Happily, whenever I run out of words—no, really; it’s much harder to write my own blog than impersonal blogs or third-person articles. Self-presentation, avoiding total self-indulgence, etc.—my anonymous commentator steps in with another installment of Futility Watch, your source for all criticism of really stupid ballgames. I reprinted the aptly numbered FW#13. Here’s the follow-up, with recap.
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FW#31*
* continuation of futility watch – episode 13 (5/5/09)
yesterday felt like christmas.
you know the feeling…you wait…and wait…and wait…and IT’S FINALLY HERE!!!!
for those who might have forgotten (although i don’t know how you could)…i will try to jog your memory.
think back to may 5th…astros v. nationals…ring a bell?
how bout this:
astros reliever chris sampson: “I had a bad day. I’m human. Everybody out there’s human.”
or this:
nats manager manny acta: “A couple plays that we didn’t make cost us six runs total. When your pitching is struggling, you have to catch the ball.”
still nothing???
ok, ok…this is how i put it 2 months ago:
i can’t even begin to describe how pathetic this game was.
i mean… normally i’d cite old friend julian tavares (1/3 inning, 3 earned runs) or chris “i’m human” sampson (7 batters, four walks, 3 runs forced in)
sadly, that only begins to give you the flavor of this one.
houston took the lead, then washington took the lead (i mean houston gave away the lead), then houston took the lead again (i mean washington gave away the lead), then washington took the lead again (i mean houston gave away the lead again), then houston took the lead again (i mean washington gave away the lead again), then washington took the lead again (i mean houston gave away the lead again), then houston tied it (i mean washington gave away the lead again).
then…the rain came and the poor saps who had sat at nationals park watching this crap for over 3 hours were told (after another 75 minutes sitting in the rain) that the game was being suspended.
the nats had a man on first with one out in the bottom of the 11th.
any nats fans who want to see if the hometown nine can push across the winning run will have to wait until july 9th when the game is resumed.
oh…one caveat…the nats fans will have to travel to houston because that’s where they are finishing the game.
so…fast forward to last night.
now you would think that fans fortunate enough to have tickets to the regularly scheduled nats/stros game would be thrilled to show up an hour early to catch the resumption of that may 5th classic.
thinking of those lucky fans took me back to my youth when i hopped the subway to the bronx to catch the end of the pine tar game…i believe it’s the only time ron guidry played center field…
sadly…when this game resumed at 6:08pm local time in houston…the crowd consisted of the houston owner (in a lovely pink button-down shirt) and a cub scout group from katy, texas…that’s about it.
pathetic.
no wonder houston reliever latroy hawkins had trouble finding the intensity necessary to get the job done.
in fact…he seemed kinda confused…it took him 7 minutes to throw the 8 pitches needed to complete this historic contest.
recall…the game was being picked up with one out and a nats runner (elijah dukes) on first…bottom of the 11th…tied at 10.
before latroy’s first pitch, nats mgr manny acta called on milwaukee brewer nyjer morgan to run for dukes…the nats couldn’t seem to find elijah…understandable since he was in triple a playing with the syracuse chiefs.
nyjer seemed a little confused as well…”I’m not even supposed to be here.” (yup…he really said that)
on latroy’s third pitch, josh willingham singled…moving nyjer to second.
scheduled up next was pittsburgh pirates reliever, and futility watch stalwart, joel hanrahan.
this posed a problem for acta…joel was 1500 miles away in philadelphia so it was unlikely that he could drive home the winning run.
further…almost all of his bench had been used on may 5th.
further still…the one guy he could use as a pinch hitter, josh bard, had a pulled muscle some time between may 5th and july 9th and would probably take til july 10th to make it to first base if he hit a fair ball.
but with limited options…acta called on bardsy.
wouldn’t ya know it…josh hit a taylor made 4-6-3 double play ball…and, since he couldn’t run, the stros had all day to turn it.
what????
no one told miguel tejada that bard couldn’t run????
is that why he rushed the play and threw the ball…on a fly…into the houston dugout?
awesome.
josh bard crawled to first as nyjer raced home with the winning run.
a perfect ending to this instant (if you call “instant”…2 months and 4 days) classic
and…to top it off…joel hanrahan gets his first win of the season…on an off day…sitting in a hotel room in philadelphia.
nationals 11 astros 10
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I certainly couldn’t forget “When your pitching is struggling, you have to catch the ball.” Reminds me a little of what someone said to me last night… “sometimes, businesses have to fail.” But that’s the other category of futility, the one I’m not blogging about today.
xx
djd
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Tags: astros, baseball, black comedy, errors, louisiana lightning, nats
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