Robin Smith v West Indies, Edgbaston 1995 Its a myth that England has just discovered S&M. Odubel Herrera Jersey . It was on TV often in the first half of the 90s, and before the watershed too. Robin Smith was 50 shades of black and blue on a number of occasions after being assaulted by West Indies sadistic fast bowlers, and he relished every bruise. When he was batting, it was clear why machismo is a near-anagram of masochism. He was addicted to the challenge and the adrenaline rush of a cricketing joyride, and did not care for conventional notions of pain. Whats the definition of pain? he said. Pain for me is blokes I know getting bayonets stuck into their thighs and calves during the Rhodesian war.Yet even Smith had a pain threshold, just about. When he was batting against Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop at Edgbaston, the bounce was so nasty and unpredictable that Smith wore a visor for one of the few times in his career. He also says it was one of only two times he was in the zone. He made 46 and 41 in totals of 147 and 89 and batted 300 minutes in the match, which was over before lunch on the third day. In total, England only lasted 372 minutes. Smiths captain Mike Atherton, who knew a few things about courage, later said it was the bravest batting he saw during his career.Yet Smith was an indestructible hero with porcelain confidence, and could be brought to his knees by more insidious forms of bowling; he was physically scared facing Shane Warne. In a sense, he was the point at which old and new masculinity meet and, for my teenage self, an introduction to the nuances and complexities of adulthood: the strong, silent, insecure type. There have been few more fascinating cricketers.Smiths insane courage was so stirring that his sheer skill at playing fast bowling is sometimes forgotten; not so much his defining square cut but the suppleness and reflexes that allowed him to jerk away from bouncers like a limbo dancer a millisecond before they reshaped his face. For a young and essentially cowardly England cricket fan, there was no greater vicarious thrill, and no greater hero.Desmond Haynes v India, Jamaica 1983 Batting needs its own inflation calculator. The pace of scoring has increased so much this century that we need a tool to tell us exactly what historical innings are worth. A good example is Desmond Haynes 34 from 21 balls in West Indies stunning victory over India. His scoring rate does not look that spectacular to modern eyes, but it was 22 years ago: at the time it was the fastest recorded innings of 20 or more by an opener in a Test.It sparked one of the great steals, West Indies version of the miracle of Adelaide. At tea on the final day India were 168 for 6, a lead of 165. Then Andy Roberts took four quick wickets and the captain Clive Lloyd told his side to go for the runs, an instruction that verged on the anarchic in the climate of the time. Haynes, usually the relatively sober partner to Gordon Greenidge, went off like a pacemaker, hitting four fours and a six in an innings Wisden called delightful.As word spread around Kingston that something magical might be happening, the crowd grew. That meant there was an appropriate audience for an innings that Viv Richards, despite some extremely stiff competition, regards as his favourite: a storming 61 off 36 balls, made with a broken thumb. West Indies won with four balls to spare. The chase of 172 is still the fastest of over 100 in Test history, and looks pretty impressive even without an inflation calculator.AB de Villiers v Australia, Adelaide 2012 The moment I realised AB de Villiers could do anything was when he did nothing. His monastic 33 from 220 balls, which helped South Africa to an epic draw, was a masterpiece of apparently effortless self-denial. A man who can hit any ball to any part of any ground did not hit a single boundary. At 220 balls, its the longest boundary-less innings in Test history. (Oddly, the fourth longest was also played by a man called de Villiers in Adelaide: Fanie lasted 170 balls for his 30 in January 1994.)We often refer to the oxygen of runs, yet really runs are more like food - you can survive without them for far longer than you realise, but that is rarely evident in a modern culture of impatience and instant gratification. De Villiers showed what can be done if you train your brain accordingly. For his next trick, six days later, he smashed 169 off 184 balls to win the series.Winston Benjamin v Pakistan, Barbados 1988 The word immaturity can have positive connotations too. Ask any West Indies fan who was at the Kensington Oval on April 27, 1988. Pakistan, the only team to consistently stand up to the great West Indian side of the 80s, led 1-0 going into the third and final Test. West Indies proud unbeaten records - 53 years in Tests in Barbados, 15 years in a series at home, eight years in a series anywhere - were about to disappear. In a medium-scoring scrap they were 207 for 8, needing 266 to win, when Winston Benjamin came to the crease.The situation was pretty fraught; Abdul Qadir, exasperated when Jeff Dujon survived a huge bat-pad appeal, had just punched a heckler. Benjamin was 23 years old, playing his fourth Test. His immaturity was a blessing, because he had not fully grasped the significance of what was going on. And even that which he did understand did not faze him. Positive visualisation comes instinctively to the young.Benjamin reversed the usual relationship between junior and senior partner. While Dujon held up an end, he tucked into Qadir, slog-sweeping and straight-driving sixes out of the ground, one of which injured a passer-by. He learned to pick Qadir - kind of. He heard the wicketkeeper Saleem Yousuf say legbreak, googly, flipper, and repeated it to himself. (Qadir became so exasperated by the umpires failure to read his flipper and give lbws that he told them in advance when he was going to bowl it.)It was off a pre-picked googly that Benjamin smacked the winning boundary. He had made 40 from 72 balls in a partnership of 61 with Dujon. He only realised the size of his achievement when he got to the dressing room and found his captain, Viv Richards, in tears. Len Hutton v Australia, Sydney 1946 For such a numbers-oriented game, cricket has always had a keen eye for the qualitative ? perhaps never more so than during this Test. Don Bradman and Sid Barnes both made 234 each in Australias innings victory, yet all most people were talking about after the game was Len Huttons 37 in 24 minutes, an innings drenched in glory. Neville Cardus, in the Guardian, said it elevated a match of mass production and utility to the realms of fine art.It may have been fine art, but it also had cult appeal. Those who saw it talked about it until their dying day; so did many of those who didnt. A young Harold Pinter heard about it on the radio, and it became instant serotonin. Sometimes, when I feel a little exhausted with it all and the worlds sitting heavily on my head, I pick up a Wisden and read about Len Huttons 37 in 24 minutes in Sydney in 1946.Hutton took Keith Miller and Fred Freer to the cleaners, driving and pulling with exhilarating authority, until, off the last ball before lunch, he accidentally hit his own wicket. His innings lived fast and died young. This, wrote Cardus, was a crying shame, challenging justice and philosophy. Many who saw the innings cited Victor Trumper. On this occasion, none were accused of blasphemy. And nobody wanted to look at the data afterwards. Rhys Hoskins Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Clay Buchholz Jersey . Brandon Morrow allowed five runs on six hits over three innings. He struck out two, walked one and hit a batter. Edwin Encarnacion had a two-out, bases loaded two-RBI double in the third inning. http://www.philliesrookiestore.com/Phillies-Dave-Cash-Kids-Jersey/ . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach.Winning 11 straight games is no doubt an impressive feat and has the Toronto Blue Jays back into the Wild Card race in the American League, if not the race for the AL East division title. However, the thing that really surprised me was where this streak fits in, historically. The Blue Jays also won 11 in a row in 1987 and 1998. They have tied a franchise record, but it is actually tied for the lowest franchise record win streak in American League history. The Angels also won 11 in a row, once back in 1964, but every other team in the American League has a longer franchise record win streak. The 2002 Oakland As, the team Michael Lewis wrote about that led to the movie Moneyball, set the all-time American League record with 20 straight victories. The As finished at 103-59 that season and had the streak broken by the MInnesota Twins on September 6. It was also the Twins who eliminated Oakland in the American League Division Series that year. The longest win streak of all time is generally credited to the 1935 Chicago Cubs, who won 21 in a row. The oddity of that streak was the first 19 games were played at Wrigley Field. The winning roll finally ended on September 28 at St. Louis. The Cubs finished the year at 100-54 and made it to the World Series, where they ultimately lost to the Detroit Tigers. Before you start thinking streaking teams never end up winning big, let me give you the flip side. The 1947 Yankees won 19 in a row from June 29-July 18. They finished the year at 97-57 and stopped Brooklyn in the Fall Classic in seven games. The 1906 Chicago Cubs, the so-called Hitless Wonders, won 19 straight and wound up with a sterling record of 116-36, and ended up with a .763 win percentage, the highest in Major League history. Then they went on to upset their cross-town rival, the Cubs in the World Series. The strangest win streak I could find in the modern era belonged to the 1916 New York Giants of John McGraw. They actually won 26 in a row. However after the 14th game, they played a 1-1 tie with Pittsburgh in a game that was called after nine innings, likely because of darkness as it was the second game of a double-header. So technically, it doesnt count as a 26-game streak. It was 14, then a tie, then 12 more wins, but they werent beaten in 26 games. There were some real oddities in this streak. Francisco Rodriguez Jersey. All 26 games from September 7-30 were played at home by the Giants at the Polo Grounds. The Boston Braves finally ended the streak in the second game of a twinbill. It was the deadball era, so maybe this shouldnt be too surprising, but the Giants racked up 10 shutout victories in those 26 wins. The Giants were an extremely streaky team in 1916. They also won 17 in a row at one point, and had losing streaks of eight and six games. Also during the 26 game streak, they beat every one of the other clubs in the 8-team National League at least once. You would think after all of that the Giants must have had a great season. Wrong! They finished 86-66 and wound up in fourth place in an 8-team league. The first two times the Blue Jays put together 11 game win streaks didnt exactly have happy endings either. In 1987, Jimy Williams team lost the division title to Detroit in that heart-breaking final weekend, three-game sweep at old Tiger Stadium. In 1998, Tim Johnsons only year at the helm, the Jays streak ran from August 27-September 7. It actually looked as though the Blue Jays might catch the Yankees for the division lead. However, their final road trip brought them down. After winning three out of four in New York, they lost two straight at Cleveland, two in a row at Detroit and two out of three at Tampa Bay to finish the journey at 4-7. After that, they were done. This years Blue Jays have won 15 of their 18 games, are showing strengths in all facets of the game and they only figure to get stronger when Jose Reyes returns from rehab later in the week. This might actually turn out to be a year when a lengthy win streak actually translates into post-season success. For those who were wondering, the Montreal Expos never had an 11-game win streak. Their best was 10 and they accomplished that three times. Their offspring, the Washington Nationals have had one 10-game win streak. Of all the other National League clubs, the lowest franchise record win streak is nine by the Florida/Miami Marlins, who have done it four times. Colorado had two 11-game win streaks, and the New York Mets have had four 11-gamers. All the other teams in the Senior Circuit have exceeded that 11-game total as their franchise records for winning streaks. 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