What a delight to have the manifold pleasures of the Grand Old
Game back again. And in its regular-season, now-the-games-count
variety. It only seems like a year and a half since that great
Cardinal/Rangers World Series last October.
Spring training exhibition games are welcome after months of
games that aren’t baseball. But they aren’t the real deal. Pitchers
are just getting their work in and trying new pitches. Managers are
getting a look at minor leaguers, many of whom will start the
season in A-ball and end it at their father-in-law’s hardware store
in Keokuk. When the guy playing first base is wearing uniform
number 106 ½, you know he isn’t going to make the big club. No one
cares who wins the spring games. I sometimes wonder why they keep
score.
Thanks to an accumulation of years and a dickey back, I’ve
reached the point in my athletic career that I call Couch-22. With
apologies to King Lear, I now confer all athletic exertions on
younger strengths. Considering my athletic skills even in my youth,
I probably should have traded my cleats in for a couch decades ago.
Quoting from memory the self-evaluation of Chicago writer Joe
Epstein (a very savvy baseball guy as well as an engaging writer):
“I was a pretty good athlete — for a writer.”
This First Weekend featured the things that keep baseball fans
coming back to their game year after year. Great defensive plays.
Clutch hits. And some dominating pitching performances. Justin
Verlander of the Tigers is a force of nature, and one of the
reasons September seems to be continuing in Red Sox Nation. Kyle
Lohse of the Cardinals, using finesse rather than Verlander power,
spoiled the opening of the Miami Marlins’ new Tax-Payer Stadium.
While we’re on the Marlins, am I the only one who thinks their new
home uniforms look like a bad trip in Margaritaville?
But the biggest magic last weekend, featuring some of the
electrifying moments baseball fans live for, took place at the Trop
in St. Petersburg. And not just because the Tampa Bay Rays swept
the Evil Empire, though I’ll take this anytime I can get it.
It’s appropriate that Carlos Pena plays for the Tampa Bay Rays.
He’s a ray of sunshine. Always smiling, always positive, humble.
Miss Congeniality with power. He’s the most popular player in Rays
history. Even the Grinch who stole Christmas likes this guy.
Of course it’s not just Carlos’s Welcome Wagon personality that
makes him so popular in the Trop and across the Tampa Bay Area. He
holds a host of Rays offensive records: Career home runs at 146,
single season home runs at 46 (2007). He not only drives in runs
but he prevents opposing ones as well. He’s one of the slickest
fielding first basemen in the bigs.
There was no joy around Tampa Bay in 2011 when in a salary dump
the Rays did not re-sign Pena, who spent a year with the Cubs. But
the numbers worked out for him to return, and he got a huge welcome
from his many admirers when he was introduced before the Rays’
Opening Day game.
Just minutes later, after the Yankees had failed to score in
their half of the first and the Rays had loaded the bases in
theirs, Pena parked a 3-1, CC Sabathia fastball in the right field
stands for a grand slam while a full house in the Trop alternately
whooped and swooned. This was a triumph of Rays fans’ hope and
Pena’s grit over expectation. Before this at bat Pena was 4 for 35
against Sabathia.
This Frank Capra moment would have been enough for a day’s work.
But Pena wasn’t through. With the score tied 6-6 in the bottom of
the ninth, Pena drove home the winner with a shot over Yankee
center fielder Curtis Granderson’s head. This blast came against a
very mortal looking Mariano Rivera, off of whom Pena had never
before had a base hit. Who says you can’t come home again?
Pena’s Opening Day performance was so dramatic it took attention
away from the fact that Rays slugger Evan Longoria reached base
five times, including a solo homerun. The Rays took the next two,
with Pena contributing a home run and a double Sunday, supporting a
remarkable pitching performance by Jeremy Hellickson. Joy is
unconfined in Mudville.
Of course there were many more important things to contemplate
on Holy Weekend. But for many of us baseball is a blessing. And we
can forgive those in the Tampa Bay Area, pious or heathen, who
believe, after this weekend’s festivities, that Carlos Pena is
too.
Welcome back Carlos. Welcome back baseball. Almost 160 games
left, then the playoffs. Life is good.
##########################
Larry Thornberry is a writer in
Tampa.
Larry Thornberry
ltberrywriter@earthlink.net
