Colton and I were at my Mom’s house on July 12th when we turned on MLB Network and saw the “No Hitter Alert” in Anaheim…
We then noticed that all of the players were wearing #45 with Skaggs printed on the back…
Colton then interjected:
“Grammie, they are wearing #45 because that was the number of the Angel that died, Tyler Skaggs is his name…”
Colton was right… Tyler Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room in Texas 11 days earlier while the Angels were in town playing the Rangers.
The no hitter was in the 7th inning and I noticed that it was 11-0, then I heard that if the Angels were to complete the no hitter, it would be the 11th no hitter in Angels franchise history… Soon after, I figured out that Skaggs wore #11 in high school.
Interesting…
A few days prior, I received an email from Kris Terrian, a medical trainer in the Philadelphia Phillies organization who reached out about the blog/podcast I had done on the number ELEVEN… Kris lost his best friend Kyle in a car accident 7 years ago, and since then, his life has somehow been inundated with the number 11. Kris was moved by the “ELEVEN” podcast and also mentioned that I had done 11 Ironman’s, played 11 MLB seasons and championed the GO HARD spirit that his dude Kyle lived his life by. Kris simply just wanted to share the story…
What Kris did not know was that I too lost my best friend when we just so happened to be 11 years old… Todd Wilbanks was hit by a car while riding his bike. I was playing a tennis match, otherwise I would have undoubtedly been with him like I had almost every single other day that summer…
The 11 coincidence got me to google the significance of the number ELEVEN right after Kris’ email.
This is what I found…
“The number 11 is a Master Number which means that it resonates at an extremely high vibration. Angel number 11 represents a transmutation of your personal power to a higher, more spiritual level.”
As the no hitter continued, more numbers were brought to my attention… The Angels scored 7 runs in the first inning and brought 13 batters to the plate… Tyler Skaggs was born on 7-13-1991, which also just so happened to be the exact date of the last no hitter thrown in the state of California… Oh yea, Mike Trout, wearing #45 with the rest of his Angels teammates, hit a 454 foot home run in the first inning as well…
As the game continued and the Angels continued to get one out after another, I just sat there in amazement of what was happening…
The final out was eventually recorded not long after the clock struck midnight on the east coast, which completed the 13-0 no hit Angels victory on 7-13-19, Tyler Skaggs 28th birthday…
After a subdued celebration, Angels players took off their #45 jerseys and laid them on the mound, one of the most touching moments I’ve ever seen.
3 years ago, Dee Gordon was playing for the Miami Marlins when teammate Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident… To honor his late friend in the Marlins first game back, Gordon, who was leading off the game, mimicked Fernandez’s batting stance from the right side of the plate on the first pitch… The light hitting 2nd baseman then went back to the left side and hit a home run on the next pitch, his only homer of the season…
Dee Gordon was on the other end this time… Playing against the Angels for the Mariners, he made the 26th out of the night. After the 27th out was recorded, Gordon said, “Like I said 3 years ago… If you don’t believe in God, you might want to start…”
No matter what your faith is, Dee Gordon’s got a pretty good point, and the numbers game seems to support it. 😇
-EB