Toeing the Rubber

Hope for the future (Photo courtesy of Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)

I have plenty of friends and relatives who, while supportive of my choices in life, don’t really understand why it is I love baseball and follow it so intently.  For quite a while I’ve been trying to make those who don’t “get” it understand what it is that draws me to it every day and night from April through October (and, if I’m being honest, a lot of the time year-round!).

Sure I enjoy the sport.  It’s fun to watch what the teams do to win – to see the strategies needed to win – and I’m fond of the players – no kidding, huh?  I like to see the players achieve personal goals and it’s always great to see which teams will surprise us.  There are a lot of (gasp!) intangibles that bring me to baseball as well.  One of those intangibles struck me tonight.  I mention it a lot when it comes to the Red Sox but I don’t know that I really ever applied it to other teams.  Baseball gives me hope.

Okay, the Phillies lost to the Yankees in 6 games…but for each of those games, or at least leading up to each of those games, we had this hope that they could beat the Yankees.  I know I did, anyway.  Even the nights I swore I wouldn’t watch, I ended up tuning in because there was this nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me I could witness something great.

And I did.   There was a lot to like about this series (as long as you weren’t a Mets fan – I can’t even begin to feel their pain for this one) even if you don’t like the outcome.  I enjoyed watching most of these six games and I’m a little sad that it’s all over not just because I didn’t want the Yankees to win but because baseball is now, officially, over.  That’s always tough for me to take.

At least 3 people have already tweeted that pitchers and catchers report in roughly 101 days.  This too gives me hope.  Once truck day arrives, we start with a clean slate.  Yes, the Yankees will be reigning World Series champions, but we get another season to hope that our team will make it to October again.

I’m in a weird place right now.  I stopped watching the game in the sixth inning.  I’m coming to terms with the Yankees being the champs and I actually don’t feel any physical pain.  Yeah, I’m annoyed but I figure if I’m not watching the end of the game, the celebration or the days and days of coverage to follow, well, then I’m okay.  I didn’t want to follow a sport in which the likes of Slappy gets rewarded for being a cheating, lying, POS, but there isn’t much we can do about it now, is there?  The sun will come up in the morning, there will be other things to annoy and please us over the winter and come April we’ll all be ready to hate the Yankees even more!  (And many of their fans.  Like the ones trying to post gloating comments while I’m writing this.  Seriously?  Your team just won the WS and you come HERE to celebrate?  Sad.  Very sad.)

Yet again, I have to invoke the ghosts of 2004 and 2007.  I know there is absolutely no way I’m this “okay” with the outcome of this World Series without having those in our back pocket.   Congratulations to the Phillies for getting as far as they did two years in a row.  No, the Yankees don’t get congratulated for accomplishing what they did.   They were supposed to be this good.  You don’t spend the money they did on the players they did and somehow become underdogs.  I’m unimpressed (well, relatively speaking.  They were definitely the best team…but they still don’t impress me!).  As someone pointed out elsewhere, the team we should really be impressed with is the Minnesota Twins who made it to the playoffs with their $68 million payroll (placing them 24th out of 30 in payroll in 2009).

101 days, people.  Pitchers and catchers report in 101 days and we get to do all of this all over again!

Photo of Cole Hamels taken by Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

Well last night was pleasant enough, eh?  Seeing Burnett leave before even getting three innings under his belt was sweet but seeing Chase Utley tie Reggie Jackson’s World Series home run record was sweeter.  All Utley has to do is hit another home run before this series is over and we can say goodbye to “Mr October”.  I approve greatly of this.

EDIT:  Well, I have to take back the whole Brett Myers being an asshole rant since the story is coming out that it didn’t happen.  Of course that could be spin so’s not to make Myers look like the ass I believe him to be (regardless of whether the confrontation happened)…oh well.  It was fun typing out “Brett Myers is an asshole” a few times, anyway!

In spite of the assholiness of Myers, I’m still holding out hope that the Phillies can pull out two more wins.  They need to just take them one game at a time and focus on the game at hand, right?  No getting ahead of yourself and thinking about game 7.  Game 6, with Pedro pitching again at Yankee Stadium against a short-rested Andy Pettitte is quite enough to focus on right now.

I know it’s a long shot but I still think they can do it.  And, because baseball keeps pulling me back in, I’ll definitely be watching tomorrow night!

Pedro reminds Yankees fans who his "daddy? is. (Photo lifted from Getty Images/MLB.com and used with no permissions.)

I didn’t have much time to write yesterday but I tried to get my reading in about Pedro.  I’m still smiling.  Sure he lost the game but he pitched well and his walking off that mound, smiling at the game…the fans…the situation…will be forever in my mind when I think about him.

Many if not most Red Sox fans consider themselves fortunate to have been able to see Pedro pitch in his prime.  I know I do.  During his time in Boston, I saw him pitch at Fenway more than any other pitcher.  (Tim Wakefield has since taken over as “pitcher I’ve seen pitch the most in person”.)  Every outing was an event.  The atmosphere around Fenway was electric on any Pedro game day and the fans hung on his pitches like you don’t see them do with pitchers today.  Standard procedure for fans of the home team is to make their bathroom/beer runs during the other team’s at-bat.  Not many fans left their seats back when Pedro was pitching.  I was sad when Pedro left and I was sad when he didn’t have any of the success with the Mets that he had with Boston.  But Pedro’s two post-season appearances with the Phillies have shown that while he isn’t as fast, or as good, or as young as he once was – he’s still Pedro.

But when he’s not on the mound, as he stares at what is likely the end of his career, the last restraints on his personality seem to have snapped. As he exited the field Thursday night, Mr. Martinez took a moment to tell a heckler above the dugout that his behavior and language were inappropriate. “‘Your daughter is right beside you,” he said he told the fan. “‘It’s a little girl. It’s a shame you’re saying all these things.’ I had to stop and tell him because I’m a father myself, and God, how can you be so dumb to do those kind of things in front of your child? What kind of example are you setting?”

Matthew Futterman from the Wall Street Journal shares the above quoted passage.  Can you imagine?  Man’s a superstar, exciting the World Series after putting men on and already with his team behind and he stops to chastise a heckler?  Vintage Pedro.

So I’m sorry Pedro didn’t get the win but I’m thrilled he got his chance in Yankee Stadium again and took as much advantage as he could.   He struck out 8 (Jeter and Slappy both twice, plus Damon, Hairston, Jr, Cabrera and Teixeira) and he only walked 2.  Unfortunately, giving up 6 hits in 6 innings – including 2 home runs – did him in.  All in all, I think it was more than many expected from Pedro.  And the “Who’s Your Daddy?” chants didn’t seem to have any affect on Pedro except to make him smile as he left the field.

Phillies leave the Bronx with a split – which is good enough to take away home field advantage for the time being – and they do it all over again tonight with Pettitte and Hamels on the mound.  7:57 ET on Halloween Night.  Just in time for me to shut off the light and stop giving out candy to trick or treaters!