By Ronald N. Guy Jr.
Whether obvious or hidden from view, everyone
possesses special talents. They can be born
skills or ones acquired through dogged determination. Some get parlayed into rewarding careers; others
might be just a hobby; still others are something we break out when needed or on
whim to get a few laughs or break the ice.
Whatever the case may be, it’s our thing - or things. It’s what we do a little…or a lot…better than
most people.
Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis and
Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Rosenthal are really good at baseball. Davis has a total of 283 career homeruns and
twice led the majors in dingers.
Rosenthal, a flame-throwing reliever, has had seasons of 45 and 48
saves, respectively. Both are former all
stars. Both have received votes for the
MVP award.
But both started the 2019 MLB season as if they had lost
all ability to play the game. Davis,
going back to last September, was mired in record-setting 0 for 54 slump. Meanwhile, Rosenthal was a disaster. In four appearances between March 30 and
April 7, he gave up four hits, four walks, seven runs and retired exactly zero
batters.
They were the batter that couldn’t get a hit and the
pitcher who couldn’t record an out. These
once dominant baseball forces were Superman with a pocket full of kryptonite,
Batman with his broken back (courtesy of Bane), Iron Man without his suit and
Dr. Bruce Banner with an inability to get angry and turn green. In other words, Davis and Rosenthal had lost
their superpower - baseball.
Winston Churchill once said, “If you’re going through
hell, keep going.” President Barack
Obama, during his own time of struggle, concluded, “The best way to not feel
hopeless is to get up and do something.”
Adding to those bold demands for perseverance, is this timeless optimism
from Dr. Seuss: “When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue,
when you start to get mad…you should do what I do. Just tell yourself Duckie, you’re really
quite lucky! Some people are much
more…oh, ever so much more…oh, muchly, much-much more unlucky than you!”
It’s doubtful that Davis or Rosenthal ever thought
they were going through hell. But they
did get up and play and probably at least attempted Dr. Seuss’s recommended
optimism. Rosenthal eventually got an
out – three, in fact – on April 10 to lower his season ERA from “INF” (for
infinity) to an at least calculable, if atrocious, 72.00! Davis eventually got a hit too – three, to
match Rosenthal’s outs – on April 13 to finally register a “puncher’s chance” batting
average of .079!
I kid because I legitimately care. Davis has probably been hitting prodigious
bombs his entire life. Likewise,
Rosenthal’s probably been throwing smoke and making batters look foolish (he’s
recorded 436 strikeouts in just 326 total innings pitched) since he first took
a little league mound. Now they suddenly
couldn’t do the most basic things demanded by their craft – get hits and outs. The two baseball gods were mere mortals.
The opportunity to observe competitive greatness -
unimaginable levels of performance - is a major allure of sports. But to see the greats struggle, grind and,
ultimately and hopefully, author a comeback story, transcends sports. It’s a more basic human fascination because
it’s a more familiar human condition. We
can’t relate to hitting 54 homeruns or saving 48 games in a MLB season, like
Davis or Rosenthal have, but everyone has figuratively been unable to get a hit
or an out at some point in their lives (even in aspects where we fancy
ourselves rather skilled). It’s the
reason the dominant reaction to Tiger Woods’s unbelievable win at The Master’s
last weekend was some combination of joy and awe. Tiger’s a complicated person; nevertheless,
his personal and professional struggles are very real. He pushed through and completed the ultimate
professional comeback. Davis and
Rosenthal are trying to do the same. And
it’s likely all baseball fans are rooting for them, if only because at some
point we are all lost, grinding and searching for redemption.
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