Strasburg injury is bad for the Nationals and sad for all of us
There is something terribly sad about this latest Stephen Strasburg news. It's not just sadness for Strasburg, who apparently needs Tommy John surgery -- he is a wealthy and (mostly) healthy young American male who should be fine, no matter what happens. And it's not just sadness for the Washington Nationals, who lost the one guy who has made them relevant.
No, it's the sadness of an artist who is no longer able to paint, or a musician who suddenly can't play a chord. What is lost is not just a game or a part of a career, but something on the outer edges of human achievement.
Strasburg was not just on his way to becoming a dominant pitcher. He was doing things with a baseball that some Hall of Famers could not do.
And now, precisely because he could, he no longer can.
Maybe man is not meant to throw 102-mile-per-hour fastballs. Since the start of the 20th century, elite athletes have gotten taller, stronger and fitter. They run faster, jump higher and move quicker. Yet for 100 years, the hardest throwing pitchers have thrown roughly 100 miles per hour. Babe Ruth may or may not have been a better hitter than Albert Pujols. But Walter Johnson basically threw as hard as Stephen Strasburg.
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