“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore, trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.” — Khalil Gibran.

“#$%&!”  – Khalil Greene, after being struck out by Francisco Liriano, playing the role of physician during Sunday afternoon’s game, the best one that Liriano has pitched all season. The screamed F-bomb was clearly heard on TV and sent Dick Bremer into a momentary word stumble.

“(Baseball) is a source of a lot of joy, but it’s also a source of a lot of frustration and sadness and fear. It’s difficult to deal with, because it is something I really enjoy doing, but it has become at times like a love-hate relationship. And the hate is not for the game necessarily but it’s in the feeling that the game often tends to arise within me. It’s not whatever you would consider to be normal. It’s a different level of intensity.” — Khalil Greene, in USA Today after returning from the disabled list earlier this month because of an anxiety disorder.

“Infielder Khalil Greene, battling anxiety issues again, is likely to go on the disabled list for a second time. Greene, who homered in three straight games in Kansas City a week ago  before going 0 for his last 13 in New York, had sat out two games this weekend before starting Sunday (against the Twins). Greene went 0 for three, striking out twice and committing an error at third base, and La Russa lifted him after seven innings.  ‘He was having some problems,’ (Manager Tony) La Russa said. ‘That’s all I’ll say. Otherwise, there’s no reason to take him out.’ “–Today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch website.

One of the great joys of baseball is our ability to analyze from afar. We make trades to help the teams we follow, we analyze performances and try to make sense of the myriad numbers that are both the beauty and curse of the game. We want out .310 power hitters not to go into slumps, which also means they’ll never go on team-carrying tears. We want our .394-hitting superstars to play every day, especially when we have tickets to the game. We want continuous improvement from young players, consistency from veterans and managers to do the right thing — either going by the book or taking a risk — depending on what we think we’d do in a given situation.

None of that is bad.

As fans, we have the absolute and total right to do all of these things. In fact, it is our responsibility to expect excellence because, after all, the participants are the ones who have reached the highest levels because they’ve never been willing to settle for less. So it’s OK to scream when Nick Punto hurts himself and the team with dives into first base or when Sean Henn can’t get the ball over the plate or while trying to figure out the mysteries of Delmon Young or Alexi Casilla.

At the same time, the Khalil Greene thing is reminder and a reinforcement to me. It happens that I was talking to a friend this weekend about the venom that sometimes comes from people when things aren’t going well for their teams. As snarky as I can get about stuff, I said that the reason I love baseball is that when things are going well, it’s a reminder that I’ve chosen to follow and watch the truly beautiful game (Sorry, soccer).

When my team plays badly, it’s still baseball.

I told my friend, after we were done dissecting Justin Morneau, that the last time a baseball game had truly made me crazy — made me mumble and grumble afterward — was Game 4 of the 2004 playoffs. You might remember it as the Juan Rincon game.

If Khalil Gibran had bothered with baseball, I suspect he would have said something like: To have something that provides joy without a whole lot of pain is a gift to be cherished.”

I hope Khalil Greene can rediscover the joys of baseball.

***

Speaking of the joy of baseball, there’s Francisco Liriano’s performance yesterday. Given an early lead, he didn’t spit it up, holding the Cardinals hitless until the fifth inning — and them coming back with a solid sixth and seventh after his struggles in the fifth (giving up two runs and three hits on consecutive pitches).

But here’s the best part: In 2006, when Liriano was truly the Franchise, he was retiring batters with ground balls when he wasn’t striking them out. His ratio of ground outs to fly outs was 2.19:1, an outstanding number and testament to his slider and changeup. That ratio dropped to 0.92:1 last season.

Yesterday, in addition to his six strikeouts, Liriano got 12 ground outs and only 3 fly outs. And there were only two walks. For all the chatter about what Liriano needs to do to be a top-of-the-rotation pitcher, those are numbers worth watching in good times and bad.

And one other thing, who would have bet that on the last trip through the rotation, the games lost by the Twins would be the ones pitches by Blackburn and Slowey?  I’ll take that as another hopeful sign.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 10:58 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.