mean talk about a performance huh? I point this game out because it seems so rare in today's sports world that you see such excellence, perticularly all-around excellence in sports anywhere. Gone are the days of two way starters in football, slugging pitchers and many other stars that seem to have vanished from the modern sports landscape altogether. Now I'm not saying Gallardo is destined for greatness or anything like that, although last night's game is clearly an indication of his immense talents, but we should recognize is greatness for at least this one moment in time. On this night, Gallardo dominated the game in every possible way, displaying equal prowess with his bat as his arm and shone above all the rest, at least for this one night. Of course its just a moment and not necessarily a true indication of his talents, all you need to do is see that the last pitcher to achieve this feat was the less than spectacular Odalis Perez for the Dodgers in 1998, but it is a wonderous moment nevertheless.
It's a moment that could never happen in the American League, and I for one am happy that at least one of the leauges is still holding on this part of the past of baseball.
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