When I moved to the news desk at my last job in August, I knew there were going to be a few I'd miss about covering sports.
The excitement of the ballpark, the feeling of being on a sideline in the fall and conversing with players, coaches, staffers, fans and other colleagues, were all things that I expected to have miss.
I still got a piece of it throughout football season. But, after that, the days of hearing the electric "pop" of a crowd when a player makes a big play or being able to witness the emotions of a coach after a glorious win, or disappointing loss, were long gone. They were what I'd become so accustomed to and were just some of the things I enjoyed about working in sports. There are more, but those are just some of the highlights that come to mind. They're why I got into this business in the first place. I've always been a big believer in "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life." Covering sports has allowed me to do that.
So, when I returned to the field for the first time in a few months Thursday it was a breath of fresh air. But there was still work to be done, obviously.
It started shortly after walking into the Pirates clubhouse. A staffer was setting up Joshua Palacios' locker stall after he was recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis. Then, as the move became official, I found out that he was the corresponding move for Jared Jones being placed on the 15-day IL. A great, and busy, start to the day.
As an update, Jose Negron reported Jones has a Grade 2 lat muscle strain and won't be able to throw for about two weeks.
From there, the Pirates and Cardinals provided a holiday show. If anything was evident, it was that the Pirates' bats did not show up for Martin Pérez. As I wrote yesterday, the 33-year-old twirled a gem but outside of Bryan Reynolds' home run to straightaway center in the fourth inning and heads-up baserunning by Michael A. Taylor in the extra frame, the Pirates couldn't push enough runs across while tallying seven hits and leaving six runners on base. They had one final opportunity in the bottom of the 10th inning when Andrew McCutchen stepped to the plate after back-to-back singles by Jared Triolo and Joey Bart.
My first thought was, 'Well, here's my story.' A Cutch walk-off in extra innings a day after Oneil Cruz did the same. What else could you ask for? That's just how my mind was working at the time. However, a putrid groundball to Masyn Winn at shortstop ended that thought process as I quickly turned back to Pérez's outing. It was a beauty, but, again, it was wasted. Shelton, however, thought they were close to coming away with a win.
"Today we hit two balls 409 feet and they stayed in the yard," Shelton said. "Nick Gonzales hits a ball about as well as you can hit it and I would bet, and you guys can research this, that's a home run in about 27 ballparks so there's nothing we can do. The ball Jack (Suwinski) hit that bounced out was in the same spot and that's a home run in every other place. So we had some good at-bats and we hit two balls to the wrong part of the park."
I will say this, my first thought when I heard those hits was "I think that's gone." That was another thing I missed. The pure natural sound of a bat striking a ball for a well-struck hit.
Dejan Kovacevic touched on this in his Friday Insider, but both of those balls died in the North Side Notch and they both would've brought instant swings of momentum in the game. I can't blame Shelton for voicing his frustrations. Gonzales' hit would've been a home run in 24 of 30 MLB ballparks, according to baseballsavant.com, while Suwinski's would've been gone in 12.
But, that's baseball. That's sports. One day it goes your way and one day it doesn't.
These are the things I missed.
Man, it feels good to be back.
