Fairytale of Boston

There is a reason why the film industry is based in the U.S. America is the home of the unbelievable story, stories of great triumphs and happy endings that Frank Capra would have baulked at.

As a young country they have an optimism and positive that can often be disarming to us Europeans. But this outlook on life does lead to truly remarkable incidents occurring in all walks of U.S. life.

The two most likely candidates for President are good cases in point. Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan man and a woman from Kansas and he has come to run for the top job in the country by way of a single parent family living in both Hawaii and Indonesia at various times in his life.

John McCain is more mainstream in many ways but he spent four years in a prisoner of war camp in Hanoi after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam war.

The stories of both these men fit into the template of all great American stories and while here in Ireland a leader from outside Dublin is big news it takes something a little more dramatic to top the news agenda across the Atlantic.

That is why the story of Jon Lester is the big news state-side today. Last night, pitching for the Boston Red Sox against the Kansas City Royals, Lester pitched a no-hitter.

This means he didn’t allow any opponent to make base via a hit through the full nine innings. To do this he dismissed 29 batters in a row.

No-hitters are rare. There have been 256 thrown in the 132 years since the first no-hitter in 1876 and if you manage to do it you are guaranteed to go down in history. Baseball is a game of numbers, statistics and history and Lester feat last night has ensured he is now in the books, for the ages.

But the no-hitter is not even the most dramatic thing in Lester story. In fact, at 24, it is arguably the third most newsworthy thing about him.

In 2006, at the age of just 22, he was diagnosed with Lymphoma following complaints of back pain. Luckily this rare form of blood cancer was caught early enough and after treatment he returned to the Red Sox team in July 2007.

By last summer the Red Sox were cruising towards the play offs once again and were many pundits favourites to win the World Series. The final pairing would pit the Red Sox against the Colorado Rockies.

The Boston team, having shrugged off an 86 year wait for a World Series in 2004 (think Clare hurling 1995) were now determined to cement their place as the best team of the current generation.

Boston crushed the Rockies in the first three games and following an injury to the proposed starting pitcher the responsibility of closing out the World Series was given to Lester by the management who had so carefully managed his rehabilitation for the previous 18 months.

He pitched almost 2/3rds of the game, giving up no runs and was thus credited with the win and the honour of clinching the second world series in 4 years for the Red Sox.

Speaking to ESPN last night Lester said "I can't tell you which one means more to me than the other. The World Series is, obviously, the World Series. How many people get to say they've won that? And a no-hitter is a no-hitter. How many people can say they've done that?

At 24 one wonders what else the Jon Lester story can bring us. He has achieved two feats that most players will never even get close to and as a pitcher with the best team in baseball right now he is in a great position to add many more scenes and set-pieces for the inevitable made-for-TV movie of his life.

However as pitchers can go on until they are 40 a series along the lines of Lost may be needed to fit all the drama in.