Crash Landing: Collisions and Necessary Evils

One of my all-time favorite baseball memories is going to a Phillies-Mets game in May 2006. The Phillies were riding an eight game win streak into the game and the Mets were playing great baseball en route to becoming the first team other than the Braves to win the National League East since the Braves joined the division in 1994. Pedro Martinez was on the mound so if I saw my team win they were beating the best and if I saw my team lose at least I was watching a future Hall of Famer. It was a perfect set up for what wound up being a fantastic game.

Two-run home runs by Xavier Nady and Carlos Delgado in the eighth and ninth innings respectively sent the game to the bottom of the ninth…