Strike York!

New York and baseball are the same old story…

With the exception of Staten Island, every borough of the city that never sleeps has seen a baseball team. Manhattan saw the first New York dinasty: the Giants. Brooklyn and the Dodgers saw barriers fall down and made history with the arrival of Jackie Robinson. The best player ever and the team with the most World Series titles of all time are in the Bronx. The first two teams chose to pursue the “California dream”, and thus the Mets were born in Queens.

Today, The Big Apple continues having stars and making history: NYC has the two most dominant pitchers in the ball game. Gerrit Cole with the Pinstripes, Jacob deGrom with the Amazins. After 5 and 4 starts respectively, both have 50 strike outs. If this number isn´t absurd enough, Cole has 1.71 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, in 31.2 IP. While deGrom has 0.31 ERA, 0.55 WHIP, in 29 IP. Jacob, in adition, is hitting for his own cause, and surpasses the hero in blue and orange, Tom Seaver, with a 2.55 career ERA.

It seems that the history of these teams, and therefore, of their pitchers, goes in diferent paths. The Yankees, despite of the low start, are historically tied to success and can take off at any moment. On the other hand, the neighbors of Queens seem to have been born in a tragedy and live for the drama. Each victory, each defeat is suffered. Both have their “aces” in the mountain. Each league has it´s “aces”. New York has it´s “aces”. The two most dominant, spectacular, entertaining, and even poetic players in the big leagues play under the lights of the big city.

Today the pitching style is pure New York style.

Daniel Cancino