There is crispness in the air, and here in Alaska, we are already looking at reports of frost, snow creeping down the mountains, and autumn colors that are past their peak and laying on the ground. The regular baseball season has come to an end. Post season is a separate season of its own, it seems. It seems many people wait out the baseball season to let the teams sort themselves out and watch with more interest and intensity during the post season. It’s the best of the best baseball and of course, culminates in the World Series. So it’s a shot in the arm at a time you are mourning the passing of another baseball season.
But what a season it has been! This year, my cable company promoted the fact that they were going to be showing every Mariners game on Channel 36 which is the Northwest Sports Channel. I looked forward to really getting to know the team and watching a lot of baseball. The Mariners were favored to win the Western AL Division at the beginning of the season and I was having flashbacks to the great Mariner teams of the early decade with Bret Boone and Jay Buhner and Mike Cameron and Jamie Moyer and of course, Edgar Martinez. Yikes! The Mariners ended this season with the worst record in both leagues. They lost over a 100 games in a 162 game series. What happened, boys? Every once in awhile the team shows a flash of great ball, with Adrian Beltre third base saves and Raul Ibanez hitting and Ichiro has still got it for his funky hit and run fast lead off hits, but overall, something went terribly wrong.
And whoever saw the Devil Rays (now the Tampa Rays) coming? This team has never had a winning season since their beginning and they ended up winning the toughest Division in the American League, beating out both the mighty Yankees and the Red Sox. And the Yankees not in the post season? And Joe Torre in the post season, but this time with Los Angeles? Along with Manny Ramirez? Who would have guessed? What a season this has been.!
So after 162 games, maybe it’s time to let this season go. Now it’s time to focus on the post season.
I’m going back to the Midwest to visit family and my mom and nieces and nephews in early October, so I’m looking forward to spending time with family. But I have to say my timing is lousy. I’m going back to Green Bay Packer country during a week where the Atlanta Falcons are playing in Green Bay. That doesn’t mean anything to anyone living anywhere else, but in Northeastern Wisconsin, it means that traffic stops, people make up a tray of cocktail wieners and stay home huddled in front of the television. My mom starts watching all the sports talk shows the week before. (Well, really she has them on in the background and won’t let you change the channel.)
My problem is, it is also Baseball Weekend. There are going to be eight games I could be watching. But there is a Packer game on the television. I face the gruesome specter of wrestling my mother for the television remote. And she’s pretty feisty so I wouldn’t be betting on whose going to win.
I did get her to agree to go see a game with me during the weekend. It was touch and go for a while but the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs on Sunday and the New York Mets lost their last game, so the Brew Crew is going to be in the Post Season for the first time since 1982. My mom has a good adventurous spirit, so she’s agreed to come with me. We’ll find a good sports bar, order up a couple Miller Genuine Drafts, and a basket of deep fried cheese curds, invite the brothers and cheer for the Brewers (maybe I could also convince her to watch the Red Sox game? I better get Sister Turned Red Sox Fanatic to call during cocktail hour!)
Despite being a MOFF, my mom is totally up for it. I was thrilled when she said almost apologetically over the phone, “I really don’t know much about baseball. I hope I don’t say anything stupid.”
No worries, girlfriend., You are watching baseball with the right person.
But what a season it has been! This year, my cable company promoted the fact that they were going to be showing every Mariners game on Channel 36 which is the Northwest Sports Channel. I looked forward to really getting to know the team and watching a lot of baseball. The Mariners were favored to win the Western AL Division at the beginning of the season and I was having flashbacks to the great Mariner teams of the early decade with Bret Boone and Jay Buhner and Mike Cameron and Jamie Moyer and of course, Edgar Martinez. Yikes! The Mariners ended this season with the worst record in both leagues. They lost over a 100 games in a 162 game series. What happened, boys? Every once in awhile the team shows a flash of great ball, with Adrian Beltre third base saves and Raul Ibanez hitting and Ichiro has still got it for his funky hit and run fast lead off hits, but overall, something went terribly wrong.
And whoever saw the Devil Rays (now the Tampa Rays) coming? This team has never had a winning season since their beginning and they ended up winning the toughest Division in the American League, beating out both the mighty Yankees and the Red Sox. And the Yankees not in the post season? And Joe Torre in the post season, but this time with Los Angeles? Along with Manny Ramirez? Who would have guessed? What a season this has been.!
So after 162 games, maybe it’s time to let this season go. Now it’s time to focus on the post season.
I’m going back to the Midwest to visit family and my mom and nieces and nephews in early October, so I’m looking forward to spending time with family. But I have to say my timing is lousy. I’m going back to Green Bay Packer country during a week where the Atlanta Falcons are playing in Green Bay. That doesn’t mean anything to anyone living anywhere else, but in Northeastern Wisconsin, it means that traffic stops, people make up a tray of cocktail wieners and stay home huddled in front of the television. My mom starts watching all the sports talk shows the week before. (Well, really she has them on in the background and won’t let you change the channel.)
My problem is, it is also Baseball Weekend. There are going to be eight games I could be watching. But there is a Packer game on the television. I face the gruesome specter of wrestling my mother for the television remote. And she’s pretty feisty so I wouldn’t be betting on whose going to win.
I did get her to agree to go see a game with me during the weekend. It was touch and go for a while but the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs on Sunday and the New York Mets lost their last game, so the Brew Crew is going to be in the Post Season for the first time since 1982. My mom has a good adventurous spirit, so she’s agreed to come with me. We’ll find a good sports bar, order up a couple Miller Genuine Drafts, and a basket of deep fried cheese curds, invite the brothers and cheer for the Brewers (maybe I could also convince her to watch the Red Sox game? I better get Sister Turned Red Sox Fanatic to call during cocktail hour!)
Despite being a MOFF, my mom is totally up for it. I was thrilled when she said almost apologetically over the phone, “I really don’t know much about baseball. I hope I don’t say anything stupid.”
No worries, girlfriend., You are watching baseball with the right person.
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