ONLY A professional athlete can know, really know, the joy and the rush that comes with having a big performance in a bigger game.
Shane Victorino knows. He had a single and a triple and drove in four runs in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series. He later made a nice catch at the wall that helped end a Los Angeles threat. This must be what ballplayers talk about when they look into the camera and proclaim, "I live for this!"
Only somebody who has lost a loved one can know, really know, the shock and emptiness that slams into your psyche like a sledgehammer.
Sadly, Victorino know this, too. The Phillies centerfielder was caught in an emotional riptide yesterday. Moments after being interviewed on national television, happily answering questions about his stellar performance, he was pulled into the office of travel manager Frank Coppenbarger. There his father, Mike, broke the news that his paternal grandmother had passed away in Hawaii earlier in the day.
Irene Victorino was 82. Mike found out before the game, but kept it from his son until afterward. And we can barely begin to grasp his inner turmoil, proudly cheering what his son was doing on the field, while knowing that real life had cast a pall over the world of fun and games.
The Phillies' fleet centerfielder went from the highest high to the lowest low in moments. That's an unimaginably cruel twist of fate.
It was a mixed-up day for the Phillies family. Manager Charlie Manuel found out before the game that his mother had died. Victorino found out afterward about his grandmother.
In between, the Phillies won a huge baseball game, beating the Dodgers, 8-5, at Citizens Bank Park. They know have a lead of two games to none in the best-of-seven series. And nobody felt like celebrating.
"It's definitely an emotional time," Victorino said, standing in front of his locker after pulling himself together. "We're only guaranteed one thing in life, and that's death . . . It's just tough. You want to talk about it, but you want to stop. But it's about baseball."
The news wasn't a complete surprise. His grandmother had been hospitalized. He had talked to her Thursday night.
"I could tell that she wasn't responding very well," he said.
Even when he tried to talk about the game, his thoughts returned to his grandmother.
