Flash

When I was younger I wasn't much of a baseball fan. This may surprise the people who know me, but it's true. I wasn't really a sports fan at all. I followed a little, it couldn't be helped in my house, but I didn't care much. In 1998, one man changed all that. His name is Tom Gordon. He did something that year that made me want to turn on the Red Sox every night. He started a streak of saves that didn't end until the following year, with his 54th. At the time, that was the Major League record. He had 43 consecutive saves at the end of the '98 season. Now, the record has been broken a few times since, and is currently held by Eric Gagne. Also, the save is one of the more meaningless statistics in baseball. But Gordon captivated me. There was something about watching him come into the game in the ninth. He would get his three outs, then he'd point to the sky, acknowledging God's help, I suppose. Very simple, but I thought it was beautiful. Watching him battle those hitters... I'm descending into cliche here. Let me try again. I liked the competitor in him. He needed to win. Gordon was competing against history and the other teams, and by the end of that year, he'd beat them both. He injured his elbow in '99, but by then I was already sucked in. '99 was a great year for the Sox, but Gordon spent it on the bench. He wasn't the same when he came back. He bummed around the league a bit, played for the White Sox. This year has been a good one for him. He's playing for the Yankees. I'm rooting for him anyway.