When A. Bartlett Giamatti died unexpectedly in 1989, eight days after pronouncing Pete Rose persona non grata from baseball, the New York Times columnist George Vecsey observed that investigating the Rose case kept the commissioner — a lifelong baseball fan — from sitting in the stands too often.
But Giamatti was there when Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan nailed career strikeout five thousand, Vecsey remembered in his sweet, sad elegy, "ticking off least one Oakland player who thought he detected Giamatti rooting for Ryan."
Giamatti knew that baseball is about rooting, about caring. Let us envision him on the edge of his seat, a smile softening his gray beard and somber eyes, his fists itching to pump the air as Ryan blew his heater past Rickey Henderson.
The milestone strikeout happened August 22, 1989, in the top of the fifth, during a stretch drive game in Arlington. The Express was already the first man to strike four thousand batters out in his career, never mind even thinking of five thousand, before he opened the inning dispatching the Man of Steal after a full count.
Surely Giamatti appreciated that he was seeing two sides of baseball history in that moment, one Hall of Famer-to-be going where no pitcher had ever gone before, and doing it at the expense of another Hall of Famer-to-be while he was at it. In a pennant race, yet.
Henderson's Athletics beat Ryan's Rangers, 2-0, that day, keeping the Rangers 10 back in the American League West while keeping a two-game lead over the Angels. But the ovation in Arlington Stadium for Ryan's milestone drowned out the Rangers' broadcasters on television and the stadium's P.A. announcer.
There may have been an A's player ticked to think Giamatti was rooting for Ryan to land the milestone, but I don't recall anyone else complaining about the broken flow of the game while Rangers fans cheered Ryan loudly enough to be heard across the Rio Grande.
There was also no social media as we know it today to allow such complaints then. Thus did Ronald Acuña, Jr. break a precedent Wednesday night in his home ballpark in Atlanta and incur some social media heat the following day over the on-the-spot celebration breaking the flow of the Braves' contest against the Cubs.
Just as Ryan was the first man to strike five thousand batters out, Acuña became the first Showman to hit forty home runs or more in a season and steal seventy bases in the same season. The founding father of the 40/70 club, who'd also founded the 40/50 and 40/60 clubs.
With Ozzie Albies at the plate for the Braves, after Acuña opened the bottom of the tenth with a base hit to send free inning-opening second base cookie Kevin Pillar home with the re-tying fifth Braves run. Acuña took off on Daniel Palencia's first pitch and dove into second under catcher Yan Gomes's throw.
Acuña raised his arms acknowledging the Truist Park crowd going berserk in celebration. Then, Acuña wrested the base out of the dirt and hoisted it above his head. Just the way Henderson did in his 1991 moment when he passed fellow Hall of Famer Lou Brock, stealing third as baseball's all-time theft champion.
"That's about as good as it gets," said Braves manager Brian Snitker, ejected from the game in the second when he argued that the Cubs' Jeimer Candelario fouled a pitch that was ruled a checked swing. (Television replays showed Snitker had the blown call right.) "I thought it was great when he picked up the bag. The fans had to love that. We all did because it was a special moment."
Maybe the fact that Acuña opened the 40/70 club in the bottom of an extra inning, instead of midway through a game, as Ryan and Henderson had done previously, had an impact on the social media scolds wanting to spank the Braves' center fielder for taking time to bask in smashing another precedent. (He's already gone where no leadoff man has gone before, hitting 41 home runs in the number one lineup slot, eight of which were hit when he was the first batter of a game, and eighteen of which were hit when he opened an inning.)
But the Braves, already the NL East champions, had something significant to play for, as well, the top seed in the coming postseason, giving them home field advantage through the entire National League Championship Series if they make it there. Once the theft celebration ended, Albies rapped the next pitch down the right field line to send Acuña home with the winning Braves run.
Had Acuña not stolen second in the first place, he wouldn't have been likely to get past third since the ball was hit sharply enough and fielded swiftly enough.
"It's crazy what he's done," said Albies post-game. "I told myself I need to come through right here. Whatever it takes. I'm happy I came through in that spot and we won that game."
"It's one of those numbers that wasn't impossible but seemed impossible," said Acuña, referencing that a player could hit forty bombs or steal 70 bases, but good luck finding the one man who could do both. Until last Wednesday night.
Maybe some of the scolds were Cub fans anxious that the game proceed apace, knowing the Cubs hung by the thinnest thread in the NL wild card race. It would be neither impossible nor incomprehensible. Cubs broadcasters Boog Sciambi and Jim Deshaies were unamused at both Acuña removing the base and the Truist Park scoreboard people showing a quick montage of Acuña's run to the milestone. Which, in turn, incurred some social media heat sent Sciambi's way.
Somehow, one couldn't shake the thought that, if it was a Cub swiping a base in Wrigley Field to establish a new club, that Cub would have given in and done precisely as Acuña did to celebrate the milestone. And no Cub broadcaster would have dared to scold him for breaking the game flow, regardless of inning.
Baseball is indeed about rooting and caring. That includes individual milestones regardless of the hour, day, week, or month. From wherever he happened to be in the Elysian Fields, rest assured A. Bartlett Giamatti gave in and pumped his fist the moment Acuña arrived safe at second. Good for him. Good for baseball.
Leave a Comment