Thu 29 Sep 2011
I watched more baseball on TV last night than I have all year. It was the last day of the regular season, and I can’t remember when there were more unknowns for the playoffs on the day of Game 162 — who was playing whom and where — than yesterday.
There were actually three games I was switching back and forth between. Mostly I was watching Boston play Baltimore, but at the end of each half inning, I went down two channels to see how Tampa Bay was faring against the Yankees. Whenever both games were playing commercials — more often than you’d think — I flipped over to one of the ESPN channels to watch Atlanta play the Phillies.
Two of the games went into extra innings, and one was decided in the ninth in a stunning comeback against the second best reliever in baseball. All three were epics that fans will remember for a long time, with dramatic home runs and fielding plays galore, but what I kept thinking of is how much the other 161 games matter too.
Two of the teams, Boston and Atlanta failed badly down the stretch, and I mean badly, relinquishing leads in the standings next to impossible to lose, or so you’d think. If this had been fiction, no one would have believed it. It’s why when the sports pulps died, they stayed dead.
My team, Detroit, is still in the running. They play the Yankees on Friday night. If I had to cheer on a National League team, it would be Arizona, managed and coached by two of my favorite former players, Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell.
Both played for Detroit, of course.
September 29th, 2011 at 10:09 am
How could the Red Sox do it? How could they?
September 29th, 2011 at 10:35 am
There are three baseball fan bases that are more fun to watch when their team loses than when it wins, Yankees, Cubs, and Red Soxs. They have a manager that had won two recent World Series but now many want fired.
Boston fans are passionate about baseball and this the type of tragedy fiction is unable to ever capture.
I have been a St. Louis Cardinals fan since 1960. I have been thankfully for the club’s rich and successful history. I have rooted for great teams and bad teams. I still can’t believe we lost to Detroit in the World Series or to Boston when we had a better team (that evened out when we last won a World Series with the worst team in the playoffs).
But while I will root for the birds on the uniform, I have little respect for the whiny, self-entitled players taking the field. It is a weird feeling, for the first time in over fifty years, to root for the team and not respect it.
Last night, I watched StL vs Houston game before it became a blowout, then switched to the MLB network and watched the other three at once.
Fun night for baseball, I wish I could have enjoyed it more.
September 29th, 2011 at 11:35 am
I watched the Phillies beat Atlanta in the 13th inning last night. Atlanta was hoping to win and play St Louis in a one game playoff today for the wild card. Needless to say they were crushed when they lost and I saw a clip of the St Louis players happily celebrating when they saw the result on TV.
Baseball is a great sport which I fell in love with as a kid in the 1950’s. I still remember the shock of my first visit to Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia in 1955. The greenest grass and whitest lines I’ve ever seen. The Whiz Kids were only in the World Series once but I followed them all through the 1950’s.
Every now and then someone starts in saying baseball is boring and I find that I no longer can control myself like I used to when younger. Now I start howling with laughter because there is SO much going on during the game, on the field, in the dugout, in the stands. Some games are like chess games being played by opposing managers.
Bring on the Playoffs! I’ll switch my reading to baseball books and stock up on plenty of beer and sandwiches.
September 29th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Chess games, yes, but baseball is most interesting when there’s a human factor involved. If you don’t care for the players (see Michael in Comment #2), then yes, watching baseball can get awfully boring.
There was a stretch of time, before Jim Leyland took over as manager, when the players pretending to be Detroit Tigers were awful, simply awful, and as far as I could tell, they didn’t care, either. Life for Alan Trammel, who was saddled with managing them, had to be one case of Maalox after another.
But even when your team is going good, do you know what’s more fun than watching baseball?
Playing baseball. You against the pitcher, running the bases, racing in the outfield for the ball before you make a final last lunge for it — and catching it. Good memories.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
I understand what you and Michael are saying about players who are overpaid and complain all the time. During the baseball strike of 1994 I got so angry that I quit watching and going to major league baseball. I had absolutely no sympathy with millionaires on strike.
I switched to minor league baseball and for several years I faithfully followed the Trenton Thunder, a double A team of the Detroit Tigers and later the Boston Red Sox. I liked the games so much that I bought season tickets. Now the team is in the Yankee farm system but I still go to about a dozen games each year.
Many fans don’t understand that minor league baseball is also professional ball and the players are the stars of the future, before they become spoiled by the high salaries.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Interesting comment from Walker about some people complaining that baseball is boring, as this is the same sort of criticism that people make about Cricket. I always reply that the more you know about the game,the more interesting it is. Each game has its own particular rhythm, with period of relative calm followed by sudden violent reversals, and last stands that can turn the whole match around. Just at the moment, England has a very good team, and years of disappointment are finally being paid off.
Baseball is not something that has much coverage in Britain, but when it is shown (often in the small hours of the morning) I do find myself enjoying it. But I suspect that I can never enjoy it in the same way that an American does, because I’m not carrying the same emotional or historical baggage.
September 29th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
“…emotional or historical baggage…”
That’s a perfect way of putting it. I’ve been a baseball fan since I was ten. Lots of ups and downs along the way, such as the strike Walker mentions, but even through the down periods, I’ve always read the sports section before the front page.
Cricket, as you point out, Bradstreet, is another matter. I think it might help if I knew the rules, but fine men have tried to explain them to me, and failed. I don’t think cricket has ever been shown on TV in this country, even in the small hours, but I’m probably wrong about that. If I’m up in the small hours, I’m watching a movie on DVD instead.
September 29th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Good to have you rooting for the same team, Steve. Detroit needs a boost more than anyone else, not that it factors in.
September 29th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Patti
Baseball is not played in a vacuum. The 1968 championship year for Detroit (this is the year Michael referred to in Comment #2) did a lot to settle the town down after the horrendous riots of the year before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Detroit_Tigers_season
Reading that Wiki article brought back a lot of memories. That was a great team.
September 29th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Actually the money players make does not bother me considering how much tax money goes to helping the rich owners get richer (and not leave for another city).
The Cardinals, reportedly, is the most hated team by the other teams. They are the only ones to whine about how the baseballs feel in Cincinnati and the only ones to complain about the lights on the scoreboard in Milwaukee. They play great against the good teams, but seem to think the bad teams should roll over in awe.
I wish StL was more like the young kids on the “let’s have fun” Tampa Bay Rays.
Steve and Patti, I think your Tigers will take care of the damn Yankees for the rest of us.
September 29th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Steve in Comment #9 mentions the 1968 World Series which I remember with great fondness. At the time I was being discharged from the Army and I was given a few days to go through the process at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Instead I spent much of the time in the NCO bar watching the 1968 games between Detroit and St Louis. Denny McLain won 31 games that year.
September 30th, 2011 at 8:06 am
I’ve been a Yankee fan since 1956 (the year Mickey Mantle won the Triple Crown), but the Tigers are my second favorite American League team. 1968 was indeed a magical year.
As for J.P. Hansen, what can I say but…Red Sox Suck!
September 30th, 2011 at 8:53 am
Those are usually fighting words up here in New England, Jeff. But I don’t know. Maybe most Red Sox fans would agree with you right about now.