The Second Coming

Last night we finally got the much anticipated debut of the most hyped athlete since Ken Griffey, Jr came out.

Poor Stephen Strasburg - way too much pressure to put on a 21-year-old kid.

No way he could live up to all that hype, right?

Whatevah bitches......

Strasburg didn't fall short of the hype.

If anything, the hype fell short of him.

Fourteen strikeouts. Not a single walk. An electrifying performance, including an unforgettable final inning in which he struck out the side while all of Nationals Park roared with every pitch.

Last year's No. 1 overall draft pick put on a dazzling display of power pitching in his major league debut Tuesday night, clocking 100 mph with his fastball and baffling hitters with nasty curves in the Washington Nationals' 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"He pitched," Nationals slugger Adam Dunn said, "probably the best game I've ever seen pitched."

Here is a stat that just blew my mind - 65 of his 94 pitches were strikes

I've been catching a lot of guys," said catcher Ivan Rodriguez, patting Strasburg on the shoulder, "but this kid is unbelievable."

Strasburg's fastest pitch in his debut hit 101 mph. However, his fastball AVERAGED 99 mph. Holy Shit Wow-Wee!

His changeup clocked in about 91 mph. 91 mph is faster than most major league pitchers throw their fast ball!

The starter opposing him, Pittsburgh's Jeff Karstens, throws a fastball that touches 88 mph. Although, in fairness to Karstens, Strasburg's fastball also touches 88 mph. It just does so while accelerating on the way to 101 mph.
In compiling his 14 strikeouts, Strasburg struck out every batter in the Pittsburgh lineup at least once.

Pirates shortstop Ronny Cedeno, who went down twice, said after the game: "It was nasty, all of it, everything he did. That kid is going to be the best pitcher in the National League."

Strasburg retired the final seven Pirates batters he faced.

ALL BY STRIKEOUT!

He truly seemed to get better with the more pitches he threw.

The game took only 2 hours, 19 minutes. For all the superlatives thrown at Strasburg, the thing I like best about him is that he works fast.

He actually made it possible to watch an entire baseball game and still be a normal member of society!

Crazy, right? It almost takes two hours and 19 minutes of a Yankees-Red Sox game to get you to A-Rod's first at-bat!


Strasburg said after the game, "It's kind of like when you get married. You kind of go into it wanting to remember everything — and once it's done, you can't remember a single thing."

Strasburg relied on his curveball early because his fastball was a bit wild. But by the end, he couldn't miss with his heater.

Like I mentioned earlier, he fanned the last seven batters he faced, and he struck out all nine Pirates starters at least once - every one of them!

The day was nicknamed "Strasmus" — and it was the biggest baseball event in the nation's capital since the sport returned in 2005 after a 33-year absence.

To go real deep into history, one could argue that Strasburg had the most anticipated Washington rookie pitching debut since Walter Johnson at the long-forgotten American League Park on Aug. 2, 1907.

So I truly believe that we saw history being made last night. I was one of those who just knew that this kid was so built up that the only place he could go was down. And yet he rose even higher than imagined.

As a long time umpire, I have had the best seat in the house (behind the plate) for hundreds, maybe thousands of baseball games. The level of competition grows by leaps and bounds as you move up. From 14 year old ball to high school ball is huge. High school to college is bigger than that. Then you can go to semi-pro, farm league, A, AA, AAA and finally to the major league.

The statistics go something like this:

100 players to start at age 14:
10 of those 100 go to college
2 of those 10 go to the lower leagues of pro ball
less than .001 of those 2 make it to the show (major league)

The odds are truly staggering that the stud in your local youth league will make it all the way. In my 42 years of baseball I have known many that played in college and maybe 5% of them went on to play minor league ball. I know 2 that were called up to the "Show" during a playoff run or as an injury replacement for a short time.

And conservitavely I have figured that my exposure is around 9000 baseball players!

So clip out the article in the paper today and tuck it away - because I think that your grandchildren will have something valuable to put on ebay when they get ready to retire!!

Peace y'all