For the third time in four games, rain interfered with the Texas/Detroit series. Fox was forced to carry Game 3 in prime time -- even postponing an episode of The X Factor -- because rain delayed the start time from 4:17 PM to around 6:30 PM. And then, for the second time in the last three games, the two teams went 11 innings. Once again, the teams went into the 11th tied at 3. Once again, Nelson Cruz (who hit a walk-off grand slam to win Game 2 in the 11th inning) came through for Texas with a massive home run. This time it was a three-run blast after Texas had taken a 4-3 lead. So after 100 years of baseball in which (I'm pretty certain) no post-season game ended 7-3 after 11 innings, Texas has now won two such games in the last few days. The Rangers now lead the series 3-1, and it is increasingly obvious that Detroit just does not have enough offense to hold off the Rangers. Texas could win their second consecutive pennant with a victory today.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, the Cardinals jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first, gave back three runs of their lead in the second and third innings, and then held off Milwaukee through six nail-biting innings for a 4-3 victory. The Cards lead this series 2-1, and the Brew Crew has to be getting nervous.
National League Championship Series (Best of 7):
St. Louis leads Milwaukee 2-1
American League Championship Series (Best of 7):
Texas leads Detroit 3-1
I'm so happy for Lou Brock.
ReplyDeletePlus, I saw Moneyball last night, and it was fantastic. Fantastic!
I'm really glad you got to see it.
ReplyDeleteThe scenes where Billy Beane is doing stuff to avoid watching the game -- and then he switches on a radio for little 30 second updates -- really speak to me.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was just great, through and through.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite scene is when Billy Beane comes in to the offices, rousts Peter Brand and then starts frantically making deals to shake things up and force Art Howe to get Scott Hatteburg at-bats. I love it how Brand hesitates, saying that trading Carlos Pena is "going to be a hard one to explain," and Beane goes into the deal about explanations not being required and how much does Brand actually believe in his system. I think this is such a common problem for folks who often could be agents of positive change for so many institutions ... that they have this great idea for an innovation but they hold off on pushing it because the folks who have been part of establishing or maintaining the status quo aren't able to endorse the innovation in theory. If I've spent my whole life studying and trading in the conventional wisdom of an institution, it's just silly for you to expect me to suddenly accept and endorse your new idea of how to do things--even if it is a good idea. That doesn't make me a crank or necessarily some sort of selfishly motivated obstacle to progress; it's just that I am a student of the old, and, if your new really is truly new, it's not going to jibe with my view of the world.
Anyway, I found that part of the movie especially excellent.
The Rangers and Tigers were tied at 1 in the fourth inning about an hour ago, and Justin Verlander was throwing in the high 90s. The game was on TV at the Dairy Queen, where my daughter and I waited out an oil change at the Muffler Express just down South Main.
ReplyDeleteThere was a couple in their 60s eating sandwiches and chatting quietly in one booth when we arrived. Shortly later, two teen-aged girls came in and giggled and slurped milkshakes in the gaps between cell-phone calls. Finally, we were joined in the dining room by a group of five--folks who appeared to be a mom and dad a little younger than me, a high-school daughter, a middle-school daughter and an elementary-school son. The mom and the three kids all wore various Hopkins County Central Storm shirts; the dad was in a reflective-yellow Kentucky Department of Transportation rain suit. The mom and dad got hamburgers, and they split a big order of onion rings. The three kids each got bagged combo meals of that came with small sundaes that the DQ people held behind the counter until they were done with their meals. The dad topped off his early dinner with a large blizzard. The two girls talked incessantly to one another; the mom and dad seemed to be reviewing logistics for the next few days, and the boy sat quietly, blithely chomping French fries and watching a cat play a shell game on the Ellen DeGenerous talk-show episode playing on another TV overhead.
ReplyDeleteThe staff at that Dairy Queen is always on the ball ... quick, competent, generally happy with one another. They seemed to be managing the gathering drive-through crowd without many errors or much anxiety. There was even a bit of a wildcard to contend with as a young woman in all black came in selling tickets to Nashville Predators NHL games on behalf of some group, best that I could understand. It was kind of odd, and I noticed another young woman in all black was working the businesses on the other side of South Main.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my two-and-a-half-year-old and I agreed that everyone in the place seemed really happy. While waiting for her to finish a chocolate-covered strawberry "Waffle Bowl Sundae" product that was about as big as her head (responsible parenting there), I just found myself so happy to be sitting in that DQ dining room at that moment. I just adore being around people who are being nice to each other, and I especially love it when there's some kind of occasion when people who don't appear to know each other are nice to each other. And I'm not talking about giant, showy displays of overt kindness ... I'm just talking about individuals' being polite and respectful within and among their little groups in a given space and time. It's about my favorite feeling in the world, really. Sometimes, I have literally made myself late to engagements because I just wouldn't break myself away from such an environment.
"Why isn't it called 'Berry Queen?'" my daughter suddenly asked, and I snapped out of it. That was a pretty good question, when you think about it from her perspective.
These are great comments. I love Dairy Queen.
ReplyDelete