Dave Roberts was wearing a ski mask.
It wasn't because it was cold there.
Roberts robbed us. It was very bold. It was bold. He took from the man's legacy. Baseball America was robbed in broad daylight by him.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner and best pitcher of our generation was painting a masterpiece at Target Field. The veteran was perfect. The Twins were powerless. The first 21 went down without a hitch. There were no hits or walks.
The pitcher was economical with just 80 pitches.
The stage was set to see a perfect game.
Roberts pulled Kershaw. Just six outs away from immortality, Kershaw never went back out on the mound.
Roberts made a huge mistake in that situation.
You don't want to see Kershaw injured again, so enter the medical staff fans who have approved it. We understand. He had an arm injury.
Some will use that excuse to justify an egregious act against the game of baseball.
In fact, sports.
That is what fans want the most. It is about the moments and memories. It is about seeing things with their own eyes. Fans go to games to watch. It is the reason grown men cry when their teams win a title.
Without question, the pitcher should have returned to pitch the eighth. At the first sign of trouble, pull the plug and take the ball from him.
It was a small decision and not one to think about a situation. The baseball community was angry. Reggie Jackson chimed in on the game. That's right! Mr. October asked what the game was coming to.
You take him out with a perfect game in the 7th and the Dodgers win. Take him away! This is baseball and people that have never played it should leave it.
Reg-gie is correct.
You seize the moment. If he pitches a complete game, you have him skip his next start. There is a will. You can pull the plug on it.
Jacob deGrom would have made every start for the New York Mets if managers had a magic formula to prevent pitchers from getting hurt.
It's not possible to prevent someone from getting hurt.
If he got hurt in the eighth, he could have hurt himself in the first. There is no rhyme or reason to injuries.
Managers have to stop following the script. Kershaw was not throwing pressure pitches. This was a once in a lifetime event.
With the sand running out of his Hall-of- Fame career, you can't afford to take it away from him. It is not right.
It's shameful.
David Wells had a perfect game against the Twins in 1998. It was a moment I will never forget. I have been covering Major League Baseball for 36 years and have only seen one perfect game in person.
It isn't like they happen all the time. In the history of the game, there have only been 23. Sandy Koufax is the only one in Dodgers history.
Roberts had the right to deny us a chance to see a great pitcher.
Please don't buy into his comments. He is a great teammate. He was helping his manager out of a problem.
I would have loved to have stayed in the game, but bigger things, man, bigger things. He said that Roberts made the right decision to pull him despite the historic situation.
The nerds in the front office had made up their minds how many pitches Kershaw would throw regardless of how things played out.
We were all robbed of a sports memory.
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