
Jae C. Hong/Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Mike Brosseau was an undrafted free agent from Northwest Indiana who until Friday night was just another anonymous—albeit useful—piece on baseball’s most anonymous team.
Aroldis Chapman was the Cuban Missile, the much-celebrated gazillion-dollar New York Yankees closer who helped the Chicago Cubs win a World Series, is a six-time All-Star and throws high-octane fastballs that make grown men weep.
Before Friday’s series-clinching 2-1 victory for the Tampa Bay Rays, the pair had run into each other one other high-profile time, back on Sept. 1. Chapman sent one of his celebrated 100 mph fastballs whizzing toward Brosseau’s head, a rudeness that caused the benches to clear and the Yankees and Rays to loathe one another even more than they already did.
Then came the eighth inning of one of the best baseball games you’ll ever see, a tight, taut and pulsating winner-take-all affair that