While Mike Lupica's gears are grinding as he comes to the astonishing conclusion that George Steinbrenner authorized the anti-WBC sign in the Yankees' Spring Training ticket office, I feel the need to draw your attention to the current hitting streak of Jimmy Rollins. Because very few baseball writers seem to notice.
Rollins is twenty away from Joe D., eight away from Rose's NL record, and his current streak is already the third-best hitting streak of my lifetime.
It's nice to know that Dom Dimaggio is so gracious whenever a player gets within twenty games of his brother:
"It would be a little bit difficult for me to swallow," said DiMaggio, 89, in a telephone interview. "You can't compare a hitting streak in a full season with one in two seasons. There's a rest in there. Even though there's pressure on him, I have to believe there's more pressure doing it in one season than in two."
I'd be surprised if Rollins gets to 40, much less 57.
But can you imagine hitting in 36 straight games -- which is remarkable in its own right -- and then taking a whole season off -- and then starting the next season by hitting in 21 straight games?
No pressure? It's easier when you have an entire off-season to lose your timing and lose your groove?
Is Rollins seriously going to have to deal with ingnorant comments like this if his streak continues? Can a modern baseballlplayer do anything that would impress an 89-year-old man? Am I to believe that all the great baseball-playing human beings were miraculously born between the years of 1900 and 1930?
Okay, now I'm riled up. I suddenly find myself rooting for Rollins ...
No comments:
Post a Comment