"Black and Blue": Bud's most memorable doubleheader

DENVER – The game of baseball can be a bit of an odd duck. It’s perfectly built for all kinds of coincidences and hilarious moments of happenstance. It’s an odd game that is somehow both filled to the brim with routine and yet presents daily opportunities to see something you’ve never seen before.

A favorite from a year ago was the minor league pitching match-up between Joe Musgrove and Harrison Musgrave. Musgrove vs. Musgrave.

And when two teams “play two” as the late great Chicago Cub Ernie Banks would say, that’s double the chance for some weirdness to play out.

BSN Denver asked Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black before a doubleheader against those same Cubs what the most memorable such day was in his playing career.

As is his custom, Black did not disappoint to deliver a story a fantastic story filled with humor and history:

“I think it was 1982. New York, on the road. It was a Saturday. Woke up the next morning, I pitched the second game of the doubleheader, Vida Blue pitched in game one … New York Post back page Sunday morning ‘Yankees pound Royals, Black and Blue’ … how about that? I gave up one of the longest home runs ever to Dave Winfield. Way past the monuments. So how about that? There ya go. I got pounded.”

Now, that’s good stuff. Baseball never lets you forget.