The Doldrums of October*
Posted by Chris - 22/10/07 at 02:10 pm*Only applies if you’re not a Boston or Colorado fan.
Watching October baseball when your favorite team is already out of the race (or in the Giants case, sometime around mid-May) can be hard. The one team I was rooting for, the Indians, got bounced in a Game 7 Fenway defeat last night. The Indians jumped ahead 3-1 in the series but just couldn’t put away the very-good Red Sox. Being a Giants fan in October is like being a kid looking into the candy store, fogging up the glass, and slobbering all over yourself. All the other kids in the neighborhood are in the store and eating fistfuls of chocolate. Meanwhile you’re outside wondering why God has cursed you so soundly. Pedro Feliz wanders by, tries to help you get into the store, but somehow grounds into a double play.
This is my analogy for October baseball.
A Rockies - Red Sox World Series doesn’t tremendously excite me. The Rockies, a baseball team with purple in their official uniform (reason enough for me to curse them), have a chance to win their first World Series. The team itself has only been around since 1993. In a scant 14 years the franchise could earn their first championship ring. Compare that to the Giants who have been in San Francisco for almost 50 years, it just doesn’t feel right! The Marlins, D-Backs, and now the Rockies all have won or could win a championship before the Giants. What’s next “World Champs Tampa Bay Devil Rays!”? Don’t take offense TB fans, the Rays are actually my dark horse candidate for 2008 in the AL.
Still, the point remains, how can the Red Sox potentially win two World Series in just 4 years before the Giants can even win one? As everyone knows before 2004 the Red Sox had last experienced a World Series championship in 1918. Now they are rolling towards a second. Baseball can be a cruel sport sometimes.
You can’t really win with this World Series. As a Giants fan, if the Rockies win, you’ll feel slightly dirty. And if Boston wins, who seem more like the Yankees these days than the AL’s version of the Cubs, you’ll feel disappointed. Manny is weirdly likable and David Ortiz smiles a lot, but the Red Sox are like the rich kid that always complained about not having enough even though he drove a BMW around town. The Rockies are, well, the Rockies. A major league team should not have a dinosaur as a mascot. Period. End-of-story. Maybe the AAA Toledo Tyrannosauruses, but not a major league team.
I’ll tune in to the games regardless. I’m a fan of baseball, I think you have to be to suffer through FOX’s post season coverage with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Just don’t expect me to get as excited about a Todd Helton or David Ortiz blast as I do when Pedro Feliz rolls over a breaking ball into a double play. Maybe excited isn’t the right word but you get my point.