Get ready for nights like that
Posted on May 7th, 2009 – 9:48 AMBy Howard
The blessing of outdoor baseball. You buy your tickets, you take your chances and usually it works out.
But when the Twins move into Target Field, there will be some days and nights like what was endured in Baltimore on Wednesday. No editorial comment here and absolutely no intention of restarting the debate about a Dome or retractable roof or anything of that sort. Outdoor baseball is worth now-and-then bad weather. It’s just that there will be games when you will face the choice of losing your ticket investment or sticking around and watching an unsatisfying version of baseball with a few hundred people who generally fall into two categories: (1) No condition to drive and making as much semi-relevant noise as they can or (2) too stiff to move.
Of course, sometimes you take your chances no matter what. Let’s say you’d been planning to go to a Royals games for a few weeks and you decided to get tickets for last night’s Seattle-Kansas City game. Sidney Ponson vs. Carlos Silva? I’d sell the tickets for soda money and go on a K.C. barbecue crawl instead.
One thought about last night’s microgame: Back in college, we had a softball team called “No runs, no hits and a comedy of errors.” I thought of that while watching that beautifully dysfunctional play in the fifth inning. It was fabulous not only for the play, but the players. If you missed it: Punto on first, Gomez on third, one out, Big Mouth Brian Bass on the mound.
Bass fakes to third and throws to first, the play that never works. Punto is caught and races for second. First baseman throws to second. Bass runs more toward home plate than first. Punto heads back to first. Nobody’s covering. Gomez takes off for home. Second baseman throws home. Catcher slap tags Gomez upside the head. Gomez goes down like Ricky Hatton. Consolation prize: Punto returns to first uninjured.
Beautilful, just beautiful.
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters