One for the Memory Banks

Sports is one of those things that is always there, no matter where we are in our lives – what our “joys” and “worries” happen to be at that time.  Sports keep going.  Games are played.  And, memories are made.  Most memories fade away and are lost in a sea of sports recollections.  But others – a select few – mark points in time like signposts and never fade away.  A lot of these “signpost” events are specific to the individual, what team he roots for, where she happens to be at the time.  But, others are independent of outside factors and are unconditionally indelible.  To the true baseball fan, last night – seemingly out of the blue – was one of those nights that will never be forgotten.  It was a phenomenal representation of the wonderful dichotomies constantly permeating through the greatest sport on the planet.  Last night in baseball was, at the same time, wildly unpredictable, yet cooly logical.  It was an intense, heart-racing and dramatic culmination of an eternally long season that demands, above all, perseverence, persistence, and patience.  And, our Shakespearean drama was acted out by quite the variety of players – some with nothing to lose, some with everything to lose, and still others stuck with the cruel task of balancing “the integrity of the game” with their own self-interests and the even crueler task of figuring out which was which. 

What made last night special for those that really let themselves be taken by it was that the human condition was on display.  We watched as Freddie Freeman grounded into a double-play, ending his otherwise excellent rookie season without the playoff appearance that had almost been a forgone conclusion just a month ago.  We watched as another collapse – this one by the highest-paid team in the league – unfolded over five hours in rain-soaked Camden Yards.  In the end, the juggernaut Red Sox left, heads in hands, while the 69-win, last place Orioles celebrated like they had just won the World Series.  We watched as the Tampa Bay Rays – the AL East’s forgotten stepchild that keeps rising up and taking shots at the prodigal sons – erased a 7-0 deficit in 2 innings.  They even had a 2-out, 2-strike pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the 9th to force extra innings against the big, bad Yankees, who basically played their entire AAA team, using 10 pitchers in 9 innings.  And, we watched as our own Phillies won a game in 13 innings that didn’t matter at all to them, yet meant everything to their opponent (with injured and tired guys like Chase Utley and Hunter Pence coming through in a game that they may have been better off sitting out) to secure the best record in the history of the franchise and put their manager alone atop the all-time Phillies wins list.  Oh, and the culmination of all of these stranger-than-fiction storylines came in about a 12-minute span right around the stroke of midnight.

It was absolutely fascinating, and I can honestly say that that was a night that I will never forget…