My favorite player of all time is taking the ball tonight for Game 7 of the World Series. That of course is Max Scherzer. I am nervous for him because he obviously is not what he once was at 41 years old.
However, he still has that competitive hunger that made him my favorite player a decade ago.
Max Scherzer is one of those players you cannot miss. Between the different colored eyes and his insanely intense demeanor, Max Scherzer sticks out like a sore thumb. Your eyes just are just drawn towards him. Scherzer is everything you want from your ace, and that is something Nationals fans learned quickly.
When Max Scherzer was signed, I was not a child, but I was still young at 14 years old when he threw his first pitch. So Scherzer was not my childhood hero, more like a hero of my adolescence. Mad Max was just an absolute titan. Whenever he took the mound, you knew there was a chance magic could happen.
Whenever he got through two or three innings without a hit, you always thought that this could be one of those special nights. Oftentimes it was a special night, whether it was a double-digit strikeout performance, a complete game, or even a no hitter. There was always magic in the air on Scherzday.
As he takes the mound for what could be the final time, I just wanted to write about some of my favorite Scherzer memories. There are so many and some that I might not even remember off the top of my head. I will go over my favorite moments though.
The one game that epitomized Max Scherzer the most was in 2019 when he pitched with a broken nose. A day before his start, Scherzer was taking batting practice when he bunted a ball directly off his face. He was a bloody mess with a broken nose and an eye that was extremely swollen.
It was a start in the middle of the season for a guy who had won three Cy Young’s in his career. Nobody would blame Max if he had to miss a start or two. After all, he had just broken his nose. Max Scherzer is built different though.
The next day Scherzer gave us a masterpiece. Amped up, Mad Max was throwing harder than normal and giving us some crazy grunts. The swelling around his eye was just jiggling around after every pitch. It was an absolute spectacle and the crowd was loving it.
Scherzer would throw seven scoreless innings while striking out 10 batters. He led the Nats to a win in a time of the season where they desperately needed them. The Nats were clawing back from their infamous 19-31 start, so they needed every win they could get. Scherzer stepped up and delivered with a battered face. That is just the kind of competitor Mad Max was and still is.
While he is long in the tooth these days, you still see the fire. He gave Blue Jays fans a taste of one of his signature moves in the ALCS. Scherzer was an out away from finishing the 5th inning, when the Jays manager John Schneider came out to the mound. Mad Max was having none of it and ran Schneider off his mound. That moment brought me back to the good old days.
That is one of my favorite things about Max. He is like a predator on the mound and the batters are his prey. When he is really rolling, Scherzer would stalk around the back of the mound when he got outs. As he got deeper into the game, he would stalk further away from the mound. Scherzer just has the best mound presence in MLB history for me.
However, that does not matter much if you are not elite, and boy was Max Scherzer elite. When he signed for mega money with the Nats, it raised a lot of eyebrows. The contract was seen as an overpay at the time. However, Mad Max quickly silenced the doubters.
His first season in DC might be the most memorable one. Scherzer had the best two start run in MLB history against the Brewers and the Pirates. Against Milwaukee, Scherzer flirted with a no-hitter, but came up short, allowing a bloop hit to Carlos Gomez. However, he did fire a 16 strikeout complete game in an absurdly dominant performance.
He out-did himself in his next start though. Against the Pirates, he did pull off a no-hitter. However, it was probably the biggest let down of a no-no ever. Mad Max was one strike away from a perfect game before the gutless Jose Tabata leaned into a pitch that would not have hit him. It was a massive disappointment, seeing how rare perfect games are. Scherzer bounced back and retired the next guy to get his no-no though.
This was not his last no-hitter of the season though. The next one came on the last Scherzday of 2015. It was a let down of a season and the vibes were low. The Nats surprisingly missed the playoffs and the biggest story about the team at the time was the infamous Jonathan Papelbon choking incident.
I remember following this game on my phone at a party. At that party, I was just standing in the corner on my phone watching Max go to work. He was just mowing down Mets hitters. Scherzer struck out 9 Mets in a row.
The only base runner that night came on a Yunel Escobar error. In an absurdly dominant start, Scherzer got his second no-hitter of the season. He really could have had two perfect games if it weren’t for a couple things outside of his control.
The last great Mad Max moment I want to talk about is the 20 strikeout game. While no-hitters are awesome, the 20 strikeout game is even more rare. Scherzer’s master class against the Tigers is actually the most recent one.
This felt different than the no-hitters because the game was on a knife’s edge. Scherzer gave up a couple of his typical solo home runs. The game was 3-2 in the 9th, and we had a real chance of losing. Scherzer actually got his 20th strikeout with one batter left, so he had time to get the record. However, the last batter got an out in play. Even when he makes history, Scherzer was so good he left you thinking he could have done more.
All of these moments are why I am rooting so hard for Mad Max tonight. You never want to see your heroes fail and get mocked. He is my favorite player. When I pitched, I wanted to be like Mad Max on the mound. He was the man and I idolized him.
The fastball is not what it used to be and he makes more mistakes, but he still has that fire in the belly. Against an intimidating Dodgers lineup, how far can that moxy take him. Hopefully it is good enough to get the job done. Put on that superman cape one more time Mad Max!
