Let me explain something.

My brother Robin likes to follow athletes from this neck of the woods. Something I think he inherited from our dad, Bob Cody, who played semipro baseball and coached for many years. If a kid was from Madras, like Jacoby Ellsbury, or played in Portland, like Shoni Schimmel, Robin was in their corner, following their careers.

In this vein, he loved to attend Astoria playoff games like those in 2006, ’08, ’09 and ’10 when Astoria played in the baseball championships. He was there.

So when Robin saw 2010 Astoria graduate Dane Lund behind the plate at an Oregon State University game March 21 … I’ll just let him tell it, directly from his email.

Dear Sue,

I was surprised in Corvallis Saturday to see Dane Lund behind the plate and hitting second in the order for the Beavers vs. Washington State. Not that I doubted Dane’s skills, but didn’t he play ball with Jordan Poyer and them in Astoria? So how is he still in college?

I was in Corvallis to see the OSU women basketball play Gonzaga in the round of 32, March Madness. They lost, a good game, but the baseball team was going to play the Cougars that night and again Saturday at 1 p.m. It would have been unconscionable, you know, for me not to find a room and stay to catch the two Beaver baseball games in the next 24 hours.

You must know what happened on Saturday, but maybe not all of Dane’s role in the game.

Dane is not even the first-string catcher, but he caught a perfect game. No, really. A PERFECT GAME, 27 up and 27 down, the first such thing in Beaver baseball history, and the first in the PAC-12 (or 10 or 8, it used to be) since 1973.

In all my years of playing and umping and watching baseball, I have never seen a perfect game. A no-hitter, sure. I even threw a seven-inning no-hitter against “The School for the Blind,” Dad called them. MacLaren.

But this was 10 strikeouts, 0 walks and flawless defense for nine innings. A passed ball by Dane would have ruined it.

Ummm, no.

There was never anybody on base to have advanced on a passed ball.

Check my scoring here attached, in a small notebook soggy from rain the night before. Pitching was Drew Rasmussesn, a stocky freshman (!) right-hander from Spokane. They didn’t hit a ball out of the infield until two down in the sixth.

Keeping score, as you all know, keeps us alert for freak happenings and unlikely developments while others around us might have no idea.

I remember a Portland Beaver game where a guy was 6-for-6 and batting again in the eighth inning and people were leaving. Fans left! The Beavers were so comfortably ahead that the game, to them, was over. Thank you, Dad. It was probably one of the first proofs of our evident superiority over the rest of humanity when it comes to baseball.

That’s how it was Saturday in Section 7, after six. In my card, I had 18 up and 18 down, in the company of idiots and not one sister to share the drama with. You would have loved this.

In the top of the eighth there was, yes, a buzz through the stands about all those zeros on the board. And in the ninth, even the idiots were standing and cheering with each strike the kid threw. I thought jinx, but the kid on the mound was ice, perhaps in a dream. Or a freshman will believe everything. His last pitch was a swinging strikeout on a nasty curve in the dirt fielded cleanly by Dane Lund who leaped in the air and was the first of the orange mob to reach the mound.

And now Sue. You are a writer, and this is a story just right for you. Wouldn’t it be cool to find out how his mom and dad saw this game? Were they there? Will Jordan Poyer (who, like Dane, was undervalued in high school) talk about Dane? I remember Dane in Astoria as a stubby blond dirtball, good hitter, but too small to be a catcher. How did he get from there to OSU? I sure never pictured him in Division I college ball, and then catching a historic game.

Oh, I forgot to say. In the first inning, Dane put down a perfect sacrifice bunt moving the runner to second base. That guy scored on a single for the only run the Beavers would need. In the third, Dane’s single on my scorecard was another perfectly placed bunt for a base hit.

What a day, thrilling for the kid and family, I’m sure, and exhausting even for me. Too much fun.

— Robin

Dear Robin,

Dane’s parents were in the stands in Corvallis March 21. “It was just amazing,” Dane’s Mom Kim said. “We were so thankful to be there. It’s been his dream to play at Oregon State since he was 7 years old.”

“I kinda knew right from the start, when there were three up and three down” that the pitcher was on his mark, said David Lund, Dane’s father.

“By the fifth inning when there were 15 up and 15 down, I knew he was on his game. By the seventh inning, I had to get up and started walking around.”

The amazing part was that Rasmussen put the ball where he wanted it, David said. “They didn’t hesitate to throw inside or in the dirt. The only time the baseball was in the dirt was when they wanted it there.” And, Dane stopped it every time. “The pitcher was unhittable,” Dave said.

“This is history,” Kim added.

Yes, Dane played with Jordan Poyer in high school. He was one year younger than Poyer, who chose football over baseball and starred at OSU before heading to the NFL, where he now plays for the Cleveland Browns.

The road to Division I wasn’t paved with gold for Dane.

He attended Mt. Hood Community College for two years, where he was all-league, all-tournament and all-conference.

He then went at San Jose State for one year, but wanted to be closer to his family, he said. He played summer ball in Corvallis and knew the OSU coaches. Coach Pat Casey offered him a place in the baseball program, but, in Division 1, if you transfer, you have to sit out a year.

“That was rough,” Dane said of not playing last year. “But, I think it helped in the long run.”

Since he was 10 years old, Dane has been a catcher. “You always get to be a part of every single play,” he said. “It’s definitely not boring. I love it!” Dane said his focus changed when Dave Gasser, Oregon’s winningest baseball coach arrived in Astoria. Dane was in eighth grade. “It was like having your eyes opened for the very first time,” Dane said. Over the years, Gasser prepared his players to continue after high school, Dane said.

Coach Gasser was a catcher, but never caught a perfect game. A couple of no-hitters, but nothing like what happened in Corvallis. “I cannot even imagine what it feels like to catch a perfect game in nine innings at that level. It’s literally impossible to imagine.”

“Dane is a great catcher, no doubt about it,” he said. “The catcher is such a big part of that success, the pitcher and catcher act like one organism. The catcher starts taking on responsibility for this accomplishment to happen. Dane will remember this for the rest of his life.”

Dane said he plans to keep baseball in his future and perhaps will coach.

— Sue

Robin Cody played baseball in his hometown of Estacada and was captain of Yale University’s baseball team. He later was an umpire in the Portland area. His books include “Voyage of a Summer Sun,” “Ricochet River” and “Another Way the River Has.” Sue Cody is deputy managing editor and sports editor at The Daily Astorian.