During the late 15th century and 16th century, Michelangelo was an architect, sculptor, poet, painter, and a superb pitcher. The last sentence was mostly true. Can you guess which part wasn’t?
Architect, did you say? Have you ever heard of the Medici Chapel? How about the Laurentian Library?
Sculptor? Nope, wrong again. Do David or Moses ring a bell?
You seem to be having a little trouble here so I’ll save you the time. Michelangelo wasn’t a superb pitcher. He wasn’t even a mediocre pitcher. In fact, during the 15th and 16th centuries, a pitcher would have been used to hold a beverage not sling a 95 mph fastball. Baseball wasn’t even a thing. He may have played a game called ‘Bracciale’, a sort of mashup of tennis, squash, volleyball, and cricket. And the closest thing to a pitcher in that game is called a “mandarino”. So possibly Michelangelo was a superb mandarino, but definitely not a superb pitcher.
Leaving all madarinos aside, what does Michelangelo have to do with baseball and why does M in the baseball alphabet stand for Michelangelo? That, good baseball fan, is a great question.
Michelangelo, Max, and the Brewers
When you visit a museum, such as the Louvre, and look upon the greatest works of art that human beings have created how does it make you feel? Wonderful? Warm and fuzzy inside? Envious possibly?
A great painting or sculpture evokes many emotions because the person or persons who created it are filled with the same multitude of emotions that you are filled with. And intentionally or unintentionally they pour those feelings into their work. Through this artistic expression, many great works have been, or are being, created. From these thousands, upon millions, upon billions, upon trillions, upon quadrillions (have we gone far enough yet?) works of art that have been created over the years some rise above the rest. It is this cream of the crop that becomes known as masterpieces.
Mad Max and the Brew Crew
On June 14, 2015, a crowd of 34, 964 people witnessed a masterpiece at Miller Park in Milwaukee. No, it was not a traveling art show. This kind of masterpiece was of the pitching variety.
Max Scherzer, pitching for the Washington Nationals, faced off against Milwaukee Brewers pitcher, Taylor Jungmann. Scherzer pitched brilliantly and took a perfect game into the seventh inning, where he surrendered a single to Carlos Gomez. Scherzer finished the game allowing only one hit, one walk, and struck out 16. Because of Scherzer’s brilliance, The Nationals won 4-0.
But What? Ohhh
Are you still wondering what the connection between Michelangelo and baseball is? Just a few more seconds and it will all become clear. Scherzer threw a one-hit shutout and struck out sixteen, which we’ve already qualified as a masterpiece. So if one were to describe Scherzer’s performance in terms of Michelangelo one could say that Sherzer hung his 16-strikeout Michelangelo on the Milwaukee Brewers. And that, my friends, is why M is for Michelangelo.
Main Photo:
Players Mentioned:
Max Scherzer, Taylor Jungmann, Carlos Gomez
