Benetti: Changes, yes, but baseball marches on
We never know what the last one will be, even if we see it coming.
Jose Quintana's final Chicago White Sox strikeout came against Nolan Arenado. July 8, 2017.
Todd Frazier's final White Sox hit was a double off Felix Hernandez. July 15, 2017.
David Robertson's final White Sox pitch struck out Robinson Cano. July 16, 2017.
Tommy Kahnle's final White Sox delivery whiffed Jarrod Dyson. July 16, 2017.
Dan Jennings' final batter faced as a Sox player was Jon Jay, who singled, knocking Jennings out of the game in favor of Anthony Swarzak. July 24, 2017.
Anthony Swarzak's final White Sox pitch froze Willson Contreras and locked up Swarzak's first career save. July 24, 2017.
Little did we know at the time that these six were spinning the final strand of their White Sox yarn. Now, within 16 days, Quintana's a Cub, Frazier, Robertson and Kahnle live in New York, Jennings is a Floridian, and Swarzak's summer address says Wisconsin.
Over the course of a baseball season - let alone five-plus, in Quintana's case - we may not even realize it, but we memorize jersey numbers, batting stances, pitching deliveries, trots to the mound, facial expressions and body types. We watch these players for hours upon hours over the course of our summer vacations, our humid nights and our half-days off from work.
We know that each player's time in the uniform is limited, yet we never truly think of it as we watch them do their nightly dance. Then, they're gone and we are left to learn the intricacies of another set of Sox.
Jose Quintana's eye-high fastball that we KNEW is coming becomes Dylan Cease's slicing breaking ball.
Todd Frazier's one-handed opposite-field, reach-across-the-plate home run morphs into Eloy Jimenez destructing a faraway light bulb.
Just as Chris Sale's plastic frame and fiery gaze faded into Yoan Moncada's whip-quick bat and foot speed.
And Adam Eaton's headfirst breakneck dive for a faraway flyball transformed into Reynaldo Lopez's disappearing fastball.
If asked, though, to recreate any of the infinitesimally small details of the players who are no longer in Sox colors, we could. Because baseball's repetition forms incredibly indelible memories of our favorites (and even those we don't love so much).
And, it seems, we remain in the minds of the players we care(d) about, too. On Wednesday night, the Sox paid tribute to Jose Quintana in the first inning. Sox fans across Guaranteed Rate Field cheered loudly. For a Cub.
Quintana, for his part, made a motion with his arms across his body as if to hug each and every one of the people who applauded that night and for half a decade prior. He was touched, and he said as much after the game.
Necessarily, our working memories can only fit so much.
We will, as baseball fans, always be prone to using the phrase, "I haven't thought of THAT guy forever … " But, if reminded of a player, we are terribly likely to remember something only we, as nightly viewers, would remember.
• Jason Benetti is a play-by-play broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox, as well as ESPN. Follow him on Twitter @jasonbenetti.