Whether you are an ardent fan of Miracle Whip or prefer mayonnaise in its most basic form, you probably think condiments in general rock, and some may even believe that the newest fad is ” the greatest thing since mayo real or fake. Ordinarily, I’m not one to buy into the hype surrounding sports or movies. That’s why I was disappointed when Chicago’s “baseball insider” downplayed the upcoming (Tuesday evening) match between Paul Skenes and Cade Horton of the Pirates and Cubs respectively.

Despite the pedigree of the two starters, I’m risk averse enough to not take the under. Last week, Clayton Kershaw faced Logan Webb and the Giants in what figured to be a pitchers’ duel but ended up 13-7 with neither starter making it into the 5th. One could still look forward to the game regardless of the results.

Skenes is the presumptive favorite to win the NL CY this year, a year after winning te ROY and Horton is among the favorites to win ROY and garner some down ballot votes for CY. Many Cub fans would love to see him start Game 1 of the playoffs, myself included. Between now and tomorrow’s first pitch, I have no doubt this ninny won’t fall in line with the rest of the Cubs broadcast crew hyping the match-up even though he said, “It’s not exactly Gibson v. Jenkins.” I’m not sure it has to be billed as such, but why not just enjoy watching two of the better young pitchers in the game.

I recently saw a clip from a nationally televised game featuring future HOF studs, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. The broadcast highlighted the 600+ and various career accolades. The following night’s game featured a pair of young relative unknowns, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer, and the broadcasters pointed out the absurdity of the juxtaposition of the two battles. Some 17 years later, we realize that’s as good as a one–two punch of future Hall of Famers.

Over the weekend, I enjoyed an interview that Clayton did with Chris Rose and they discussed his career long history with Scherzer. While neither pitcher dwelled on it when they faced off in Toronto the other day, Kershaw at least realized the impact the two have had on the game.

I’m enough a realist to not expect Skenes to remain in Pittsburgh for the bulk of his career, but I’m also idealistic enough to hope Horton will be a Cub for life. If baseball is lucky, we might be able to draw the Gibson (one team), Jenkins (various teams), or Kershaw/Scherzer. No matter how it ends, let’s just enjoy the duel now.