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Major League
Oct. 2nd, 2003 09:13 amReal Life baseball has about as much to do with movie baseball as, say, Real Life at the Whitehouse has to do with The West Wing: in other words, the setting's the same, but the game is played very differently. No greater example of this could be found than a playoff game between those two huge fans of sabermetrics, the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A's.
Or so you'd think.
Last night, the Sox had the A's right where they wanted them, at 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning: 3 easy strike-outs and the Sox win, right? Wrong. The A's managed, with the help of a wild pitch, to get a man on second. One beautiful base hit to left center-field later, the game was tied.
Extra innings. 10th-- uneventful. 11th-- more of the same. 12th--
Picture this: 2 outs, top of the 12th, Sox have a man on second and a man on first; careful readers will understand that this almost exactly the same setup that led to the A's tying in the bottom of the ninth. The pitch is good, the batter gets a decent chunk of it and grounds it to zip by third base, but wait-- the third baseman whips around, snags the ball, whips around again, and dives, DIVES! to beat the runner to third by half a second. Third out, and the A's dodge that bullet.
Bottom of the 12th. 2 outs, full bases; all the A's need is a base hit to score and win. Ramon Hernandez, the A's catcher, not exactly their fastest runner, is at bat. He's popped two easy outs to center field earlier in the game, walked twice, and singled once by hitting the ball past third base, so it all looks pretty cozy for the Sox. There's the first pitch-- he lets it go by, a strike. The Sox are getting ready for a hefty swing, backing up a little bit. There's the pitch, and BAM! just like the movies, Hernandez grabs his bat with two hands and bunts, BUNTS! towards third. The pitcher, spent, disbelieving, simply hangs his head. The third baseman rushes to scoop up the ball, but the runners are already at their destinations. Hernandez gets to first, and Chavez, the man on third, scores. The A's rush the field and mob Hernandez who spots Renee Russo in the audience waving at him, no longer engaged to the yuppie, and--
Okay, I stole that bit about Renee Russo from Major League, but still, it was quite the movie ending for the A's.
Now they just have to do it two more times to win this playoff series.
Or so you'd think.
Last night, the Sox had the A's right where they wanted them, at 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning: 3 easy strike-outs and the Sox win, right? Wrong. The A's managed, with the help of a wild pitch, to get a man on second. One beautiful base hit to left center-field later, the game was tied.
Extra innings. 10th-- uneventful. 11th-- more of the same. 12th--
Picture this: 2 outs, top of the 12th, Sox have a man on second and a man on first; careful readers will understand that this almost exactly the same setup that led to the A's tying in the bottom of the ninth. The pitch is good, the batter gets a decent chunk of it and grounds it to zip by third base, but wait-- the third baseman whips around, snags the ball, whips around again, and dives, DIVES! to beat the runner to third by half a second. Third out, and the A's dodge that bullet.
Bottom of the 12th. 2 outs, full bases; all the A's need is a base hit to score and win. Ramon Hernandez, the A's catcher, not exactly their fastest runner, is at bat. He's popped two easy outs to center field earlier in the game, walked twice, and singled once by hitting the ball past third base, so it all looks pretty cozy for the Sox. There's the first pitch-- he lets it go by, a strike. The Sox are getting ready for a hefty swing, backing up a little bit. There's the pitch, and BAM! just like the movies, Hernandez grabs his bat with two hands and bunts, BUNTS! towards third. The pitcher, spent, disbelieving, simply hangs his head. The third baseman rushes to scoop up the ball, but the runners are already at their destinations. Hernandez gets to first, and Chavez, the man on third, scores. The A's rush the field and mob Hernandez who spots Renee Russo in the audience waving at him, no longer engaged to the yuppie, and--
Okay, I stole that bit about Renee Russo from Major League, but still, it was quite the movie ending for the A's.
Now they just have to do it two more times to win this playoff series.
