Gus Sinski Makes His Triumphant Return to the Detroit Tigers
John C. Reilly hung out in Detroit this past week, which makes this as good a time as any to honor Gus Sinski's role in Billy Chapel's perfect game.
This week, Detroit welcomed beloved Tigers catcher Gus Sinski back to town to throw out the first pitch and sing “Happy Birthday” to musician Jack White, who was in attendance.
Sinski - or, as you might know him, John C. Reilly - will forever be etched in Tigers’ fans minds as the guy who caught Billy Chapel’s 1999 perfect game at Yankee Stadium. If it wasn’t for Sinski’s final pep talk on the mound, when Chapel felt like he had nothing left to throw, his shoulder finally giving out, the perfect game might have never even happened.
The Tigers were an atrocious team that season, but for one special game, as Sinski told Chapel, they were “the best team in baseball, right now, right this minute - because of you.” At that point in his career, Sinski was an offensive liability valued far more for what he did behind the plate, and his role as Chapel’s personal catcher paid off gloriously that day.
As you might expect, much of Reilly’s appearance in Detroit would be full of Step Brothers quotes, but it’s nice to see that Paws, the Tigers’ mascot, knew he had to honor Sinski in the following post’s caption as well.
For Love of the Game feels like a forgotten baseball film, but it’s certainly worth revisiting. Kevin Costner remains our sacred sports movie emeritus and, as always, he is a true believer in the magic of the game, but what’s not to love about a baseball movie directed by Sam Raimi? For Love of the Game is no stranger to the drippy sentimentality of our best baseball movies, but this balances it with some of the best kinetic baseball action and realism put on screen (Vin Scully announcing is as good as it gets). And with the mythical backdrop of Yankee Stadium, what’s not to like?
Sinski lives in the shadow of Jake Taylor among film’s most prominent catchers, but it’s nice to see him getting the recognition he deserves in Detroit.