The Boys of Summer

The Boys of Summer always bring a great fall in one way or another. There is no other sport with the torture and legacy of baseball. It can be long and drawn out yet agonizingly majestic. Without a clock to challenge the outcome, baseball challenges only the players to finish their business. No team will ever run out of time if they can keep the rally alive. Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers never gave into the last out.

Matt Holliday dropped a fly ball that would have ended any Little League game. It was a routine catch that Manny Ramieriz would have made with the usual anxiety. With the game on the line, Holliday caught a Rawlings indent on his scrotum. He fell trying to recover both sets of ball, while churning up Seber sized divots out of the Dodger left field turf. It will be discussed and reviewed for years. I had a moment like that in a softball beer league twelve years ago and it was not easy going back to the dugout then. It has never popped up on You Tube and I never told my kids. Matt was not so lucky today with that series changing blunder.

Even with that opportunity, the Dodgers were down to their last out. Loney hustling down to second base on the error was important. Thank goodness it was not Manny or he would have been still in the batter’s box. While Holliday could not rub his stinging nuts in left, Cardinal closer Ryan Franklin had both of his hands around his neck. Casey Blake’s nine pitch walk that followed was the play of the inning. The first base umpire called a check swing second strike on appeal and Blake glared. He battled back to walk towards that same ump who dropped back three steps. The rest is history when a few batters later Mark Loretta delivered the hit of the season and the Doyers won their 23rd game of the season in their last at bat.

It is 1988 all over again. Half of that championship team is coaching the Angels. The other half is rooting for this team. This Dodger team is not always pretty but they play with more heart than any edition since 1988. Before Gibson’s historic home run to win Game 1 of that World Series, Mike Davis had to nut out a two strike count to scratch out a walk. Davis was big free agent signing that season but batted .199 for the season. He was an after thought and would have been the last out and there would have not been any Gibby heroics. His walk kept the rally alive. He was the tying run scoring tens seconds ahead of the gimpy fist pump that scored right behind him.

The Dodgers will still have to beat Carpenter and maybe Wainright to win this series but 2-0 is a whole lot sweeter than 1-1. The October sky will be blue today even in cloudy Saint Louis.

“Since baseball time is only measured in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep the rally alive and you have defeated time.” You remain forever young.

Roger Angell