"Number 41. Designated hitter, Victor Martinez."
In 2011, the simple fact that my internet speed could finally handle the workload of streaming MLB.TV meant that I could watch the baseball playoffs for the first time since I was a teenager. Baseball is one of the first things I remember being good at. I could draw well. I had a penchant for above average mimicry. Then baseball, well, it made sense to me from the first time I played it, and as I grew older, I became pretty darn good at it. The first year I played, I was five years old. My Mom was the coach. My babysitter, her assistant. “Paging Dr. Freud.” I had no interest in what professional baseball players were doing, I only wanted to play it. At age nine, the Detroit Tigers installed a foundation that has yet to crumble, even if the structure built above it collapsed. In 1987, the American League East division had seven teams. Wild Cards were still seven seasons away, and the first place team from the East, p...