Ryan Vogelsong - Lazarus Man and All Star

This is Ryan Vogelsong's rookie card. He was 22 years old. This is his 12th season since his debut with the Giants. It is his first All-Star team. He has put together a remarkable first half of the season, by anybody's standards. There is nothing in his career to indicate anything like this. If it was a long comeback from serious injury it would be understandable to a degree, though almost as unlikely.

But there really is no easy answer. I can't even come up with reasonable speculation. Its kind of like why did a tornado take out this block of houses, but left everything around it unscathed? Why do the stars come out at night? Why do fools fall in love? Hell if I know. And more than likely, neither do you.  My curiosity has limits. Baseball, like Life Insurance mortality tables can only give us general projections. Baseball cannot provide us with 100 percent certainty the outcome of a given pitch, a given at bat, a given appearance, start or season. It can only give us probabilities. No guarantees. No sure-things. Baseball is known for its gearhead use of statistics to predict failure, mediocrity, and success. Millions of fans spend hours arguing back and forth over these projections, and predictions based on prior results. 

But I defy anybody to have predicted this. Not even Lazarus man himself.  Probably the only three people that even half-way believed this would happen were Mr.and Mrs. Vogelsong and Song's mother; because moms always believe in the utter perfection and excellence that are their sons' endeavors in life.  Lets hear it for moms everywhere.

His 2011 stats are here; a quantification, if you will, of this inspiring story. His stats in context here:

The All Star Game is primarily a television event. Events are about stories and spectacles. And if Ryan Vogelsong isn't the best story in Major League Baseball this year, I don't know what is. Here's his current line after Wednesday afternoon's win over the Twins. He needs 6.1 innings his next start to have the minimum number of innings to be qualified as a leader. If these were Lincecum's or Cain's numbers, we would not at all be astonished. But these are not. They belong to Ryan Vogelsong who has risen from the dead like Lazarus.

Ryan Vogelsong	GP	GS	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	W	L	WHIP	ERA
2011 Regular Season	13	11	1	1	72.2	60	16	15	4	19	57	5	1	1.09	1.86

And as of July 3, 2011 Ryan Vogelsong's line after today's game is 6 wins one loss and an era of 2.13 which places him in the top 3 in the National League among starting pitchers. A week from Tuesday, Lazarus Man, a minimum salary "wing and a prayer" spring training camp invitee, will be representing the World Series Champion Giants in Phoenix Arizona as a pitcher in the 2011 All Star team. And the CC Sabathia, of the New York Yankees, one of the highest paid and dominating pitchers in all of baseball and who makes in half a season more than what Song has earned in his entire career, is not.

There just isn't anything quite like Major League baseball that is so symbolic of the American Dream.

Remarkable.