Last night's game was absolutely amazing.
I was very excited about that game 5, and felt they were in the right momentum. Plus, with Stroman on the mound, despite his young age, I really felt good about the Blue Jays' chances. The game started at 10 pm for me and ended at 2 am. The 7th inning alone (one that will go down in history) lasted 53 minutes. I was in such a frantic state of excitement that there was no way I could go to bed anyway.
There I was, alone at my place (nobody wants to watch baseball with me, it's non-negociable. "not even a 5 hour 14 inning thriller ?", I ask. And no one answers in all of France), jumping up and down, watching live on MLB tv and sometimes looking at the gameday feed because I knew there was a one pitch delay between both and I just couldn't take the suspense (ok, I only did this for the 9th inning, but they were KILLING ME).
I actually felt scared when the Rangers scored at the top of the 7th on that improbable play. Good thing they won, it would've been tough for Martin to recover from that.
And endorphines swarmed all throughout my brain when Bautista hit his HR. Who can blame him for staring a little as the ball soared, or for the bat flip ? He wasn't showing them off. He was just reacting to the incredible tension and electricity there must have been in the stadium. My friend Rich was at the game (no, he did not throw any beer) and he told me the intensity was palpable and everything went wild. Thank God for smart phones, because how can you expect to understand what's going on simply by looking at what's happening on the field, after what looked like batter's interference ?
I hadn't felt like that because of sports since the 98 World Cup final (France won against Brazil 3-0, in France).I did have a similar rush watching Jordan win all those championships live in the middle of the night. That amazing feeling you have where you're smiling so hard you can't possibly get to sleep. It must be strange for you to read this, as the game was at 4 pm for you...
But yeah, the toughest part was not having anyone to talk to about the game. A friend of mine was sharing my anxiety on social media, but I didn't want to bore her with the specifics of the game and why the 7th inning was craziness impersonated. So I sent an email to Matt. Who offered to jump up and down too. Out of solidarity.
What a game.
And this has better be next year's Stadium Club picture for Jose's card !
Anybody that has a problem with that bat flip is an asshole. If that is some run of the mill regular season game, then sure that would be over the top. After being down in the series 0-2 and overcoming one of the weirder plays in playoff history that seemed an appropriate response. I would have rode the damn bat like a horse around the bases or pretended it was a telescope to see how far the ball went. No human could casually run the bases in that atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteI give any Rangers fan a pass for a couple of days because the emotion is running high after blowing the series in epic fashion. Any casual fan needs to find something more important to complain about.
agreed..and for one, I wouldn't like anybody touching my delicate fanny after a put out, like Dyson did on Tulo. No TD celebrations, no taunting in basketball, no batflips because it's disrespectful...this is getting boring
DeleteIt's funny. All my research leads me to believe that baseball is a European sport or at the very least a descendent of another bat-and-ball game (which itself was probably an evolved form in a long line of similar ball games) of European origin, yet most parts of Europe don't want to claim it as their own.
ReplyDeleteAlso funny is that you mentioned Jose Bautista. I remember a little while ago some sports person said baseball isn't very complex because people from the Dominican Republic can understand it (or something along those lines). If you replace the Dominican Republic with United States of America, you'd have pretty much the definitive reason Europeans don't bother with baseball and consider it the dumb man's cricket (which it sort of is).
Oh and congrats on the victory. I hope you beat those Royals and whoever wins the NL pennant. Things are lining up to be an all blue A/NLCS.
DeleteThe most popular sports in Europe are soccer and tennis. Can't get much more basic than this in terms of complexity ! And each time I talk to friends about baseball, they tell me they don't watch it because they don't understand the rules, that it looks complicated. Go figure !
DeleteDoh! I need more European friends to help me get a better sample size on what they think before making generalizations again.
DeleteCongrats on the amazing comeback! I think the bat flip was excellent and Bautista was totally in the right to do it.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note: there's a picture floating around the internet of Bautista's bat on top of the Wrigley jumbotron right next to the ball Kyle Schwarber hit. I realized he flipped it pretty far, but that is very impressive!
The Blue Jays had me worried there for a bit, but I'm glad they pulled it out in the end. My only regret was that I didn't get to see Game 5 (because I had work).
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun fame to watch.
ReplyDeleteFun game
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