Baseball stuff

Baseball holds fast to its history the way a dog holds fast to a T-bone, so here in the dog days there must be a fierce joy in its two-seamed heart. The former Pastime is getting a two-pack of past times just now.

Over the weekend, to start with, the enfeebled Chicago What Sox lost again, which is hardly news except for the number attached to this particular L. It was the 100th loss of the season for these major league imposters, with a full month yet to go before they can mercifully quit playing. It came in their 131st game.

That 31-100 record, it turns out, is the worst through as many games in 108 years, when the 1916 Philadelphia A's reached 100 losses in 130 games. The What Sox have to go 12-19 the rest of the way to avoid eclipsing the famously wretched 1962 New York Mets, who set the modern record for futility by going 40-120.

So it's the ghosts of Marv Throneberry, Hot Rod Kanehl and Choo-Choo Coleman the What Sox are chasing, as the season bends toward September. Vinegar Bend Mizell is on the mound. Casey Stengel is piloting the Titanic from the dugout, wondering what the hell he'd done to deserve this after managing the Yankees to all those World Series titles in the '50s.

Now it's Grady Sizemore in the dugout for the What Sox, and, I don't know, Chris Flexen or someone out there on the bump. At this point, it's better than even money they catch the ghosts. 

At least there are ghosts to chase. The other archival moment has no ghosts to chase, because it's never happened before.

Here's the deal: According to a post on the Boston Red Sox Fan Club site, Danny Jansen will sub in at catcher today for the Sox, as they resume a suspended June 26 game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Jansen, at that time, was playing for the Jays. This means he'll be the only player in MLB history to play for both teams in the same game.

But, wait, there's more!

When the game was suspended back in June, Jansen was batting for the Jays. In other words, he'll now be catching the at-bat he began. A pinch-hitter, of course, will finish the at-bat for him.

This sets up a hilarious scenario (OK, so maybe it only sets it up for me) in which Jansen winds up talking to himself.

"Come on! Strike this bum out!"

"Shut up, Danny, this is my at-bat!"

"No, you shut up, Danny!"

"No, YOU shut up, Danny ..."

And you wonder why some of us still love baseball.