Stark: Bartolo’s blast among strange but true feats that make MLB great

From SABR member Jayson Stark at ESPN.com on December 27, 2016:

So here it is, the last week of December. And you know what I can’t get out of my head? Bartolo Colon’s home run. Yeah, really. What the heck is wrong with me, anyway?

And then I realize. Nothing is wrong with me. I’m thinking about Bartolo’s magical home run because it makes me laugh — but also because it reminds me of something I never want to forget.

That baseball is awesome. And this totally goofy, totally exhilarating, totally out-of-the-blue home run was one of those OMG moments that sums up the strange but true beauty of this incredible sport.

Every single day, for six months a year, we find ourselves asking: How the hell did that happen? Or: When was the last time that happened? Or: Did you just see what I saw? Or something like that. Well, you know what? Even in December, when we find ourselves halfway through baseball’s long, cold, box-score-free offseason, that’s something to celebrate.

So what better time to savor those beautiful moments than the final week of 2016, when there is no baseball at all — other than the awesome memories that get us through the winter? C’mon, raise your champagne glasses as we toast the 100 percent nonfictional wackiness that makes baseball so relentlessly cool.

 

Read the full article here: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18352822



Originally published: December 27, 2016. Last Updated: December 27, 2016.