Kuzul

Baseball is a game with many faces. Pitchers, catchers, big bats, managers…There are so many intricate parts to a great team, and the St. Louis Cardinals are historically one of the greatest teams.

Making one’s mark as a player is not easy, and unfortunately some slip through the cracks, never truly getting the attention they deserve.

In no particular order, I’ve picked out 5 players from Cardinals history who I would consider underrated.

Each of these individuals has given 10 or more years to the Cardinals organization. None of them ever received any high honors, the exception being All-Star bids. And none of them are currently on the team. (Sorry, Allen Craig! We don’t know where your superstar status will be been you eventually retire.) Lastly, almost all of them were overshadowed by other players.

The definition of the word “underrated” implies a player who’s name doesn’t often come up in conversation, so there are so many more I have missed. Comment below with your favorites!

*All stats are current on baseball-reference.com as of April 26, 2013*

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Another example of the baseball card collector’s “holy grail” is on the auction block.  Just a few weeks after a T206 Honus Wagner tobacco card brought $2.1 million, another one of the 1909 rarities is up for bid.

New Jersey-based Robert Edward Auctions is offering the card once owned by actor Charlie Sheen.  Just over a week into the bidding, it stands at $330,000.  Graded PSA 1 (poor), the card shows wear, but has quite a story behind it.

In the 1990s, Sheen loaned the Wagner and several other vintage cards from his collection to the All Star Café in New York.  It was a popular attraction at the sports-themed restaurant and apparently too tempting for a pair of chefs.

Two of them, along with a manager, plotted to steal the card and replace it with a copy.  Their idea worked for a while and they tried to cash in by selling it to New Jersey dealer Alan “Mr. Mint” Rosen.  The trio, however, got greedy.  They stole an uncut sheet of 1934 Goudey cards that included the scarce Nap Lajoie card.  They cut up the sheet and tried to sell the individual cards to avoid being discovered.

This time, though, it wasn’t as easy to replace the original, and when the theft was discovered, law enforcement agencies swooped in and the thieves were eventually arrested.  The stolen cards, including this Wagner, were turned back over to Sheen, who later sold it—along with the majority of his collection.

The card has been in private hands for a while and was sold by the same auctioneer in 2009 for $399,500. 

Virtually each time a Wagner card has sold, it’s gone on to bring a higher price the next time it hits the market—regardless of condition.  In fact, lower-grade T206 Wagner cards are highly sought after by investors and those putting together complete sets of the ever-popular set that was issued inside various cigarette brands from 1909-11.

Wagner asked that his card be pulled from production, and that wish was granted early in the production process.  It’s estimated that fewer than 75 may exist.

Popular, avidly collected and just downright cool, not all T206 cards are valuable.  So many were made that common players and lesser-grade Hall of Famers can be had for less than $100 in lower grades.  The set includes multiple cards of Hall of Famers like Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson.  

The auction, which also includes minor league cards of Babe Ruth and Joe Jackson in addition to the famous Wagner card, closes May 18.

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Mr. October’s most famous pinstripes are going on the auction block.

As first reported by Sports Collectors Daily, the jersey Reggie Jackson was wearing October 18, 1977, when he hit three homers in Game 6 of the World Series will be up for auction this spring. SCP Auctions will offer Jackson’s size 44 No. 44 home white button-down in its catalog auction in April.

Experts anticipate that it will sell for a minimum of $500,000. Some of the proceeds from the sale will go to Jackson’s Mr. October Foundation for Kids.

David Kohler, president of SCP Auctions, says he believes the Jackson jersey could bring more than any other sports jersey sold in the modern era. He wouldn’t be surprised to see the sale reach seven figures at the conclusion of the bidding. A Babe Ruth jersey worn in the 1920s was sold at an SCP Auction last year for $4.4 million, making it the most valuable piece of sports memorabilia ever sold.

SCP says the 1977 Jackson World Series jersey has been photomatched to the night in which he led the Yankees to their first post-Mantle era World Series title. Jackson had signed what was at the time a lucrative five-year free agent deal with George Steinbrenner’s team just 11 months earlier. It was Jackson who was to help deliver another title, and under immense pressure, he came through.

Jackson’s three homers came off three Dodger pitchers that night, and each came on the first pitch he saw. 

So delirious was Yankee Stadium crowd that night that Jackson had to retreat to the dugout in the top of the ninth to retrieve a batting helmet in hopes of protecting himself from fireworks landing nearby. As the final out was made, fans began pouring onto the field, and Jackson made a mad dash for the clubhouse wearing this jersey, memorably knocking over trespassing well-wishers along the way.

Jackson has promised to autograph and inscribe the jersey before it is sold.

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Dale Murphy has once again been left out of baseball’s Hall of Fame, and this time for the Atlanta Braves great, it’s for keeps.

Or, well, sort of.

A few days have passed since the BBWAA offered its ruling on this year’s MLB Hall of Fame class (or lack thereof).  And in that time, much has been made of the writers’ silent protest against allowing steroid users, alleged or admitted, into baseball’s holy land.  Yet so little has been made of the snub of Murphy in the national media.

This was the 15^th and final try at being elected via the BBWAA ballot for The Murph, who, according to Baseball Reference, hit .265 with 398 home runs over the course of a career that lasted 18 seasons, including 15 in Atlanta.  

And while his career average may not turn many heads, his home run totals are respectable, especially for a former catcher-turned-centerfielder in a time when “offense” and “catcher” were rarely used in the same thread.  Combine that with back-to-back MVP awards in 1982 and 1983, and the Hall of Fame exclusion puts Murphy in rare and historic company.

As it stands now, Murphy is the only player in the history of the game to win multiple National League MVP awards and not earn election into the Hall of Fame.

This, of course, does not include Barry Bonds, who won seven NL MVP awards during his career and still has 14 chances to secure the BBWAA vote.  Bonds earned 36.2 percent of the votes in this, his first year eligible for selection. 

Nor does it include the still-active Albert Pujols, who won three MVP awards while with the St. Louis Cardinals.

But the history stands.  According to Baseball-Reference.com, 29 players have won multiple MVP awards in their careers between both leagues.  Of those, 22 are in Cooperstown.  Of the remaining seven, two are still active (Pujols and Alex Rodriguez), one is still on the ballot (Bonds) and one will be on the ballot for the first time next year (Frank Thomas). 

That leaves Roger Maris, Juan Gonzalez and Murphy as the only three players to win multiple MVP awards in either league and not get voted into the Hall.

For Murphy, though, there is another way to be elected. 

Each year, the Veterans Committee, composed of Hall of Famers, executives and select members of the media, votes on special inductees for the Hall who are no longer eligible for the BBWAA vote. 

According to Baseball-Almanac.com, Hal Newhouser stands as the only current multi-MVP Hall member elected by the Veterans Committee.  Not many have traveled that path, but Murphy seems to be a leading candidate for selection.

Given Murphy’s longtime image as one of baseball’s good guys, it’s astounding that he’s been left out yet again.  In an era which has ceaselessly considered character nearly equal to skills in determining Hall of Famers, one would think for his public persona alone Murphy would be given a significant boost in voting compared to the rest of this year’s class.

But in a disappointing bit of irony, with this year’s vote so focused on keeping the cheaters out, Murphy, founder of the iWontCheat Foundation for children making a pledge against cheating in sports, has been left out and lost among these alleged cheaters.

The Veterans Committee has an opportunity next year to right this wrong, but for now, for whatever reason, and for at least another year, Dale Murphy will remain on the outside of baseball’s greats looking in.

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The Washington Nationals had a historic season in 2012.  

The Nats made the playoffs for the first time since moving to Washington in 2005.  

It was the first playoff appearance for the Nationals/Expos franchise since 1981.  

And it was the first playoff appearance for a Washington baseball team since the Senators lost the World Series in 1933.  

But if the Nationals’ dream season had gone according to plan, then Washington would have won the first World Series in the city’s history since 1924. 

Now, as the current World Series is being played, let’s take a look back into baseball lore and revisit the 1924 World Series.  

The 1924 Washington Senators were managed by player-manager Bucky Harris, and finished with a 92-62 record.  They won the American League pennant by 2.0 games over the New York Yankees.  The Senators faced off with the New York Giants, who were managed by one of the masters of his profession, Hall of Famer John McGraw.  The Giants won the National League pennant with a 93-60 record, finishing 1.5 games better than the Brooklyn Dodgers.  

Game 1 was held at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC on October 4, 1924.  Washington’s ace and eventual Hall of Fame inductee Walter “The Big Train” Johnson took the mound against New York’s Art Nehf, and both hurlers threw complete games, even though the game went 12 innings.  But Johnson’s 14 hits and six walks surrendered were the difference as the Giants won 4-3.  

The Senators evened the series with a Game 2 win of the exact same score.  After the Senators’ Goose Goslin and Bucky Harris hit early home runs off of Giants’ starter Jack Bentley, the Giants came back to tie the game late with two runs in the top of the ninth, thanks to RBI singles by High Pockets Kelly and Hack Wilson.  But Washington was rescued by Roger Peckinpaugh, whose walk-off double with one out in the bottom of the ninth knotted the teams at one game apiece as the World Series moved to New York.  

Game 3 was played at the hallowed Polo Grounds, and the Giants won 6-4 to take a 2-1 series lead.  It was a sloppy affair, as the Senators had two errorsand half of the runs they surrendered were unearned.  New York Giants pitcher Rosy Ryan was the unsung hero of the game.  Despite recording neither the win nor the save, Ryan pitched 4.2 innings of relief after coming into the game with two outs in the top of the fourth to relieve starter Hugh McQuillan.  Ryan gave up only two earned runs while striking out two and walking three.  He also led the team with two RBI, which came on a solo home run and an RBI ground-out.  

The Senators tied the series once again by winning Game 4, this time at two games apiece with a 7-4 win.  Goose Goslin drove in four of those Senators’ runs by himself, going 2-4 with a three-run home run.  Firpo Marberry earned a five-out save, his second of the series.  

But with the series tied 2-2, Washington’s baseball hero almost became a World Series goat.  Walter Johnson turned in his second straight lackluster performance in Game 5, giving up 13 hits and four earned runs, despite pitching another complete game.  New York Giants third baseman Freddie Lindstrom went 4-5 with two RBI and starting pitcher Jack Bentley went 2-3 with two RBI of his own, to go along with 7.1 innings pitched and only two earned runs surrendered.  The Giants won 6-2, and were only one win away from their third World Series title in four straight appearances.  

The Senators were on the brink as they hosted Game 6 back at Griffith Stadium, but Tom Zachary came to the rescue yet again.  The hero of Game 2 was the pitching star when it mattered most, giving up seven hits but only one earned run as he threw a complete game, striking out three and walking none.  He surrendered no runs and only five hits after the first inning of the game.  Washington second baseman Bucky Harris came through at the plate, hitting a two-run single in the fifth.  That was all Washington needed to win the game and force a deciding Game 7.  

So the stage was set for a memorable ending to a closely-fought series, and these two combatants did not disappoint.  The Senators had to go to their bullpen immediately, and that would actually be the story of the game.  Starting pitcher Curly Ogden faced only two batters and retired one before he was removed in favor of George Mogridge.  Mogridge pitched 4.2 innings and gave up only one earned run, which scored on a sacrifice fly after he was removed in the top of the sixth.  

But then the shaky Washington defense let down another of their pitchers, as the Giants scored two unearned runs against newly inserted Firpo Marberry, on consecutive errors by first basemen Joe Judge and short stop Ossie Bluege.  Marberry righted the ship, however, retiring the next two batters to end the inning, and then pitching a scoreless seventh and eighth.  He was relieved to start the ninth inning.  

Meanwhile, the visiting Giants got a solid pitching performance from starter Virgil Barnes, who lasted 7.2 innings.  In fact, Barnes had trouble with just two things in Game 7: Bucky Harris and the eighth inning.  Before the eighth, Barnes surrendered only three hits and one run, but Harris accounted for two of the hits and the only run, as the player-manager hit a solo homer in the fourth and a single in the seventh, which was erased by a double play.  

Barnes entered the bottom of the frame with his Giants leading 3-1 and only six outs away from reclaiming the World Championship.  But after getting the lead-off hitter to pop out in foul territory, New York’s starting pitcher quickly lost control of the inning and the game.  Barnes promptly surrendered a double to pinch hitter Nemo Leibold and a single to catcher Muddy Ruel.  Pitcher Firpo Marberry was pinch-hit for by Bennie Tate, who was walked to load the bases.  Barnes then retired the next batter.  

This set up a bases loaded, two-out duel between Barnes and his nemesis, Bucky Harris.  As he had twice done earlier in the game against Barnes, Harris put the ball in play.  But this time, Harris got a lot of help from a bad hop, as Game 5 hitting hero Freddie Lindstrom could not field the seemingly routine ground ball.  Two runs scored to tie the game.  

To the ninth inning the two teams went, tied at three.  Pitching in relief for the Senators was none other than Walter Johnson.  Washington’s ace had toiled for 18 years before he had his first shot at the postseason, racking up Hall of Fame numbers while playing for losing teams.  But once he finally appeared in the World Series, he had pitched below his standard.  

The Big Train was given a chance to redeem himself, and he did just that.  Johnson worked out of a one-out jam in the top of the ninth after Frankie Frisch hit a triple.  Johnson stranded him, and held the Giants scoreless in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings as well.  He finished with no earned runs in 4.0 innings of relief, giving up only three hits and three walks (two intentional) while striking out five.  

Johnson got his teammates into the bottom of the 12th still tied, and they would take care of the rest, with a little more help from The Big Train.  The Giants’ Game 5 winner Jack Bentley was pitching in relief, and retired the first batter.  He then got Muddy Ruel to pop a foul ball to fellow catcher Hank Gowdy—who proceeded to step on his own catcher’s mask and drop the ball.  Given second life, Ruel would hit a double.  

The next batter was the Big Train himself, left in the game by player-manager Harris, who was running out of pinch hitters as well as pitchers.  Johnson put the ball in play, and just like Harris in the eighth inning, benefited from some good fortune at third base as Freddie Lindstrom could not handle the ground ball after yet another bad hop, allowing Johnson to reach as Ruel stayed at second.  

But not for long.  Next up was center fielder Earl McNeely, who hit what at first looked like a harmless ground ball through the left side of the infield, plating Ruel for the game-winning, series-winning run.  Jack Bentley, the pitcher of record for the New York Giants, had this to say about the fateful 12th inning of Game 7 of the 1924 World Series: 

That was one of the strangest games I ever played in.  With one out, catcher [Hank]Gowdy did a sun dance on Ruel’s pop foul and stepped into his mask and dropped the ball. Ruel doubled and then there was an error at short, then McNeely hit that grounder. That was a hell’uva way to lose a World Series.  

And on the other side of the box score, Walter Johnson himself was the pitcher of record for the World Champion Washington Senators.  Ironically, the work horse of the Washington rotation had to change his role from starter to reliever to change his World Series legacy from goat to hero.  

All told, the 1924 World Series between the Washington Senators and the New York Giants was a classic.  Four game were decided by one run, two games went to 12 innings, and two games were won by a walk-off.  One of those walk-offs occurred in Game 7, making this one of only five World Series in which the final play was recorded via walk-off hit in the seventh and final game.  And it is one of only four World Series in which the seventh game was won in extra innings.  

To celebrate the World Series 100th Anniversary, ESPN ranked the 100 World Series played to date, from best (No. 1) to worst (No. 100).  The 1924 World Series was ranked sixth.  It is still the only World Series title in Washington’s history.  

Be patient, Washington Nationals fans.  One day, the Nationals will indeed win the World Series and return the title to the city of Washington.  By doing so, these Nats will write themselves into the annals of baseball’s championship teams, joining the unforgettable names of Bucky, Muddy, and The Big Train.  

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There are four teams that are still alive in the Major League Baseball postseason: the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

These storied franchises combine for 93 pennants and 48 World Series titles. They have had a combined 175 Hall of Famers—over half of the players inducted into Cooperstown.

Between 1922 and 2006, the four teams faced off in the World Series 15 times, with the Yankees and Giants meeting seven of those times (1922-24, 1936-37, 1951, 1962). The Yankees are 5-2 all-time against the Giants in the World Series .

The Yankees and Cardinals have met five times, with St. Louis winning three of those. St. Louis has also beat the Detroit Tigers in two of the three World Series that they have faced off, the last one in 2006.

The quest for the AL Pennant beings tonight at 8:30 when the New York Yankees take on the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees won the season series 6-4.

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As we enter the final days of the 2012 season, Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera is trying to do something no ballplayer has done in 45 years—win a Triple Crown. The last Triple Crown winner was Boston‘s Carl Yastrzemski, who led the American League in all three major batting categories in 1967.

If Cabrera wins out, he will become the second Tiger in history to win a Triple Crown, joining all-time batting leader Ty Cobb, who won the honor in 1909.

Here are 10 things you may not know about the MLB Triple Crown.

There have been 17 Triple Crowns in baseball history, with 15 different players winning the honor.

The American League has seen nine Triple Crowns and the National League seven. Canadian Tip O’Neill of the St. Louis Browns was the only player from the American Association to win a Triple Crown, way back in 1887.

Rogers Hornsby (1922 and 1925) and Ted Williams (1942 and 1947) are only two-time Triple Crown winners.

Paul Hines of the Providence Grays was the first Triple Crown winner, taking National League honors in 1878.

The highest batting average for a Triple Crown winner was Hugh Duffy of the Boston Braves, who hit .438 in 1894, still MLB’s single-season record. Nap Lajoie of Philadelphia led the American League with a .426 average for the Philadelphia A’s in 1901.

National League Triple Crown winner Rogers Hornsby hit .401 in 1922 and .403 in 1925 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The most HRs in a Triple Crown season is 52, hit by Yankees switch-hitter Mickey Mantle in 1956.

The Yankees‘ Lou Gehrig knocked in 165 runs in 1934, the most ever for a Triple Crown winner. Jimmie Foxx had 163 for the Philadelphia A’s in 1933. 

The last National Leaguer to win the Triple Crown was Joe “Ducky” Medwick, way back in 1937, some 75 years ago.

The only Triple Crown winners not elected to the Hall of Fame were the first two winners: Paul Hines and Tip O’Neill, and Heinie Zimmerman of the 1912 Cubs.

Triple Crown Winners

American League
YEAR   PLAYER                                   HR    RBI    AVG
1967    Carl Yastrzemski, Boston        44    121    .326
1966    Frank Robinson, Baltimore     49    122    .316
1956    Mickey Mantle, New York        52    130    .353
1947    Ted Williams, Boston              32    114    .343
1942    Ted Williams, Boston              36    137    .356
1934    Lou Gehrig, New York             49    165    .363
1933    Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia     48    163    .356
1909    Ty Cobb, Detroit                        9    115    .377
1901    Nap Lajoie, Philadelphia         14   125    .422

National League
YEAR   PLAYER                                  HR    RBI    AVG
1937    Joe Medwick, St. Louis            31    154    .374
1933    Chuck Klein, Philadelphia       28    120    .368
1925    Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis        39    143    .403
1922    Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis        42    152    .401
1912    Heinie Zimmerman, Chicago   14    103    .372
1894    Hugh Duffy, Boston                   18    145    .438

1878    Paul Hines, Providence              4    50     .358

American Association
YEAR   PLAYER                                    HR    RBI    AVG
1887    Tip O’Neill                                 44    121    .326

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There was a time, in the not-so-distant past, when a no-hitter in MLB was so infrequent that you could remember the names of the pitchers who tossed such gems over the past several years.

The moments were recalled on the yellowed newspaper clippings of your memory.

The no-hitters dotted recent history, delicious in their stubborn and insistent rarity of occurrence.

You were sometimes lucky to see one a year. The no-hitter was Armageddon-type headline stuff for the newspapers.

Part of the beauty, too, was how the no-hitter often plucked mediocre pitchers from virtual anonymity and shoved them under baseball’s spotlight, all because for one game, that guy with the losing record and the ERA of 4.86 put it all together.

It’s part of my fascination with baseball—how the game has a wonderful way of occasionally making heroes out of the Walter Mittys who play it.

The list of men who have tossed no-hitters is hardly a “Who’s-Who” of pitching.

The no-hitter was, until recent years, baseball’s version of being struck by lightning.

Emphasis on was.

It was around 1990 when the no-hitter increased in frequency. In the 1980s, there were 13 no-hitters thrown, total. Three years in the decade (1982, 1985 and 1989) were devoid of no-hitters altogether. In contrast, the 1990s had 14 no-hitters by 1991, and a new day had dawned.

But now it’s getting ridiculous.

Check the water in the cooler in the dugout. Better yet, have the pitching arms tested for uranium—or Nolan Ryan.

You ready for this?

Since April 17, 2010, 16 no-hitters have been thrown. They’re getting to be as common as complete games, almost.

Friday night, Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds tossed the latest gem, against the Pirates in Pittsburgh (the same Pirates team that was two outs away from being victimized by Justin Verlander in May, which would have been Verlander’s third no-hitter before the age of 30).

Bailey’s no-hitter is the seventh this season alone, a year that has seen three perfect games.

Bailey fits the bill as baseball’s latest no-hit artist. He has a career ERA of 4.59, so naturally he threw a no-hitter.

But seriously—seven no hitters, in one season? And three perfect games?

Call it the dead-ball era, Part II. Or the return of the Hitless Wonders, with apologies to the 1906 Chicago White Sox.

But more power to the pitchers, I say. It’s rather amazing that the spate of no-hitters have come at a time in the game where strike zones are squeezed more than Charmin. There are a lot of umpires in the game today who make the pitcher pour the baseball over an area the size of a postage stamp.

Yet we are seeing dominant performances almost every night. It’s not just starting pitching that has become filled with Ryans and Koufaxes and Johnsons. Every team, it seems, has a reliever or two whose ERA looks like the price of a newspaper.

Fernando Rodney, our old friend from his Tigers days and the closer for the Tampa Bay Rays, is having the year of his life.

Rodney, from 2007 through 2011, never had an ERA of lower than 4.24. Tigers fans know all too well the trials and tribulations he had as the team’s closer.

This year, Rodney has converted 46 of 48 save opportunities and has an ERA of 0.62, or one-seventh of what he’s been churning out in recent years.

A 0.62 figure isn’t an ERA, it’s pocket change.

It’s a fascinating time to be watching baseball, because offenses are shrinking gradually, like that guy who loses weight but you don’t notice until you see photos of him from three years ago.

Every Major League Baseball season contains 2,430 games, or a few less if rainouts aren’t made up. Let’s take a look at total runs scored since 2006 (numbers courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com):

2006: 23,599 (9.7 per game)

2007: 23,322 (9.6)

2008: 22,585 (9.3)

2009: 22,419 (9.2)

2010: 21,308 (8.8)

2011: 20,808 (8.6)

2012: 20,298 (through earlier this week with a handful of games left per team)

Now, I’m no mathematician or sabermetrics guy, but that looks like a trend to me.

So why the degradation involving those guys swinging the bats?

Well, they’re growing pitchers bigger these days. You see the sizes of some of these hurlers? Put them in plaid and they’d pass for Paul Bunyan. Some of these guys are so tall it’s like being pitched to by a giraffe.

The pitchers are getting bigger and stronger, but the bats are the same size.

Another theory? Teams are promoting players earlier in their professional careers, as a rule. And the pitchers are ahead of the hitters in their development.

The stuff out there is nasty. Sliders dropping off tables like cue balls. Curves bending like bamboo. Fastballs exploding and being applied to the strike zone with a paint brush. Changeups twisting hitters into the dirt like a corkscrew.

The poor hitters just can’t keep up, as the above numbers indicate.

So is the no-hitter being ruined? Is it being rendered meaningless? Are we on the verge of greeting the news of the latest no-no with yawns?

Sixteen no-hitters since April 2010. That’s nearly one a month, on average. And there are a whole lot more that are flirted with—getting as far as the seventh or eighth inning in many instances.

Poor Homer Bailey. He threw his no-hitter and it’s like you want to react by saying, “Put it over there, with the others.”

What can you say? The guy was born 20 years too late to thrill us.

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Just five games into his 2012 return to the major leagues, Armando Galarraga has been designated for assignment by the struggling Houston Astros and faces an uncertain future. For Galarraga, it is the most recent in a series of setbacks that have brought on the realization that his job as a professional athlete is in jeopardy.

In a career that has been defined by spectacular ups and downs – Galarraga was once a promising young arm set to emerge as a solid starter behind superstar Justin Verlander in Detroit – he looked to add another winning chapter when he toed the rubber for the Astros on July 28, 2012. After toiling in the high minors for more than a year, he reveled in the sights and sounds of a big league ballpark, seeing it with a fresh set of eyes belonging to a more seasoned, mature and smarter pitcher than we’d seen in the past.

Of course, there’s nothing like witnessing the birth of your first child less than 24-hours earlier to provide a new perspective on life, but after driving to Houston from his home in Austin, Texas, Galarraga gave up three runs on five hits as the Astros lost to the Pirates. Unfortunately, a lack of success and inability to command his once-devastating sinker has left Galarraga in an all too familiar situation – fighting to get back into the major leagues.

Even at such an obvious and imposing juncture, it is unlikely that anything Armando Galarraga does during his playing days, good or bad, will eclipse his infamously imperfect moment on June 2, 2010. He had already been optioned to the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate in Toledo in March and, back with the Tigers in late May, aimed to prove he belonged with the best players in the world. Still, no one could have expected the kind of dominating performance he would deliver against the Cleveland Indians that day.

Perfection, in life and sports, is fleeting. In baseball it is defined as twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down. No hits, no walks, no errors—nothing but two men and a glorified game of catch while mystified batters shake their heads as they return to a silent dugout. As fate would have it, Armando Galarraga would, on that day, retire all twenty-seven men he faced, but because of a blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce, would have to face a twenty-eighth.

In a moment that is sealed in the annals of baseball lore, Galarraga stared in towards the Tigers dugout, knowing full well that his one brush with sports immortality had been whisked away by the fickle baseball gods. The look on his face as he pondered his flirtation with perfection was an impressive mix of the incredulous and the dignified, but he, as professionals always do, composed himself, settled in and recorded the final out.

As a reflection of society, baseball is fraught with cheaters, liars, criminals and those wise enough to know how to use the rules to their advantage. The mind reels at the thought of lesser men who have been elevated to baseball super-stardom and with what degree of class they might have responded in that same situation. An incredible, nearly unfathomable amount of self-discipline and character was no doubt required for Galarraga to maintain that, despite the historic circumstances and despite everything he’d been through to get on the mound that day, the twenty-eighth batter was just another out.

There was a time, not very long ago, when perfection was considered an honorable goal. Unrelenting focus and dedication were considered the trademarks of this country and the immovable force propelling it into the twentieth century. But anti-heroes and everyday people have replaced Superman in the national conscience over the course of several generations as they settled into an uncomfortable reality: true, sustained perfection is impossible. Instead, the one constant, unwavering trait that supersedes all else in the hearts and minds of sports fans is the lust for justice.

It is entirely possible that Armando Galarraga’s imperfect game will be viewed by future generations as a harbinger of instant replay, a pivotal moment when baseball decided to abandon the human element and rely on systematic automation to dictate its game. Since the underlying goal is to satisfy baseball’s authenticity — to always get the call right — it would seem to be adequate evidence to support this paradigm shift.

Yet it is even more likely that Armando Galarraga is perhaps more widely known for his distinguished and proud response to injustice than he ever would have been had he joined the ranks of Len Barker, Tom Browning and Dallas Braedon. A perfect game is a remarkable performance, but if Joyce made the correct call, Galarraga would be just another pitcher who pitched one exceptional game, his memory eventually lost to all but the most ardent fans.

Instead we are left with the image of a professional athlete who understood the unusual gift he was given. With the eyes of the sporting world fixed on his every move Armando Galarraga gave sports fans something even more spectacular: he reacted like a champion, he overcame adversity, persisted and succeeded. He provided onlookers with an all-too-rare glimpse of honor and integrity.

Whether he throws another pitch in a big league game or not, Armando Galarraga has come to represent a throwback to the baseball characters once adored by a nation. Surrounded by superstars with million-dollar contracts and only a faint concept of loyalty, Galarraga is continuing his fight, but has already won over the hearts of many with his enduring performance on that cloudy afternoon in Detroit. Despite the gravity of the misjudgment, it was a class act by a classy player that represents the kind of honest, driven effort given by millions of Americans every day who all seek the same goal.

It was an impressive pitching feat that no one saw coming. It was an even more impressive response that few could have imagined and in the days, weeks and months that have followed, it has become something even better…

Perfect.

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By all accounts, Mike Trout is having one heck of a season. His wins-above-replacement stat—9.2 games—is more than one-and-a-half times that of the next-highest ranked player in the bigs. His .335 batting average and 42 steals lead the AL, and his OPS of .979 is second only to Miguel Cabrera. Though Cabrera and Josh Hamilton may give him a run for his money, Mike Trout is very likely to win the AL MVP award this year.

And to top it all off, he’s just a rookie.

If Trout wins both the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards, he’ll be joining a very select group of athletes in any sport who’ve managed the feat. Who are the others, and what did they do?

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