Admit it, I’ve been pretty good with the Red Sox stuff. Thanks to the creation of the Red Sox blog, baseball related content is way down this season. At least in this space. So hopefully you can indulge me for just a moment.
Because tonight, we saw something – or heard it, in my case, as I don’t have TV hooked up here in Maine – that you just don’t see that often. Tonight’s starter Jon Lester threw a no hitter at Fenway against the Kansas City Royals, facing only two over the minimum and dispatching the Royals with 130 pitches.
What makes the story even more special is the fact that like my own father, Lester is a cancer survivor. Two years ago in August, he was checked into Mass General with symptoms pertaining to back pain, and checked out with a diagnosis of anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Battling it successfully, he’s come back to resume a promising career as a starting pitcher.
While it’s enjoyable that Red Sox pitchers have now thrown the last two no hitters in MLB, and that I’ve been East for both, it’s even more enjoyable that this one was twirled by this pitcher. The video above should make it clear what Tito thinks of the pitcher as a person, and I’ve heard nothing from him or the club in his career to convince me that he’s anything but a model citizen.
By all accounts, then, this couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Though candidly, I’ll take a no hitter from any of our pitchers.
Anybody still wish right now that we’d traded Lester to Minnesota this offseason? For more hop over to wicked clevah.
