What is the purest excitement that a baseball nerd can experience? Well, taking peyote and riding a dinosaur through the Alps. Same as for everyone else.
Dustin Ackley, The Seattle Mariners, And The Purity Of Prospects
But what is the purest baseball-related excitement that a baseball nerd can experience? Watching his or her team win a championship, maybe. But the path to a World Series win is fraught with nervous energy. Your mind is a maelstrom of excitement and fear, the best sports has to offer. But it’s almost unpleasant, it’s so nerve-wracking.
A no-hitter or perfect game? For a quick burst, it’s right up there. There’s a sudden shift from a normal game to “wait a sec ...” as every pitch becomes an event. It’s baseball’s version of a 27-wheel slot machine, with “Jackpot” coming up one after the other as you watch in disbelief.
But for pure, unspoiled excitement, there’s nothing like the call-up of a heralded prospect, especially if your team has recently gone through tough times. A top prospect:
- has never hit into a double play with the bases loaded in a major league game. You’ve never thrown a sandwich across the room after a top prospect boots a ball.
- has never walked six guys in a major league game, throwing 100 pitches just to get through the fifth inning.
- has never been hurt then healthy then hurt then ineffective then more ineffective then non-tendered over a span of five years. Not yet.
- has never not won a World Series for your team. This is a proven fact.
Everything is possible with a prospect. And if it’s a perfect storm, the draft pick was a high first-round draft pick. You can dream big right after the pick is announced, thinking maybe he’s the Chosen One who will lead us to the promised land (in which “promised land” is the place where you spend hundreds of dollars on team-licensed championship hats).
If you’re wondering why Mariners fans are giddy about Dustin Ackley, this is why. If you still don’t understand, well, you’re probably a Yankees fan, and I mean that with no disrespect. It’s just that when a team is successful for so long, top prospects are just a part of the war machine. They aren’t guiding lights to lead a franchise out of the doldrums. Dominic Brown is merely a reinforcement for the Phillies. Not a savior.
Ackley is a savior. So is Eric Hosmer. Bryce Harper will be. So will Jameson Taillon, Jordan Lyles, and Manny Machado. They’re all saviors until they aren’t. They’ll all come up, have immediate success, and lead the franchise to some sort of golden era. Hosmer has never flopped. Neither has Ackley. Every optimistic projection is still true.
So don’t take this away from Mariners fans. Maybe Ackley will flame out of baseball without ever making the Mariners better. Sometimes that happens with prospects. But right now that’s impossible. And sometimes the giddy excitement of a prospect’s debut pays off exactly like you think it will.
See More:
