For the ages

Maybe you think you saw something, Mr. I-Was-There-For-Wilt's-100-Point-Game. Maybe you can still feel the cold sting of the rain the afternoon a rookie named Gale Sayers seemed to glide over the slop for one, two, three, six touchdowns. 

Maybe, even, you can still recall where you were when Reggie Jackson swatted three homers in Game 6 to clinch the World Series for the Yankees on Oct. 18, 1977.

Ladies and gents, may I submit another date for your consideration: Sept. 19, 2024.

On that night, in Miami, Fla., America saw a man do something no baseball player in history -- not even, I don't know, Slugger McGillicuddy back in 1872 or something -- had ever done.

He hit his 50th home run of the season and stole his 50th base. No one's ever done that before. No. one.

And actually, Shohei Ohtani did more than that. Like, a lot more.

He went 6-for-6 at the plate, for one thing.

Hit three home runs and two doubles.

Drove in 10 runs -- yes, you read that right -- as his Los Angeles Dodgers floor-waxed the impoverished Miami Marlins 20-4.

So, to review: 6-for-6, three homers, two doubles, 10 RBI. And, by the time he was done, 51 home runs and 51 stolen bases on the season.

I don't know how that stacks up with Wilt's 100 points or Gale's six sixes or Reggie's three taters in a World Series clincher, but I can venture one guess: The official attendance of 15,584 will grow exponentially with every passing year.

Before long, as with the multitudes who magically crammed the Hershey, Pa., bandbox the night Wilt got his 100, there will have been 100,000 people in LoanDepot Park last night. The place has a standing-room capacity of just 37,442, but no matter. Every man and woman in south Florida will swear he/she was there.

You know who actually was there, though?

Marlins manager Skip Schumacher. 

Who distinguished himself as a man of honor and respect for the moment, not to say respect for his game and its long, long history. He did this by refusing to intentionally walk Ohtani, thereby choosing not to be lily-livered about the whole deal.

Then he defended his decision postgame by basically saying, "What are you, nuts?"

"I think that's a bad move -- baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball-gods-wise," Schumacher maintained of not walking Ohtani. "You go after him and see if you can get him out. I think out of respect for the game we were going to go after him ... He's doing things I've never seen done in the game before, and if he has another couple more of these peak years, he might be the best ever to play the game."

On a night for the ages, a comment for the ages.