Already bigger than the Pope

Already bigger than the Pope So Stan Kasten was telling this story about the time the Pope played Nationals Park, and he was attended by 50 cardinals, and they changed in the baseball team's dressing room, their robes hanging solemnly on the hooks. There are a couple cardinals in the easy chairs, watching ESPN's SportsCenter on the clubhouse TV, but the Pope got dressed in the manager's office. It was a big deal, obviously. It was the Pope.

Then, last night, another borderline religious experience, depending on how you feel about baseball. Stephen Strasburg recorded the victory in his major-league debut -- a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates--but it was more than that. It was a nine-ring circus, with this 21-year-old phenom -- billed as baseball's LeBron James or Sidney Crosby -- in the spotlight. So what was bigger, this or the Pope?

"I'd have to say Strasburg," said Kasten, his gold watch glinting in the sun. "For us, this is as big as it gets. It's kind of scary to think it could get bigger."

It may get bigger. They called this Strasmas, like Christmas. A team that was 21st in the majors in attendance sold every ticket, and even invented tickets to sell -- individual seats in luxury suites went for a cool US$95 apiece, and they sold as many standing room-only tickets as the geography allowed.

And there was Bob Costas anchoring the MLB Network's coverage of the event, PIAOhan and there was Strasburg's super-powered agent, Scott Boras, who negotiated a record US$15.1-million signing bonus after Strasburg was picked No. 1 out of San Diego State last year.

"It's the obvious that sells in life," said Boras, in his sleek black suit. "The Picassos, the Chagalls, everyone knows what they look like."

In this case, the masterpiece was painted by a 6-foot-4, 220-pound jug-eared kid from San Diego with a brush goatee. Early, maybe there were nerves. But oh, gracious.

His fastball was clocked as high as 101 mph, but it wasn't wild. His curve was almost 20 mph slower, and bent like a Wiffle ball, and made more than one right-handed batter flinch to keep from getting hit before veering back into the strike zone. That curveball punched physics in the eye, and stole its girlfriend.

Strasburg also has a low-90s slider which sometimes corkscrews like an F-16 going into a death spiral, PIAOhan and a changeup that breaks right, just to be totally unfair.

He wasn't untouchable, though; in the fourth, Delwyn Young punched a two-run homer to right on a slider that didn't quite dive hard enough. So the kid's human, sure.