And there it was. History beyond historic. Live, raw, wet, dirty, tired, hoarse and wearying. Two of the pillars of American baseball history, each carrying decades of burden, each at the top of our game today, battling into the dark and stormy night of Cleveland. November threatening.
162 games? Not enough. Four playoff series? Not enough. Six World Series games? Not enough. Nine innings? Not enough.
It wasn't the cleanest played game and it wasn't the best pitched game. In the end, grown men squealing like little children. Screaming and jumping and leaping at every turn in their favor. School yard ball emotions. Sand lot ball behavior. Just boys playing a game. The game. But with the entire world of baseball at stake. And millions of dollars that none of those involved cared about at all. Just the win. Because winning was everything.
For us fans not of Chicago, and not of Cleveland, it's all over now. We can go back to our normal winter behavior and start thinking about plans for next year. We are all tied again, 0 wins and 0 losses and 5 months to retool the roster and convince ourselves we all have a chance.
For Cleveland there is a hangover. So close. There, in the bottom of the 9th, for one single half frame, they had a World Series in reach. All they needed was a single run. It didn't come. For young Cleveland fans, this is what it feels like to blow a three game lead in a championship series.
For Chicago, they can finally put a cork in it. They are no longer the gritty little anything. They are our Lords and Masters. Their party has just begun, and we have to deal with it. Congratulations Chicago. Congratulations to all your long-suffering fans. Congratulations to all your newly-minted fans. Congratulations to Joe Maddon. Congratulations to Joe Smith. Congratulations to John Lackey. Enjoy your party. For the rest of us it's turn the last page, close the book. 2016 is over.
And let's move on with some Off-season Baseball Links:
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World Series Wrap Up Stuff (probably have a couple of days of this...)
Now THIS is how a cool owner behaves. Flies out 400 staffers to Cleveland and pays for their hotel stay and game tickets to join in the fun, on his own dime...........
Last night will go down in history, but don't EVER let anyone try and sell you on the notion that it was a classic contest of masterful baseball. Not with shit like this going down...........
.....And not with pitching performances of rubberized arms like this going down..............
Interesting. 60% of StubHub ticket sales for G6 came from the buyers in the Chicago area. That's like 3 out of every 5 resale tickets to a game at Anaheim being bought in Phoenix............And, by the way, those tickets got costly. You can buy season tickets for those prices...........
The odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery is something like 1 in 250 million. So out of the billions and billions of tweets, there was bound to be at least one that, long ago, predicted last night..........
Favorite tweet of the rain delay last night...........
"Ray, when someone asks you if you want nachos and drinks, you say YES!"...............
This World Series will leave us enough legacy to chat about in-game tactics. But I fear that is all it will be for years to come. Chat. Counterargument #1 that we should expect: "such practices cannot hold up over a 162 game season"...........
What happens when newbies get their first taste of the excitement of a live baseball game? They do stupid things. Because they are stupid............
Party on, Chicago............
Everything (else) in Baseball
Well this is different. I follow non-sports news as well and I would think that the U.S. Department of Justice already has its hands full. Apparently, not even close. They have decided that they need to come to the rescue of the LA Dodgers and pursue AT&T, claiming that U-Verse colluded with other local carriers to join forces and not opt to pay for SportsNet LA. Apparently they have emails and stuff. I ain't a lawyer so it's a surprise to learn that two parties agreeing to sit next to one another on the sidelines rather than be coerced into paying a ransom that would be passed on to unwilling customers is criminal and anti-consumer............
Curt Schilling is a jackass. But, guess what? He is an even bigger jackass than we even knew. He actually had the asshat idea to play hero to the cameras and use his own manager as a drama foil for personal ratings in a World Series game............
When you spend time dreaming about Rajai Davis in left field, keep this in mind. If anything, maybe you can use it to argue that his price should go down.............
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