I miss this sight.
A couple of nights ago, in bed and on my iPhone, I watched a
condensed Marlins game from May or June, in which Dan Uggla hit his 100th home run. I realized late in the season that the Florida announcers say of him every time he goes long, "And his name is DAN UGGLA!" One announcer starts the sentence and the other joins to say the name. I kind of fell in love with this tomfoolery*. It's reminiscent of
Hawk's White Sox home run cheers, except Steve Stone doesn't join him for the "yes! yes! yes!" part like Darrin Jackson used to. Anyway, my point is that I miss the days where I had a choice of which crappy teams to fall asleep to in condensed game format.
I was hoping for a Freeway Series where LA would be the focus of the World Series. Initially, exhausted from fantasy drama, I wasn't interested in the postseason teams. But then I decided I had the most interest in the Angels because of
Nick Adenhart. Alas, the World Series will be divided along the east coast, and as of now, I can only really root for individual players: Jenni's Cano, former White Sox Swisher, Japanese Matsui, CC "He's 300 pounds, he can pitch all day!"** Sabathia, and J-Rolls only because I saw adorable childhood photos in those "Beyond Baseball" commercials. But then it looks like I'm basically rooting for the Yankees, which I guess in a sense I am since I want to see many of them do well. But I also don't feel like I'm genuinely rooting for the entire team, either, which would be unfair--to the Yankees, real Yankees fans, my preferred teams, and so on. I think at this point I'm just thankful that baseball is still going on, even if it means setting
Glee aside for two weeks.
Though, I will say in defense of the Yankees that accusations of them having "bought" the World Series are trite. The Yankees are the Kraft of baseball; I thought this was an obvious axiom in sports and it's so obnoxious that it comes up again and again, whether the Yankees win or lose. But along with those who are tired of seeing the Yankees succeed over the course of baseball history (or many of the same teams reappearing in postseasons as of late), I will say that I can't wait until some buster team blows up in the second half of a future season and surprise us all by taking the World Series. Pirates, Reds, Marlins anyone?
GO BASEBALL! And Jenni's awesome postseason journalism!
*"Right before Uggla's first season with Florida in 2006, the Marlins had a dinner/banquet function to introduce the players for the upcoming season (and to raise money). Upon introducing Uggla, the speaker mispronounced his name. Immediately, Dan's brother stood up from the back and shouted 'His name is Dan UGGLA!'" (sufficient source)
**Writing this phrase out doesn't do it justice. Please ask me in person to impersonate a man named Amit claiming, in a heated argument with Joe, that CC Sabathia is a better pitcher than Tim Lincecum and I will gladly comply.
There were a lot of babies on the World Series podium this year, which felt new. Should we blame/credit Drew Brees? Lance Berkman got to carry the trophy because, despite having four daughters, he was childless through the awards ceremony. Babies are taking over the world and it scares me.
Most World Series championships are bittersweet-- they mean that baseball's over for the year and that we have to do other things, like play Fantasy Football and read books. Thanks very much for another memorable year, baseball. I love you. Thank you. Goodnight.
