I guess you’ve all seen the video by now. Being baseball fans, a lot of you probably saw it live like I did. I think it will always be a touchstone memory, one that lives in slow motion in your head like being in Dealey Plaza when Kennedy was shot, or the Polo Grounds for the Shot Heard Round the World. Even now, though a few hours have passed, it already feels unreal. And yet, there it is:

I saw Jon Miller beat the living crap out of the President of the United States on national television.

I still don’t know what set him off. Maybe Bush pushing the Mitchell Report as part of baseball’s “cleansing process” reminded him too much of Gitmo. Maybe it was the thought of Joe Morgan getting a GM job. Whatever the reason, one minute they’re chatting amiably – though clearly with some stress – and the next Morgan is looking on while his broadcast partner pummels the leader of the free world. It’s almost a strobe-flash moment, one single frame locked into my mind, before the Secret Service dragged Miller away and the President arose, bloodied but unbowed, to finish the interview with Morgan.

I’m touched. It might be the bravest thing any of our chief executives has ever done.

And if this is how the season starts, where do we go from here? If George Will has taught us anything, it’s that baseball always has some new drama to top the last.