Noooooooo Waaaaaaaay!... that just happened. (or) Oh, what a night! (or) A meditation on how the final games of the regular season in 2011 may have been the single greatest night of baseball in Major League history.
You gotta be kidding me!
So, just like that, I am headlong back into baseball. What an incredible couple of hours we experienced last night! It just goes to show you that if you can have a final night of the season like that, you can recapture the hearts and minds of the country in a hurry. Wow. Four teams entered the night striving for the last two spots left in the playoffs; The Cardinals, Braves, Rays, and Red Sox.
The Cards won easily and guaranteed themselves at least one more game early on, but the other three games… were wild. The Phillies scored in the ninth to tie up the Braves and then eventually broke their collective playoff hearts in the 13th. Baltimore scored two runs, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to shock the Sox in dramatic fashion. The Rays, on the other hand, took it to another level.
The Cards won easily and guaranteed themselves at least one more game early on, but the other three games… were wild. The Phillies scored in the ninth to tie up the Braves and then eventually broke their collective playoff hearts in the 13th. Baltimore scored two runs, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to shock the Sox in dramatic fashion. The Rays, on the other hand, took it to another level.
Watching the Rays last night was as close to watching a Sports Film as I’ve ever seen in real life. The Rays were down seven to zero heading into the eighth inning. It looked like curtains. (Meanwhile the Red Sox were stuck in a rain delay leading Baltimore 3-2 in the 7th.) It was looking like the Sox were going to win and, if the Rays were lucky, the best they could do was force a one-game playoff. Yea. All they had to do was score seven runs in two innings. And, as we all know, that just doesn’t happen very often in baseball. Well not in real life anyway…
But by the end of the eighth the Rays had incredibly closed to within one run at 7-6. Whaaaaat? Was this really happening? You could see the looks on the faces of the Tampa fans. They were excited, they felt the energy, but they had to be cautious. They knew that those six runs wouldn’t matter at all if they couldn’t get just one more. All over the stadium, diehard Rays fans were donning their Rally Caps, their faces frozen with an odd a mixture of disbelief, longing, elation, and extreme nervousness.
The next thing I knew it was the bottom of the ninth, Rays still down one. There were two outs, and two strikes Everything was on the line. And up at the plate was a pinch hitter no one had ever heard of named Dan Johnson, whose batting average for the season was a less than balmy .105. The Tampa announcers had already swerved into concession mode; they were thanking their producers and various crew members on a great season, thanking the fans for their support… the fans looked on with the expressions of condemned people awaiting their final moments, when, suddenly, CRACK! A shot, deep to right! He didn’t! It’s not possible!!! He did. It’s GONE! The crowd was in shock, as was I. It was unreal. The Rays had tied the game. Were the Rally caps working???
Fast forward to the top of the 12th. The Yankees had runners on the corners quickly with nobody out. All they had to do was score one run to put the Ray’s hopes of advancing in serious jeopardy. But they couldn't score. It was just crazy. And suddenly, Tampa was looking like a team of destiny. They were not to be denied. Not on this night.
Cut to the bottom of the 12th. Two out. The news of the Red Sox loss had spread throughout the stadium. The Rays were guaranteed at least one more game, but you just felt that there weren't satisfied yet. Up comes Evan (don’t call me Eva) Longoria. The stadium was percolating. They could feel it. They knew it was happening. Cue the heavily orchestrated underscore and the slow-motion tilt down from the Yankees pitcher (Scott Proctor) as he winds up, then cut to a slow-motion tilt up on Longoria, waiting intensely, his eyes focused like laser beams. Here comes the pitch. The crowd holds it's breath. And then… CRACK! It can’t be. But it is. It’s GONE. Solo shot. Game over. The Rays had done it with a walk-off home run. It’s what they used to write poems about… like Casey at the Bat. It’s what grandfathers tell their grandkids… I’m telling you. I’ve been around for years, and this stuff just doesn’t happen. Not in real life.
The Rays (the sports world’s ultimate underdog) had gone from almost certainly being out of the playoffs, to solidifying their spot IN the playoffs within a span of about 20 minutes, and the Red Sox completed their historic collapse. And the rest of us just went along for the ride. The final drama of the Sox losing and the Rays winning actually happened within three minutes. You couldn't script this stuff. It’s why we love sports. It’s why we just have to tune in at the end of the season. And I know it seems like I say this every year, but I can't help it. Baseball is back, folks.
No Rays fan will EVER forget what that game felt like last night. And some fans go their whole lives without knowing that kind of elation.
Because a night like last night was as close to magic as anything can be.
At least in real life.
This is the Underdogs.
And we OUT!
Enjoy the Playoffs.
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