Yu And Billy Chapel
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - I hate blogs that start out using movie quotes. So I'll give you a little background before we get to the quote. Yu Darvish and the Rangers are playing out a scene of one of my favorite movies.
In the Kevin Costner flick, For Love of the Game, there is a scene that always makes me tear up. It's a sports moment. One of those things that you don't quite realize unless you've been part of something similar.
Right now, it looks like this very scene is playing out for your Texas Rangers. No, it's not a perfect game, which we wouldn't mind with all of this fantastic pitching we're seeing of late, it's a mentality; an unspoken sense of something bigger than each player. Let me build it up.
Costner's character Billy Chapel walks out to the mound in the eighth inning and piddles around like all pitchers do. Then he looks up at the scoreboard and the camera slowly pans across showing zeros in every inning and every category. 000 000 0 R0 H0 E0.
His catcher Gus Sinski trots out the mound and lets Chapel know he's not dreaming, he's in the middle of a perfect game. There's a problem, Chapel is 40, leaning on retiring and doesn't know if he has anything left.
Now the movie quote:
Gus: The boys are all here for ya, we'll back you up, we'll be there, cause, Billy, we don't stink right now. We're the best team in baseball, right now, right this minute, because of you. You're the reason. We're not gonna screw that up, we're gonna be awesome for you right now. Just throw.
That speech isn't what gets me. It's good, and it stands up for the moment. What happens next is the big deal. Chapel can't throw.
He throws three straight balls, some minutia about throwing in the backyard with his dad ensues, then the moment. A fastball right down the pipe cracks off the lumber of the batter and heads dead to right field at Yankee Stadium, where we know all fly balls land in the seats.
However, outfielder Mickey Hart sprints to the wall, leaps and grabs it to save Chapel's perfect game for at least one more at-bat. Right after Hart throws the ball in from right field, he catches Chapel's eye and nods his head. Just a simple acknowledgement saying "we got you man."
That moment is the perfect example of what teammates mean. Why playing a team sport is so much fun. Success is awesome, but sharing it with somebody makes it that much better. We saw it with the Mavericks last year, the ultimate team concept. A group of guys all pulling in one direction, and it paid off in a way that brought the entire country to its feet as the clock ticked out and Dirk Nowitzki scurried off to have his own moment.
What's more, we experienced the other side of it last year also when the Rangers were one out away from the franchise's first ever World Championship.
This year the Rangers are playing out this scene with their new phenom and possibly future staff ace. While the weight of the world is on the team to duplicate the success they've had over the past two years, and take it one step further, they seem to be doing everything they can to make sure Yu Darvish understands "We don't stink right now. We're the best team in baseball, right now, right this minute…We're not gonna screw that up, we're gonna be awesome for you... Just throw."
Yu Darvish struggled in his first inning as a Ranger, giving up 4 runs right out of the gate. The Ranger bats went out and put two runs on the board, to say, "hey we can score runs too."
Then the lineup produced an 11 -5 win.
In Yu's first road game, he struggled and put runners on base often. The Rangers won 6-2.
As the team arrived in Detroit Thursday, squaring off with the second best team in the American League, Yu got a two run lead and then the lineup finished things off for an 10-3 win.
I don't think it's a coincidence that two of the teams three biggest wins this year have been when Yu is on the mound. This team understands the pressure Yu is under. They know what it's like when the flash bulbs are popping and microphones and recorders are shoved into your face.
It's lonely when questions are getting fired at you left and right up at the press conference table or in that media gang-bang at your locker.
But when you look around the clubhouse, and every teammate is there to joke with you. Then you step onto the loneliest bump in the middle of that glorious baseball diamond, and you see those same guys are behind you pulling for you. Then when you sit down in the dugout, and see guys like Mike Napoli drilling 400-footers, and the rest of the team riding the carousel around to score. The pressure gets taken off and you can't wait to face the challenge with these guys again.
You might be able to say this is what the entire lineup is doing for all of the pitchers, right now, considering they are all undefeated. But for Yu, coming into the pressure cooker of being on the two-time World Series losers who still have the window to win it, his teammates are loudly exclaiming one thing right now.
"Just throw. We'll take care of the rest."
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