Check Your Mirrors SUE JANE SULLIVAN
Before Saturday night’s World Series game, I didn’t know squat about Tommy Pham, the 35-yearold designated hitter for the Arizona Diamondbacks. A quick Internet search revealed that the veteran had moved around quite a bit in his nine-year MLB career, playing for seven different teams. Arizona had just picked him up mid-way through the 2023 season.
WhathappenedinGame Two between Pham and his teammate Jace Peterson— with the blessing of manager Torey Lovullo— won’t make a Wikipedia bio. But it sure deserves a mention because Pham’s actions in the late innings was a check-your-mirrors moment.
Phamhadacareernight, not just for a World Series game. In four at-bats, he had four hits before Lovullo pulled Pham to pinch hit Peterson in the top of the ninth. This managerial decision denied Pham a chance to become the first player in World Series history to go 5-5 at the plate. (Two other players have had five hits but did so with more plate appearances.)
Some armchair sports fans blasted the decision, one that Lovullo made when the Diamondbacks had a comfortable 7-1 lead. What those so-called experts did not know was that the substitution was Pham’s idea.
“I asked Torey can Jace hit for me,” Pham wrote. “I wanted my dawg to get his first World Series at bat stop this narrative please.” (Instagram post) Criticize the slang and lack of social media punctuation all you want, but Pham obviously checked his mirror.
Pham has played in 15 postseason games and collected a few more experiences and hits than Peterson. He wanted his buddy to have a World Series moment, too. If that meant Pham relinquishing an opportunity to make history, so be it.
What Peterson did at the plate in his one appearance is not the point either, although he did reach base on a fielder’s choice and later came around to score another Diamondback run.
Maybe Pham did get that fifth “hit.” He knocked it out of the park Saturday night with his unselfish attitude.
“This was a moment where it was a teammate loving a teammate to give him an opportunity,” Lovullo said. “He took what mattered to him personally — number one on the list — and said, ‘It’s more about the team and my teammate at this moment.’” (www. arizonasports.com)
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West Texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.
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