A Great Game

If the ratings are any indicator most of America wasn’t watching the continuation of game 5 of the World Series last night. Well I am here to tell you most of the country missed quite a show. To me it was further proof of why baseball is the greatest game ever invented.

From the start of the 6^th inning on (where the game was continued from after Monday’s rains forced the delay.) it was edge of your seat excitement. Both managers trying to out maneuver the other. With hero’s and goats changing with every pitch the game was everything a baseball fan could have asked for. The Phillies took a lead, the Rays tied it. Then Phillies took the lead again. Then in the 8^th and 9^th the Rays got guys on base, and kept the pressure on.

In the end Pedro Feliz who drove in all of 48 runs in the regular season got the biggest hit in 28 years for the Phillies. Another reason baseball is such a great game. Feliz who is in the lineup because of his glove and who 98% of baseball fans outside of Philadelphia have never heard of becomes an October hero and will be immortalized in Phillies lore forever. JC Romero who has never been more then a left handed specialist in his nine year career and who this year won a total of 4 games comes in and gets four huge outs in the 7^th and 8^th to pick up the clinching win.

On the Rays side, in defeat they showed that they will be a team to reckon with for years to come. They lost the series but they were in every game except game 4. They finished last season with the worst record in baseball and a year later were three wins from being World Champions. This is a team with young stars all over the field and if the city of Tampa Bay supports this team could be a force in the American league for a long time.

It was a tough year for me personally baseball wise as they always are being a Cubs fan. But, the game is still so much fun to watch and try to manage along with. Watching the clincher last night I was happy for the Phillies (I am a National League guy) but a part of me of course cursed the fact that it should have been us.

Still, I was elated last night for three Ex-Cubs who at long last became champions. Jamie Moyer a 45 year old lefty, who made his debut when I was still in high school, finally gets a ring. Matt (Bear Claw) Stairs a 40 year old veteran who has been with 11 different teams at long last wins it all. Scott Eyre who did nothing wrong and yet the Cubs in their infinite wisdom deemed not worthy of their rag tag bullpen.

Another season is in the rear view mirror. The hot stove season heats up now and I am hopeful the Cubs make some moves to strengthen a team that despite how it ended still won 97 games. I am already looking forward to next February when pitchers and catchers report and the greatest game begins another marathon. I am jonesing for an Old Style and hot dog with Relish and mustard in the friendly confines and now it is going to be 5 long months before I can have both.