perfidy

Anyone who follows baseball knows that pitcher Jose Lima has always been maddeningly inconsistent-- for instance following up a stellar 21-10 season in 1999 with a, erm, less stellar 2000 performance, going 7-16 with an ERA of 6.65.

So far this season, he's been good, fine, great for the Dodgers, but as King Kaufman points out writing for Salon.com, even his good seasons aren't without their low points. Lima was pitching last night against Cincinnatti whe Reds outfielder Adam Dunn hit a home run off Lima so hard that it

left the stadium, bounced in the street and rolled all the way into the Ohio River, where it came to rest on a stationary piece of driftwood. Based on where a security guard said he saw the ball bounce, the homer was estimated at 535 feet.

Dunn didn't want to talk about his clout after the game because his team lost. But it looks like it wasn't just an ordinary tape-measure shot. As reader Jeff Mathews of Lexington, Ky., points out and the U.S. Geological Survey confirms, the Ohio-Kentucky border at downtown Cincinnati is the north bank of the river. If you stick your toe into the Ohio, you're in Kentucky.

As of this column's posting time, the Hall of Fame had not been able to confirm that Dunn's shot was the first home run in major league history to have crossed a state line, but I think it's a pretty good bet that it was.

You know you've really given up a home run when there are only 48 states it hasn't traveled through.

Ouch. Every season has its share of funny-sad stories, whether it's some marginal hitter in a slouch fighting to stay above the Mendoza Line (which I personally count as a batting average of .188, because it's just so pathetic), a pitcher chasing 20 losses, or a team chasing 120 losses (see previous link; the Tigers can't get no respect). It's part of what makes baseball so beautiful.