September 1, 2008

Dragged back in

Last Saturday and Sunday, I went to the Dodgers-Phillies games.  Saturday, while the Phillies took an early lead, by the top of the 5th it was only 3-2, and anything could happen.  Then, with runners at 1st and 2nd and none out, Matt Kemp lost a routine flyball to center in the sun and missed it by 40 feet.  Ryan Howard then doubled on a 3-0 count and the game was effectively over (it ended 9-2).

Sunday, the Dodgers were outhitting the Phillies around 10-5, but only took a 2-1 lead into the 9th.  Still, they had two outs with a runner on second and Andy Tracy at the plate, a 34 year old journeyman with no MLB at-bats since 2004 and only 263 for his career; he's also got a sterling .153 career average as a pinch hitter.  Four straight balls and a Pedro Feliz single later, and it's a tie game.  Still, the Dodgers had not exhausted their ability to disappoint - in the top of the 10th, they loaded the bases with none out, but an all too predictable 5U-2 double play and strikeout ended that threat.  When the Pedro Feliz cranked a 2 out, 3 run homer in the 11th, I gave up hope for the season.  Teams that lose games like this are not playoff teams.

Monday to Friday only confirmed my conviction - 5 losses, including a sweep by the horrific Washington Nationals and a loss in the opener of their series with the division leading Diamondbacks.  The Dbacks lead was a solid but surprisingly low 4.5 games, due to their own bad week, but my hope was as good as dead.  I was so depressed about the Dodgers that I didn't even bother checking the pitching match-ups for the final two games; a good thing, since they would only have deepened the despair - the Dbacks had Haren and Webb lined up, two of the top five NL Cy Young candidates.

It's two days later, and apparently there was a hidden glimmer of hope all along which has now been fanned up significantly.  The Dodger bats woke up and beat both Haren and Webb, and 2.5 games with a fairly easy closing schedule and three games still to play against the Diamondbacks, in LA, seems a reasonable amount to overcome.  And this, I think, is the greatness of sports, and baseball in particular.  Each game builds your hopes repeatedly, often just to dash them.  But the more they are dashed, the more rewarding it is when that hope is fulfilled.  Likewise, over the course of the season a fan's hopes rise and fall continuously - unlike any other sport, literally with every day.  There are disappointments; for most of us, there are more disappointments than rewarding moments (after all, only 8 of 30 teams make the playoffs, and only one wins it all), but they just make the good moments that much better.