Thanks to the miracle of the literal-minded suspended-game rule, this Orioles-White Sox game was played in two installments, four months apart, and produced all sorts of semi-impossible developments for us Strange But True devotees: Orioles rookie Luis Montanez got credit for the first hit of his career on April 28 -- even though he didn't make it to the big leagues until Aug. 5. And the box score says he got that hit in Chicago, even though he's never played there. Orioles pitcher Alberto Castillo won his first big-league game on April 28, even though he didn't arrive in the majors until July 8. Baltimore reliever Rocky Cherry collected his first save 3¬Ω months before he became an Oriole. And when Junior Griffey walked for the White Sox, it technically enabled him to reach base for two teams in the same day. (He also singled for the Reds on April 28. And look at the mess that dumped in the hands of our ESPN.com day-by-day compilers, who had to convince our computers he got traded to the White Sox for the afternoon.) Sheez, is there a more fun rule in the whole rule book than that suspended-game fine print?
I'm not normally a fan of "Best of....", "Worst of....", or "Top 10 [insert topic here] of...." lists, but ESPN's Jayson Stark manages to remind us why baseball can and often does provide us with some of the best, worst, AND Top 10. One of the things that's always fascinated me about baseball is that, even though it's a fairly simple game in concept, when you look at the depth and breadth of an entire season, the 2000+ games played over the course of seven-plus months manage to provide some phenomenally weird and wacky moments. For example, in a game that has such a longer, complex, and nuanced history, the 2008 season still managed to produce a first: San Francisco's Bengie Molina somehow became the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to hit a home run...and not score. Don't worry; if you're reaction was "Uh...what??", you're in good company...but it happened.
Even if you're not a huge baseball fan, this list is pretty amusing, if for no other reason than it reveals just how messed up life between the lines can become when the fates take matters into their own hands. While baseball is and always will be a game with far more down time than action, it's a game that will continue to mess with the heads of players and fans. Perhaps that's why the game continues to fascinate me. With the opening of spring training only about a month or so hence, we can be comfortable in the knowledge that this years 2000+ games will supply a brand new of previously impossible to conceive parade of wierdness.
Play ball, y'all.... ;-)
