John Thorn
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"John Thorn" is a sports historian, author, and cultural commentator. Since March 1, 2011, he has been the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball. He lives in Saugerties, New York

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They acquire a kind of patina with age.

It's silly, just to the ear. It implies that this team can do what no one else can, which is to be in two places at one time. Especially two places that are 35 miles apart.

Second place wouldn't be that important, except in this case second place is held by Babe Ruth, who is the central figure in baseball history. He is more like Paul Bunyan. He's a mythical figure. Passing Babe Ruth is a big deal, but not because he's in second place.

The result was very predictable: Nothing. They went back to the Braves.

Desperate scribes and headline writers were trying to save character counts.

Baseball is the first of our national team sports. It is the game of memory from when we are children, not only in terms of learning how many home runs Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron hit, but in remembering the score of the game our dads first took us to or where we made that catch in center field that we still can't believe.

Baseball leaves a footprint of all its games on our minds in a way continuous-action sports can't.