And now, from the “well, duh” department…
Major League Baseball has been rolling out its annual awards over seemingly the last month (another in a string of very odd choices on how to do such things, but that’s a story for another day), and last night reached the Comeback Player of the Year portion of the event.
In the National League, Buster Posey, who sat out 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns, and returned to put up a 4.9 fWAR season at age 34, the sixth-best of his storied career.
In the American League, Baltimore’s own Trey Mancini was the recipient, because…well, duh.
Trey, who was of course diagnosed with colon cancer prior to the 2020 season, then missed that entire shortened campaign while undergoing treatment, hit .255 with 21 home runs while serving as an inspirtion to literally every baseball fan on the planet, and making even non-baseball fans take notice.
Even the always-trolly replies on Twitter were unanimously in approval, the 0.000001% of the time that happens in response to literally anything about anything.
Trey Mancini and Buster Posey are your AL & NL Comeback Players of the Year! ? pic.twitter.com/KXiZruMHD2
— MLB (@MLB) November 22, 2021
Watch this and try not to get choked up.
If great comeback stories inspire, then Trey's is truly one of the greatest.
Congratulations, @TreyMancini. We are so proud of you. pic.twitter.com/xEh3FcVnis
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) November 22, 2021
I remember watching the strange 2020 opening day ceremonies, in the middle of the summer, and between the tribute to Trey, and the one for Baltimore legend Mo Gaba, who had just recently passed away, it was all almost too damn much to deal with. Trey and Mo were already inextricably linked, and mourning Mo while wondering if we’d ever even get to see Mancini play again, and not to mention my own wife was only a few months officially “cancer free” at that point…man, it’s getting dusty in here again.
But play again Trey did. He also showed out in the 2021 Home Run Derby, reaching the final round before party pooper Pete Alonzo defeated him.
A huge congratulations go out to Trey, not only for this award, but for his recent engagement to girlfriend Sara Perlman, formerly of MASN and now with NBC Sports.
FIANCÉ @TreyMancini ☘️??♥️?❤️?♥️ pic.twitter.com/YJZvIXa1t1
— Sara Perlman (@saraperlman) November 3, 2021
Everything is coming up Trey!
We’ll leave the discussions about Mancini’s future in Baltimore for another day, and choose instead to celebrate him right now.
