What a first day on the job.
First you have to face the reigning M.V.P. in Josh Donaldson.
Then you have to face one of the most destructive power hitters in the American League over the past five seasons in Jose Bautista.
Then you have to face another formidable power hitter in Edwin Encarnacion.
Strike out. Pop out. Pop out.
Twelve years after being the first player drafted in the country as a shortstop, then literally doing everything in his power to drink it all away, Matt Bush got another chance. He made his major league debut last night.
Many fans are appalled that the Rangers gave Bush that chance. How could they let a guy who nearly killed someone, who repeatedly committed the same stupid drunken mistakes over and over and over again, who ruined so many lives including his own, how could they give that despicable human being a chance?
Isn’t the real question, How could they not?
Had Bush been a typical spoiled athlete who got away with murder, who was bulletproof and arrogant about it, I would agree he shouldn’t be given the chance.
But from all reports this is a different man than the one who was so stupid the last dozen years of his life. It’s a man who paid the price for his monumental stupidity. With three years of jail time.
If he had been a waiter or one of the Mesa residential plumbers or a seamstress before he went to jail, would you deny him the chance to be a waiter or a plumber or a seamstress when he got out? Isn’t that what the rehabilitation idea inherent in the American justice system is all about? He just happened to be a baseball player before.
He couldn’t have been asked to face a more formidable lineup than Donaldson, Bautista and Encarnacion.
He conquered them. That’s nothing compared to the demons he has to conquer.
Whether you think he deserves the chance, he made the most of it today.
*****
TONIGHT’S GAME:
Marco Estrada (1-2, 2.39) vs. Colby Lewis (2-0, 3.20)
Game time: 7:05 pm
How the Blue Jays hit against Lewis.
How the Rangers hit against Estrada.