Lincecum, Mathewson, and Abject Beauty

The Giants’ Tim Lincecum is currently only 20 strikeouts behind the team’s all-time leader for strikeouts in a season.

Just for fun, I pointed this out to my erudite fantasy baseball league. Who is the leader? It’s none other than Christy Mathewson, 1903. Big Six, Matty. “M is for Matty/Who carried a charm/In the form of an extra brain in his arm.” That’s a lot of baseball under the bridge.

One guy, a physicist working in England, suggested Juan Marichal, remembering his high leg kick and legendary intensity. It was, he recalled, a thing of abject beauty.

“Abject Beauty” would make a great book title. It could, for example, serve for a baseball book: “Abject Beauty: a history of the Chicago Cubs”. Or, a biography: Octavia: Abject Beauty. True crime. You could do a lot with it.