Prolonging the Misery

I haven't had much to say about the World Series to this point, at least in the sense that I haven't had anything printable to say. But given the Twilight Zone feel that this series has taken ever since it's moved to Philadelphia, it's become more of a miserable joke rather than a World Championship matchup.

Given my penchant for late nights, and given that it was a Saturday night, I suppose it only made sense that the only game of the World Series that I've watched from start to finish to this point was Game 3, which was unbelievably played following a 2-hour Rain Delay, beginning at 10pm and, following the comeback by Tampa, the pitching changes, the commercials and Tim McCarver pontificating, lasted a brisk 3 hours, 41 minutes, closing out at 1:47am.

I think it's safe to assume that unless you were a raving Baseball lunatic like me, you weren't watching the conclusion of that game. If you, like me, were hoping that Philly would eat it at home and Tampa would take the lead in the series, you weren't too happy that you stayed up to watch it. The Rays played the kind of game that the Mets would probably have played in a spot like that. Their big hitters failed in key spots, they had to peck and scrape to tie the game, and did so on a freak play, and then lost in the bottom of the 9th when Philadelphia scored without actually hitting the ball out of the infield. Evan Longoria looked positively David Wright-Esque when his desperation dive on a ball that likely was rolling foul turned into a dying quail of a flip to Navarro, which turned into Eric Bruntlett (Unfrozen Caveman Backup Utility Man) scoring the winning run. The only thing that could have made that any more perfect would have been if Shane Victorino hit the dribbler.

That's been it, more or less, for me watching these games, outside of an inning or two. Sunday night, I didn't watch any of the game, and from the outcome I see I didn't miss too much. So, it came down to Monday night, and one more game for Philly to win in order to cap off the Mets nightmare.

I had talked about my post last week (in conjunction with the Tony Paige Theory) with my infamously insane co-worker, and he began talking about how the Mets had beaten the Phillies 11 out of 18, and somehow he had it in his head that the Mets played well against Philly in 2007, which should prove how on the ball he is about these things. It's the wrong argument to make, to say, well, we took 11 of 18 from the World Series Champions. If we're so good, if we're so much better than them, howcome they're winning the World Series, and we're picking our nose and watching them play at 1:47am?

He pointed out to me that the Phillies hadn't won yet. I wasn't fooled.

Or, at least I wasn't fooled before Monday night's game, which started off in a fashion similar to just about every other World Series game I'd seen. Tampa goes down quietly, Philly gets some hits, gets some walks, loads the bases, and then it's my main man Victorino driving in 2 runs. I figured, with Hamels on the mound, that the game was over already, and shut it off, and, for a brief moment, thought to myself, "Gee, that Kazmir deal doesn't look so terrible now, does it?"

That should prove to you how insane the Mets have made me.

So I had the game on the radio, and I was listening with more or less half an ear. It's Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on ESPN Radio, so it's almost like watching Sunday Night Baseball (without the heavy accentuation on Carlos Bel-TRAHN). So I hear the Rays scrape out a run in the 4th. In the 5th, I hear that it's raining. In the middle of the 5th, there's a delay as the grounds crew is sprinkling around the infamous "Drying Agent." At some point, I think I tuned out completely, because I thought the game was in a delay, but then I snapped back when I hear Carlos Pena driving in B.J. Upton, who sloshed around 3rd and splashed into the plate with the tying run, and all of a sudden I realized the magnitude of the situation. The field was a complete mess, almost to the degree of this particular night. I'm hearing about puddles and fans running for cover, and then, they stop the game.

Here we go again. Another 2am finish.

Or so I thought. Whether it was a twist of fate, or yet another lucky break for Buddy Boy (and how hilarious does he look sitting there with his little rule book), Pena's tying hit meant that rather than stopping the game, which would have meant calling it since the forecast called for the rain to continue, which would have meant Philly would have won the World Series in a shortened game (perhaps this would have served them right, but who cares, at this point), and instead of the old rule of calling a Tie Game and starting over, it's a suspended game, resumption unknown. Could be Tuesday. It's supposed to rain all day. Could be Wednesday. Barack Obama night on FOX. Who knows. But they're going to sit around in Philly until they can finish the game up. This poses a few interesting scenarios, not the least of which is that the Rays had checked out of their hotel and were prepared to fly back to Tampa win or lose. But now they're stuck. The hotel they were in is booked out. Someone's got to figure something out, even if it means booking out the Super 8 in Joe Maddon's hometown of Hazelton, PA. The weather has created all sorts of bizarre scenarios in this World Series, and what we saw on Monday Night might have been the most bizarre of them all. From my standpoint, I don't know what to think. On the one side, I think it's great that Carlos Pena got the hit and put the smackdown on a Philly celebration last night. On the other side, it just seems like it's prolonging the inevitable. I'm sure Shane Victorino will get some dinky little hit and put a capper on this Ultimate Nightmare of a season.