So we’re headed for the stretch run. This is the time of year that could make or break a season. No, the games don’t count any more than they did in April, but they mean more. They carry more weight. They’re heavier.
This is the time of year where legends are made, or, even more heroically, it’s the time legends define their legacies. And yes, the past sentence was written in the John Facenda-voice font.
Nevertheless, we have much admiration for the guy who refuses to simply play out the string. That’s where the Nationals’ Nyjer Morgan comes in, because even though his team is a good 21 games out of first place and headed for their fifth last-place finish in the last six seasons, Morgan has not given in.
It’s like Updike once wrote about Ted Williams:
“For me, Williams is the classic ballplayer of the game on a hot August weekday, before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill.”
For a couple of nights that was Nyjer Morgan of the lowly Washington Nationals. Not only was he running over catchers and swiping bases with his team down by a dozen runs, but when the Marlins tried to drill him a second time for perceived insults, well, that was too much for the man to bear.
And so he started a brawl.
We want to be known as the audio show that barrels over a catcher in a late-season game when there is nothing at stake aside from the final score. Maybe we did that this time:
Was this the “tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and thing done ill?”
Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, we’re giving you, the listener, you’re moneys’ worth…
Wait... it’s free. OK, never mind.