Come on, everyone loves sports puns, especially one’s that are worthy of the Boston Herald (note, I haven’t seen the Herald yet today, so I can’t make loads of fun of the headline they gave Lester’s no hitter). I have two things to say about the no hitter, all while trying to put a spin on it that hasn’t already been beaten into the ground by sports writers, radio hosts, TV hosts, fans, bloggers, and crazy homeless people.
The first is that Lester was masterful. He had utter command, mixed his pitches, and seemed to be toying with batters. I was shocked that he was able to blow away hitters in the late innings. I loved when he would throw the high heat with 2 strikes, thereby changing eye levels, setting up hitters for that filthy curve that fell off the table. Who knew that Ellsbury’s diving catch in the 4th would carry so much importance? The thing about Lester is, you knew he had something like this in him, you just wondered if it would ever emerge. He never seemed to want to dominate hitters, or at least, never seemed to have the consistency to do so. The theme of this game was getting ahead of hitters and attacking harder than Sonny going after Carlo in “The Godfather”. In the past, he either lacked the confidence or consistency to do exactly that. We’ve seen flashes of this during the early season, making you wonder if the kid would finally settle down. Just two weeks ago, I told a friend that Lester would be a solid number 3 pitcher and that was his ceiling. If he can pitch like he did last night (not no hitters, but dominating for a good portion of the game), he could prove me dead wrong. This time, I wouldn’t mind being wrong.
The second was something that creeped into the head of every Sox fan watching the game. The “hey, wait a minute, this kid had cancer” thought process. Which is fine to mention once or twice, but it has started to overshadow the accomplishment. Now, I’m not belittling cancer or cancer survivors, my family could change our last name to Cancer, so I know what it does. I’m just saying that Lester does not want to be “the guy with cancer who threw the no hitter.” I think he just wants to be “the Major League pitcher who threw a no hitter.” He’ll never forget the fight he won, he’ll give inspirational speeches and visit kids in the hospital, but he doesn’t want any special treatment or special accolades because of it. I don’t think there was one story I saw that didn’t mention it. And here I am, mentioning it. Even I forget sometimes.
My basic point here is, let us appreciate this performance for what it was, a truly masterful performance by a young kid who will hopefully have a bright future. Let’s not think about the fact that he was on the trading block all winter long in a possible Johan Santana deal. Some things are better left forgotten.
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