They can call it whatever they want, but the fact that Washington’s Max Scherzer threw a perfect inning Tuesday night is pretty darned impressive.

Since we have a name for everything, it’s being called the Immaculate Inning, which reeks of “we have to come up with something, so think of something quickly.”

In the sixth inning against Tampa Bay — hey, it still counts — Scherzer threw nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts. The “Perfect Inning” apparently wasn’t sexy enough, so alliteration was the next best option and it became “Immaculate.”

Scherzer is the dominant pitcher in baseball and the inning Tuesday night showed just how dominant he can be. It was men against boys (yes, I realize it was Tampa Bay). He’s as good as you can be these days and it’s a long trip down to the next best pitcher for this season (Justin Verlander) or for this era (Clayton Kershaw).

The numbers back it up, but I didn’t really appreciate Scherzer until I saw him in person two years ago. Television doesn’t show you how he wants the ball in his hands as soon as he can get it. He practically goes and gets it from the third baseman after they throw it around after a strikeout. After he gives up a hit, he gets back on the mound immediately and gets back to work. Gimme the ball.

Pitchers have to be competitive to survive, but Scherzer is at a different level. In the last 20 years, I’d probably rather have Scherzer to pitch a Game 7 over any other pitcher in baseball. He’s 10-1 this season with a 1.95 ERA. He’s got a 133 strikeouts (far more than anybody else) and only 19 walks. He’s had only one start in which he’s allowed more than two earned runs. That 10-1 record has come with a Nationals team that pretty much stunk during the first six weeks of the season.

In case you missed it, he has as many Cy Young Awards as Kershaw.

And if he wasn’t special enough, he has hasheterochromia iridum. Your Daily Happen homework assignment is to go look that one up.

Americans woke on this morning in 1944 with no knowledge of anything extraordinary going on in France while they slept.

They’d soon hear.

D-Day was going on, and what happened that day on the beaches of Normandy changed the world for the better. But the cost was great, and would rise as the Allies got a foothold on Nazi Germany and pushed for 11 more months until the deal was sealed.

World War II was a huge “W” for the good guys. Almost 75 years removed from that day, we need to remember that real people made that happen. Can’t forget that…

The Super Regionals in the NCAA Baseball Tournament begin Friday, and good for all involved. But think about this: most of the young men who took part in D-Day are the same age of the young student-athletes who will play baseball this weekend. Children…

WWII veteran and Baseball Hall of Fame lefthanded hurler Warren Spahn was asked before a start, I think before a game in the 1948 World Series, if he’d ever felt more pressure. He said, “Well, there was the Battle of the Bulge…”

Perspective is a beautiful thing.

God love and bless our WWII veterans. A special “thank you” to the participants of D-Day. More than 156,000 Allied troops landed, some safely as the beachheads were secured. More than 4,000 Allied troops were killed. Most of them were Americans. Because of what they did on the beaches, you can go to the beach this weekend and do beach things that do not involve getting shot at by Germans. You can watch baseball. Sleep on your couch. Mow your yard. Freedom’s not free…

Next week, we’ll share our favorite WWII books and D-Day books. If you wish to nominate yours, you can do that on our Facebook page or by sending us a note to designatedwriters@yahoo.com.

SEEYA!

-30-