The cool thing about baseball is that something new happens all the time. It's even better with players like Jamie Moyer around because he has been pitching in the big leagues since before I started high school. He spans eras. Dynasties even.
Listen to Moyer talk about baseball and you are bound to get some type of insight. After all, guys like him don't stick around the game for a quarter of a century by accident. He's clearly doing something right.
But here's something else you will noticed about Moyer: when he loses he gets a little crusty. Or, as ballplayers like to say, "he gets the ass." That's short for "red ass," which we in the normal world might call a rant, tantrum or general-type anger.
Moyer definitely has the ass after last night's loss to the Braves. In five innings he gave up four runs and eight hits, including a pair of homers. Both of those homers came on Moyer's first pitch of an inning. More precise, Kelly Johnson ripped Moyer's very first pitch of the season deep into the right-field seats.
As far as auspicious beginnings go, this was the auspiciousist.
After the game, in the silence and stillness of the Phillies' post-game clubhouse, is where the education began. When Moyer was finally dressed, showered and ready to chat about the game nearly 30 minutes after the last pitch, he dropped a nugget out there a lot of us had never heard before.
To wit:
"At times I had pretty decent command," he said. "The first pitch of the game, he put a charge into it. He squared it up. The ball that Chipper hit was a pretty good pitch as well. It might have been a little bit up in the zone. A lot of times you get that professional courtesy, but it's not assumed. They've got a bat in their hands, they're supposed to swing.
"Two pitches, two solo home runs. That's going to happen in this ballpark. We're down 4-0, we're still in the game. That's the way I see it. I've only played here 2-plus years but four runs is nothing. You try to not give up any runs. But if you're down by four, down by three, especially in today's game in pretty much any ballpark, you're still in the game."
Wait... professional courtesy? Really? Does it go something like: "Hey Kelly, I know you were in diapers when I broke into the game, but we have this thing called a 'professional courtesy.' I'm going to throw a meatball right down the middle and you have to watch it go by. OK? Here it comes..."
Maybe Moyer just had the ass, but he knows as well as anyone that as soon as you leave Florida, it's game on.
Professional courtesy?
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Speaking of professionals, Pat Burrell, Geoff Jenkins, Kyle Kendrick and Adam Eaton all turned up for the ring ceremony on Wednesday morning.
Needless to say, Eaton was booed loudly.