{"id":438,"date":"2008-10-10T01:17:25","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T05:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/?p=438"},"modified":"2008-10-10T01:22:04","modified_gmt":"2008-10-10T05:22:04","slug":"watching-the-red-sox-clinch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/2008\/10\/watching-the-red-sox-clinch\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching the Red Sox Clinch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"game<\/a>I’ve had multiple requests about Monday’s game. I don’t\u00c2\u00a0think I could describe it, couldn’t do it justice. I got enough requests that \u00c2\u00a0I’ll give it a try.<\/p>\n

I’ll set the stage a bit by saying that I was at Sunday’s game, the loss, the night before. \u00c2\u00a0That was a long, slow, game, but dramatic and filled with emotion. \u00c2\u00a0Beckett was clearly off. \u00c2\u00a0I give the Sox credit for being close. \u00c2\u00a0Still, it was draining and hurt the spirit. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Side note: I think that is the first game in Fenway I’ve been to with more than 39,000 attendees. \u00c2\u00a0Is that a record for the modern era?<\/p>\n

Monday’s game had a different atmosphere. \u00c2\u00a0Sunday people had arrived hoping to cheer a coronation. \u00c2\u00a0Monday people came to cheer a win, but with a healthy fear for a loss. \u00c2\u00a0Game 5 in Anaheim was a grim prospect, so Game 4 was a quasi-must-win game.<\/p>\n

People were ready to stand and cheer. \u00c2\u00a0Virtually any 2-out situation or key at-bat brought some of the crowd to its feet. \u00c2\u00a0The rules were unclear, though. \u00c2\u00a0It wasn’t unusual to look out at the park and see whole swaths of the park standing, then a bright line of division with a swath of sitters. \u00c2\u00a0Who could tell what made one section stand or sit. \u00c2\u00a0In my section, the very front rows tended to sit, but everyone else stood. \u00c2\u00a0I was often the front-most stander, and that was a bit odd. \u00c2\u00a0I really didnt’ care.<\/p>\n

\"angels<\/a>There were very few Angel fans. \u00c2\u00a0I didn’t see any on Sunday and saw one on Monday. \u00c2\u00a0I think he might have been the reason so many people stayed seated in front of me – they didn’t want to be like him, standing alone in the second row. \u00c2\u00a0He got ejected eventually.<\/p>\n

Lester was pitching a gem, and everyone knew it. \u00c2\u00a0The question in my mind was whether or not the Red Sox offense would find the stroke. \u00c2\u00a0They were 9 innings into a shutout streak, and you can never tell when those will break. \u00c2\u00a0When the Sox got two in the fifth, the stress relaxed a half-notch. No one was writing any conclusions, but you had to like being ahead 2-0 better than the alternatives.<\/p>\n

When the 6th and 7th passed without any threat, you started to feel a rise in expectations. \u00c2\u00a0The math kicks in: “only six more outs!” \u00c2\u00a0And then the Angels struck.<\/p>\n

\"gametime\"<\/a>Okajima started smoothly with two outs. \u00c2\u00a0He walked Teixeira. \u00c2\u00a0A two-out walk seemed harmless enough, but with Guerrero coming up, it’s a bigger deal than you’d think. \u00c2\u00a0Masterson came in and walked Guerrero. \u00c2\u00a0It’s hard to blame him. \u00c2\u00a0In person,\u00c2\u00a0Guerrero is downright scary. \u00c2\u00a0He has no meaningful strike zone. \u00c2\u00a0His bat can hit anything, anywhere. \u00c2\u00a0Then Torii Hunter. \u00c2\u00a0The situation was still manageable, still room for error: a single wouldn’t be fatal. \u00c2\u00a0Just get by. \u00c2\u00a0Then there was the passed ball, and suddenly it was second and third. \u00c2\u00a0No more room for error. \u00c2\u00a0And just like that, the mistake – single to Hunter, tie game. \u00c2\u00a0Masterson got out of the inning from there.<\/p>\n

Here’s where words fail me. \u00c2\u00a0The game is frozen, but still moving. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe it’s me frozen. \u00c2\u00a0But the pitches keep coming, each one of them filled with risk and hope. \u00c2\u00a0The game \u00c2\u00a0can change now now now now now<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0but it doesn’t change. \u00c2\u00a0We’re all stuck in this weird limbo, hopeful, fearful, unable to change the outcome, unable to predict the outcome, just stuck. \u00c2\u00a0 We cheer, we sit, we stand, but we’re all just stuck<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The feeling changes in the ninth with an Angels lead-off double – you can feel the earth tilt against you. \u00c2\u00a0Then a picture-perfect bunt gets the runner to third. \u00c2\u00a0You know that the odds are really stacked against the Sox now. \u00c2\u00a0The Angels are likely to score, and you know that the Sox are unlikely to muster another two runs, having scored only two in the last 18 innings. \u00c2\u00a0Then, still frozen, something crazy happens that you can’t see too clearly, as Varitek charges up the third base line after a pitch. \u00c2\u00a0Then you see the ball bounce away, and you know that you are doomed. Still frozen, but now doomed and frozen. \u00c2\u00a0You wait for the Angel to run home. \u00c2\u00a0Instead, he turns and walks into his dugout.<\/p>\n

As you all know, what actually happened was that Varitek tagged him, then dropped the ball. \u00c2\u00a0On the far side of third base in an unexpected place, you can’t tell that from the bleachers. \u00c2\u00a0From the bleachers, it feels like a miracle just happened. \u00c2\u00a0I was in shock, but I told Twitter what I knew.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0The top of the ninth passed without damage.<\/p>\n

Then the bottom of the ninth. \u00c2\u00a0It was never a sure thing, a nice one-out double, a close two-out single. \u00c2\u00a0The night before had been full of chances, but no runs. \u00c2\u00a0You knew there was hope, but until the run crossed the plate, it was only potential. \u00c2\u00a0We’d seen potential fail before, and fail recently. \u00c2\u00a0When the run crossed the plate it was joy, releif, and happy mayhem.<\/p>\n

\"billy<\/a>I stuck around the park, smiling like a fool, cheering and shouting. \u00c2\u00a0I watched the team on the screen in the lockeroom, watched them come out onto the field. \u00c2\u00a0I watched their young kids sprint around the infield. \u00c2\u00a0I watched them douse the cop, Billy Dunn, with champagne. \u00c2\u00a0I decided that there were too many lingerers and the party was going to run out of steam before anything magical happened and \u00c2\u00a0I went home.<\/p>\n

I spent Tuesday hoarse, tired, and still a bit shell-shocked.<\/p>\n

And that is what it’s like to be there when your team wins the ALDS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had multiple requests about Monday’s game. I don’t\u00c2\u00a0think I could describe it, couldn’t do it justice. I got enough requests that \u00c2\u00a0I’ll give it a try. I’ll set the stage a bit by saying that I was at Sunday’s game, the loss, the night before. \u00c2\u00a0That was a long, slow, game, but dramatic and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-red-sox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}