Siempre que me preguntan por qu\u00c3\u00a9 sigo un juego “tan lento y fastidioso”, respondo que la velocidad no siempre significa intensidad y emociones. El b\u00c3\u00a9isbol, puede parecer tedioso a primera vista. Pero como la vida, si profundizamos e indagamos sobre la esencia del juego empiezan a aparecer elementos de entretenimiento.<\/p>\n
Por ejemplo una situaci\u00c3\u00b3n de bases llenas en el noveno inning, o un duelo de lanzadores, o un juego sin hits ni carreras. Cuando un lanzador domina a sus contrarios al punto de impedirles imparables, el entretenimiento se convierte en tensi\u00c3\u00b3n emocional que crece a medida que el juego avanza. En el juego de este domingo 14 de septiembre Carlos Zambrano expres\u00c3\u00b3 lo que vivi\u00c3\u00b3 a lo largo de su no-hitter ante los Astros de Houston: “Todav\u00c3\u00ada no lo puedo creer. Es una gran experiencia que no puedes describir. Lanzar un no-hitter es muy bueno. Esta es una de las pocas cosas del b\u00c3\u00a9isbol que disfrutas m\u00c3\u00a1s”.<\/p>\n
La intensidad que se vive en un juego sin hits ni carreras es tal que los aficionados no quieren comprar nada en el estadio y aguantan hasta las ganas de ir al ba\u00c3\u00b1o.<\/p>\n
Lo que vive el lanzador es algo que raya en lo religioso, nadie se acerca a \u00c3\u00a9l ni le preguntan nada. Lo dejan s\u00c3\u00b3lo en un extremo de la banca y nadie en el dugout quiere hablar.<\/p>\n
“Miraba la pizarra todos los innings”, dijo Zambrano<\/p>\n
“Cuando sal\u00c3\u00ad para el noveno inning, la multitud estaba enloquecida, eso me ayud\u00c3\u00b3 un poco. Gracias a Dios venia el octavo, noveno y primer bateador”.<\/p>\n
“Prob\u00c3\u00b3 que es un as”, dijo el receptor novato de los Cachorros de Chicago, Geovany Soto. “Lo necesit\u00c3\u00a1bamos y respondi\u00c3\u00b3”.<\/p>\n
“No me lo esperaba”, dijo el primera base de los Cachorros, Derreck Lee. “Esperaba que nos diera 5 o 6 buenas entradas y saliera. Pero estuvo muy bien. Esto es un tremendo empuje para nosotros”.<\/p>\n
Lou Piniella, el manager de los Cachorros, no quer\u00c3\u00ada empavar a Zambrano, estaba dudoso de poner a calentar a alguien en el bullpen. Finalmente envi\u00c3\u00b3 a calentar a un pitcher en el noveno, pero Zambrano no necesit\u00c3\u00b3 ayuda.<\/p>\n
“Cuando calentaba para el noveno me dije ‘Si\u00c2\u00a0 todav\u00c3\u00ada me queda gasolina en el tanque todav\u00c3\u00ada los puedo retar'”, dijo Zambrano. “Eso fue lo que hice con Humberto Quintero, el emergente Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Castillo y Darin Erstad”.<\/p>\n
“Pienso que en noveno todav\u00c3\u00ada lanzaba 95 millas, esa fue la clave. Cuando puedes retar a un equipo y lanzar duro, eso te ayuda a mantener el nivel de tu actuaci\u00c3\u00b3n”.<\/p>\n
“Desde hace tiempo quer\u00c3\u00ada lanzar un no hit no run”, dijo Zambrano. “Nadie sabe que va a lanzar un no-hitter. S\u00c3\u00b3lo sales a lanzar y si te funcionan los pitcheos los usas”.<\/p>\n
Los fan\u00c3\u00a1ticos gritaban “Vamos Zambrano”, en los innings 7,8 y 9. Un ni\u00c3\u00b1o que ve\u00c3\u00ada el juego detr\u00c3\u00a1s del dugout de Houston, a\u00c3\u00ban no cre\u00c3\u00ada lo que estaba viendo. Se estruj\u00c3\u00b3 los ojos y le hizo mil preguntas a su padre. “Pap\u00c3\u00a1 \u00c2\u00bfc\u00c3\u00b3mo hace para estar tranquilo con todo eso que le gritan los jugadores rivales?”. “As\u00c3\u00ad es el b\u00c3\u00a9isbol hijo”.<\/p>\n
En el cierre del quinto inning Hunter Pence recibi\u00c3\u00b3 un pelotazo. Lanz\u00c3\u00b3 el casco con violencia y camin\u00c3\u00b3 hacia primera sin quitarle la vista a Zambrano. David Newham conect\u00c3\u00b3 una l\u00c3\u00adnea sobre primera que Derreck Lee tom\u00c3\u00b3 de un salto. Newham regres\u00c3\u00b3 al dugout pateando la grama.<\/p>\n
Zambrano ponch\u00c3\u00b3 10 en su primer juego completo desde el 16 de junio de 2007. Ponch\u00c3\u00b3 a Darin Erstad con una recta de dedos separados para terminar el juego. Luego se\u00c3\u00b1al\u00c3\u00b3 hacia el cielo mientras sus compa\u00c3\u00b1eros lo felicitaban en el mont\u00c3\u00adculo.<\/p>\n
El ni\u00c3\u00b1o salt\u00c3\u00b3 en su asiento. “Pap\u00c3\u00a1 \u00c2\u00bfqu\u00c3\u00a9 pasa cuando un pitcher llega al noveno inning con un no hit no run y alguien le batea un hit?”\u00c2\u00a0 “Bueno, el pitcher se molesta. El catcher va al mont\u00c3\u00adculo para tratar de calmarlo y explicarle que a\u00c3\u00ban ganan el juego. El no hit no run m\u00c3\u00a1s doloroso roto al final de un juego fue lanzado por Harvey Haddix el 26 de mayo de 1959. Lleg\u00c3\u00b3 al inning 13 lanzando un juego perfecto. Pero sus compa\u00c3\u00b1eros de los Piratas de Pittsburgh tampoco anotaron porque Lew Burdette, el pitcher de los Bravos de Milwaukee tambien lanzaba un blanqueo. Despu\u00c3\u00a9s que un error de Don Hoak terminara el juego perfecto en el cierre del inning 13, el corredor avanz\u00c3\u00b3 a segunda con toque de sacrificio. Luego bolearon intencionalmente a Hank Aaron. Entonces Joe Adcock bate\u00c3\u00b3 un jonr\u00c3\u00b3n para terminar el no-hitter y el juego”. “Que historia tan triste”. “As\u00c3\u00ad es el b\u00c3\u00a9isbol hijo”.<\/p>\n
English Translation<\/strong><\/p>\n Always that somebody asks me why do I follow “such a boring and slow game”, I answer that not always velocity means intensity and emotion. The baseball game can seem motionless at first sight. But as many things in life, if we go deep and search about the essence of the game, it begins to appear reasons for entertaining.<\/p>\n For example a bases loaded situation in the bottom of the ninth inning, or a pitching duel, or a no-hitter. When a pitcher held his opponents to the point of not allowing hits, the entertainment becomes emotional tension that grows up with every frame. In the game of September 14th, Carlos Zambrano expressed\u00c2\u00a0 what he experienced during his no-hitter against the Houston Astros. “I still can`t believe it. It’s an experience you cant’ describe with words. It’s a great experience to throw a no-hitter. It’s one of the few things that you enjoy the most in baseball”.<\/p>\n The intensity experienced in a game with no hit and no run is so that the fans don’t care about buying neither a hot dog or a pretzel. They even hold the urgency of going to the restroom.<\/p>\n What the pitcher lives is a religious\u00c2\u00a0 scene. Nobody can be near him nor talk to him. Everybody leaves him alone in a corner of the dugout.<\/p>\n “I looked at the scoreboard every inning”, said Zambrano.<\/p>\n “In the ninth inning, when I came out the crowd was all crazy and that helped me a little bit. Thank God, it was the eight, nine and the leadoff hitter [in the ninth] and I was able to dominate those three guys.”<\/p>\n “He proved he was the ace,” Cubs rookie catcher Geovany Soto said. “We needed him, and he came through today.”<\/p>\n “I didn’t expect it,” Chicago’s Derrek Lee said. “I expected him to try to give us five or six innings and get out of there. But, wow. He obviously was feeling good, throwing the ball like that. That’s a huge lift for us.”<\/p>\n Lou Piniella, the Cubs skipper, didn’t want to jinx Zambrano and was hesitant to get anyone up in the bullpen. He finally had someone warm up in the ninth. Big Z didn’t need any help.<\/p>\n “I was warming up [in the ninth] and I said, ‘If I still have some gas in my tank, I can still challenge people,'” Zambrano said. “That’s what I did with [Humberto] Quintero and the other two guys [pinch-hitter Jose Castillo and Erstad].<\/p>\n “I think I was throwing 95 [mph] still in the ninth inning, and that was the key. When you can challenge a team and throw hard, 95-plus, it’s kind of like better for your performance.”<\/p>\n “I think at this point in my career, I want to throw a no-hitter,” Zambrano said. “Nobody knows who’s going to throw a no-hitter that day. You just have to go out there and if you have good stuff, just use your pitches.”<\/p>\n Fans chanted, “Let’s Go Z,” in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. A kid behind the Houston’s dugout, still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He squeezed his eyes and asked a thousand questions to his father. “Dad, how does he keep the quietness with all that shouts from the rival players”. “That’s baseball son”.<\/p>\n In the end of the fifth frame Hunter Pence (cf) got hit by a pitch. He threw the helmet in a violent way and walked to first with a criogenic glance to Zambrano. The next hitter, David Newham hit a liner over first base but Derrek Lee leaped and took it. Newham returned to the dugout kicking the grass with the tip of his spikes.<\/p>\n Zambrano struck out 10 in his first complete game since June 16, 2007. He got Darin Erstad out swinging on a split-finger to end the game, then pointed to the sky as his teammates swarmed him on the mound to celebrate the feat.<\/p>\n The kid jumped from his seat. “Dad, what happens when a pitchers arrives to the ninth inning with a no hitter and sombedy gets a hit?”. “Well, the pitcher gets upset. The catcher goes to the mound to try to calm him down, and explain that they’re still winning the game. The most disheartening no hitter broken at the end of the game was one hurled by Harvey Haddix on May 26th, 1959. He took a perfect game to the 13th inning. He retired 36 batters in a row, but his Pittsburgh teammates didn’t score, as Braves pitcher Lew Burdette was also pitching a shutout. After a fielding error by Don Hoak ended the perfect game in the bottom of the 13th, the runner was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, which was followed by an intentional walk to Hank Aaron. Joe Adcock then hit a home run, ending the no hitter and the game”. “What a sad story.”\u00c2\u00a0 “That’s baseball, son.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t