Baseball Journal 6-16-13

Well, this has been a sad weekend. I hadn’t been able to watch or listen to much baseball last week. I was vaguely aware that the Rangers haven’t been winning, but other than that, I haven’t been paying attention. Saturday afternoon, lacking a game on, I was forced to watch a NASCAR Nationwide race. Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to watch any more Nationwide races? Quick check. Yes, at least twice. It threatened to rain for the entire race, but Daryl Waltrip’s old “vortex effect,” actually worked and kept it away from the track. (Cars driving fast in a circle creates an updraft, which diverts the rainfall. That’s DW’s theory whenever looks like rain. This is the only time I’ve seen it work.) Some dude won. I hope that wasn’t too much detail for you non-racing fans.

Later, there were a couple of games on the radio. I picked the Dodgers-Pirates game. The Rangers were getting blown out by the Blue Jays and that station had a weaker signal. The night before, I’d heard it mentioned on a sportstalk show that the Dodgers media guide no longer listed the bullpen ERA. Millions for position players and starting pitchers and the human equivalent of a batting tee for relief pitching. Kershaw goes seven innings and gives up one run to the Pirates. Dodgers 3-1 in the 8th and bullpen gives up a run. 3-2 in the 9th, Jansen comes out to serve up a home run, thus leading to extra innings. The Dodgers got the lead back, but the Pirates had their chances, including having the tying runs in scoring position when the game ended.

Next up was the Fox Angel game of the week. Oh boy. What followed was a truly shameful moment for me as a baseball fan. I was rooting for the Yankees. (Hangs head.) I never realized how much I hated the other LA team until this week. And they didn’t even win! You stupid Yankees! Go back to buying championships, you’ll never earn one.

It only got worse Sunday. Things were going so well for Cubs against the Mets. They’d already won the first two games of the series. They scored early today and Matt Garza looked good. The Mets even gifted the Cubs a couple of runs off a couple of errors on the same play. The Cubs had two runners on as a grounder was hit to third. Len was actually complimenting David Wright’s smooth fielding just before he airmailed it over first base. A run scored. Daniel Murphy at first then airmailed the ball over the catcher. Another run scored. The ball was flinged around again without finding a fielder, but Soriano was already at third by that time, no further errors were charged. It was a true Little League caliber play. Start the circus music. Bring out the dancing bears.

So the Cubs were leading 3-0 in the bottom of the 9th. Their current closer, Kevin Gregg, was unavailable. Carlos Marmol comes out to finish. He’s had some problems, but how hard could this be? Solo home run, walk, single, sacrifice moved the runners up, three-run homer. Game over. Mets win. I sat there in stunned shock for several minutes. No, no, no! It had all happened so fast. I actually sat through the commercials hoping maybe the score would change when they came back. No. Dad was completely non-pulsed. He’s seen Marmol blow so many saves at this point, he oblivious. If Marmol comes out in the 9th, dad just caulks it up as loss and moves on.

I trudged back home, haunted by the stinging defeat (and even more by the New York style pizza they showed being made during the game) and flipped on the Ranger game on the radio. I was sure they’d win today. No doubt about it and I was going to be there to hear it. Unfortunately, the team did not share my confidence and got their asses kicked. Six losses in a row.

I’m looking forward to seeing the Rangers and Cardinals for the next Fox game of the week, but I’m wondering if the Rangers will show up to play. Beyond their depleted injured starting pitching, I’m wondering they’re still experiencing a hangover from that 18 inning game last week and maybe even that Memorial Day double-header fiasco before that. The Pirates have literally had their back broken the last two years in a row from playing in extra long games in the middle of the season. Could the Ranger’s season be over already?