As published in The County Times (countytimes.somd.com), May 2020
By Ronald N. Guy Jr.
You know the drill by now, fellow bleacher bums. The first order of business is a quarantine
check.
It has been 64 days since the NBA suspended its
season, 63 days since schools closed temporarily and eight days since they
shuttered for the year. Got Zoom? We should be sitting in these cheap seats to
together, just inches much less six feet apart, discussing the start of the
NFL’s minicamps and getting increasingly amped for the Capitals’ push to
another Stanley Cup. Instead we are lamenting
the recent cancellation of the Little League World Series, an event where kids from
around the world teach us how a common love and a shared experience can trivialize
divides in nationality, language, race, religion and any other barrier cooked
up by the simple-minded, cynical and generally flawed adult world.
This all stinks, of course, but isolation, facemasks, social
distancing and cancelled sporting events save lives and lighten the load on
health care workers – so it’s a small price to pay. A very small price. For the patriot readers, if George Washington
or Patrick Henry were alive today, they would be sacrificing for their fellow
Americans. For the Christian readers,
Jesus would be masked up and all about touch-free takeout, at least when not
giving virtual sermons. For everyone,
included in those groups or not, just be a good human. Our wellness is now very much
intertwined.
Roy Face and Washington baseball are also connected. Face pitched 16 seasons in the major leagues
from 1953-1969, with all but one being with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Face was traded during the 1968 season to
Detroit, where he stayed long enough to have a cup of coffee. He finished his career the next season with
the newly established Montreal Expos, the franchise that ultimately moved south
some 35 years later and are now our WORLD CHAMPION Washington Nationals (nope,
never gets old).
Embarrassing admission: Despite owning a version of “Total
Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia” for over 25 years, I had never
heard of Face until a recent ESPN article by David Schoenfield chronicled his 18-1
record in 1959 – a major-league record .947 winning percentage. Further research revealed Face was far from a
one-season wonder. From 1958-1962, Face
led the majors in saves four times and saved three World Series games in 1960, a
feat since tied several times and bested only by John Wetteland’s four saves in
1996. But neither Wetteland nor the five
other pitchers with three saves pitched more than the 10.1 innings Face did in
the Pirates’ 1960 Fall Classic victory over the New York Yankees.
Face wasn’t done setting records or with Washington
sports. Over all those seasons in
Pittsburgh, Face took the mound 807 times for the Pirates, tying the then
record for most appearances by a pitcher with a single club. Whose record did he equal? Washington Senators pitchers and all-time
baseball legend Walter Johnson, of course.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Roy Face, who was all of 5’8” and 155lbs, managed this
long, notable major league career because he found his magic trick. See, Face threw a forkball, something of a
split-fingered fastball and quite the novelty for his era. How fabulous.
Isn’t that what we’re all doing in life – hunting for what makes us
unique? Foraging for a sustaining
force? Scrambling for something that
sets us apart? Searching for our version
of a magic forkball? It could be a skill
that starts a career, a calling that provides lifelong inspiration, a
friendship that develops into a business partnership or an innocent spark that leads
to a relationship, love, a family and contentment. More broadly, it could be a magic elixir that
solves one of society’s “isms” or “phobias”, the recent rise in divisive
tribalism, wealth inequality or an existential threat like climate change. Or it could even be a pertinent discovery that
overcomes an incredible challenge faced in a specific moment in history – something
like a vaccine for an evil, pervasive virus sweeping the globe, suspending
personal liberties and creating uncertainty, fear and heartache. Yeah, give me…give us all…a magic forkball
like that.
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