Adam B is more music than sports -- he's Managing Editor at the music website mxdwn.com, and hosts the electronic-music show "The Circuit" currently heard on Y-Rock on XPN -- but he's a regular reader and commenter at The700Level. He sends us these thoughts:
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Are you still basking in the glow of Eric Bruntlett's unassisted triple play last weekend? I know I am -- Sunday, of all days, I plug in my TV at my new apartment just in time to see him make history, live, in living black-and-white. (Hey, in the absence of a cable plan you take what you can get.) Magical.
He stumbled upon a holy grail of baseball plays, but surely there are doubters of Beardo or the Phillies team of which he is part who have the temerity to ask, "That all you got?" I get the sense the answer's "no" -- that there truly is more where that came from.
In trading post-game reactions with some of my friends, one directed me to MLB.com and their Rare Feats page listing some of the best, longest, weirdest, and other "-est" occurrences in the sport. I guess 2009 counts as a busy year on that part of the site: Bruntlett's play (just the 15th of its kind) joins Mark Buehrle's perfect game for the White Sox (only the 18th ever) and Josh Willingham's two-grand-slam show for the Natinals (the 13th ever) as the high-water marks for the obscenely uncommon in baseball this season.
Whether or not baseball's run of impossible luck/unfathomable skill is done for the year, what Rare Feat could our WFCs pull off next in a full season? Is the Flyin' Hawaiian next in line for a hit streak to rival DiMaggio's 56? If all the stars aligned for offensive strategy and performance, could Jayson Werth have a 40-40 season tucked away for 2010? The baseball gods demand answers...