8.6.02 ROCHESTER RED WINGS vs SYRACUSE SKYCHIEFS

Two more nights in the bully for Dan Mason, a day off for the Wings to think about it, a day off for the rest of us to savor the anticipation of, finally, seeing the Rochester Red Wings do something remarkable. A loss tonight, a thirteenth straight, would set a mark of futility never before seen in more than a century of baseball in this city.

Manager Andy Etchebarren marveled at his team’s ineptitude and the Rochester community’s baffling forgivingness of same. “I’ve never been through anything like this before,” he was quoted as saying in Sunday’s paper. “It would be so easy for fans to be booing everyone out there—including me. But instead the fans have been coming out and cheering for us to get out of this slump. I’m amazed.” Me too. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for me to view the phenomenon as charitably as Etch might like to. The team’s lost twelve straight and the fans are still cheering? Possible explanation: the fans are great. More likely explanation: the fans are clueless.

There was another subtext to the streak, that of the looming deadline for the Red Wings to declare franchise free agency, serving notice to their parent Baltimore Orioles that they intend to look around at other clubs once their agreement expires in September, a move that would likely signal the end of the teams’ 42-year affiliation, the longest in baseball. It appeared at the beginning of the season that the Orioles had finally made good on their promises to field a competitive team here. Unfortunately, a season-long rash of injuries in Baltimore resulted in many of the veteran players they’d earmarked for their triple-A franchise getting called up, seeing limited playing time, losing their strokes, and ultimately being sent back down to find them. Voilà, a team with a winning percentage in the middle .300s and a twelve-game losing streak. Needless to say, it doesn’t look good for a 43rd year.

But back to Frontier Field. It seemed I wasn’t the only one here out of morbid curiosity. The guy behind me in line at the box office turned to the guy behind him. “You think they’ll lose tonight?” “Christ, they’d better,” came the reply. “I didn’t come to see ’em win!”

The blue, two-man, sponsor-furnished tent was on conspicuous display in the Red Wings bullpen beyond the right field fence, and the ballpark staff all wore t-shirts with WIN ONE FOR TENT-BOY! emblazoned in bold red letters across the back. There was a palpable undercurrent of giddiness in the air, as people looked around, fully aware of the potential for history to be made tonight. It may not have been McGwire’s 62nd, or Bonds’ 600th, but in Rochester one grows accustomed to making due with the less celebrated, more obscure pleasures. It’s one of the charms of living in a town like this.

On the mound for the Red Wings, boasting a record of 4-and-9 and a 4.37 ERA, Steve Bechler; for the SkyChiefs, 3-and-5, 5.14 Brandon Lyons. Things got off to a promising start when Syracuse second baseman Felipe Lopez belted Bechler’s first pitch into left for a lead-off double. He would score two batters later on a Chad Mottola sac fly, putting the Wings in a one-run hole right off the bat.

The home team answered in the bottom of the frame, though, when Eddy Garabito legged out a bunt for an infield single and eventually scored on a two-out double off the bat of right fielder Luis Garcia. It was the second inning when the floodgates opened. Career Red Wing/Oriole and radio color guy Joe Altobelli had been saying all along that all the Wings needed to end their slump was one big inning; wouldn’t you know they’d pick tonight to stumble upon it. Four runs were across and the bases loaded when Lyon was pulled for right-hander Jon Ratliff. It was a little suspicious when Ratliff then airmailed his first pitch to the backstop, allowing Garabito to score his second run of the game, before giving up a two-run double to Franky Figueroa. It was more suspicious when, an inning later, an error by first baseman Gary Burnham and another wild pitch with a man on third gave the Wings two more runs, extending their lead to 10–2.

I was already pissed that the Red Wings would squander their one shot at immortality, but this was too much. “It’s fixed!” I shouted to no one in particular. “Fix! Fix!” It was completely involuntary, the word barreling up from deep within me again and again, vomitous, gutteral, mono-syllabic. “Fix!”

It was appalling is what it was. I know Dan Mason has a wife and kids at home. I know he hasn’t seen them for a week. But paying off the lowly Syracuse SkyChiefs? My god, Dan, how do you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning? Or does the tent not have a mirror?

The conspiracy theorists’ claims were bolstered further in the fifth when, running from second on a Burnham drive to deep right field, SkyChiefs catcher Kevin Cash was inexplicably held at third. Wait a minute—you’re down eight runs and you’re holding the guy at third? On a play that almighty God himself couldn’t have made had it fallen to Him to chase down the ball and not, as it happened, to the moderately less gifted Luis Garcia?

The teams traded runs in the sixth and the Wings tacked on another in the bottom of the eighth, running the score to 12–3, and setting up an on-field celebration the likes of which it’s difficult to imagine many of these guys seeing again in their careers. The final out recorded, pitcher Leslie Brea pumped his fist triumphantly and was caught up in the embrace of catcher Izzy Molina, the two of them looking for all the world as if they’d just won game seven of the World Series. Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” pumped from the stadium P.A. as relievers Lee Marshall and Rafael Pina carried an exultant Dan Mason in from the pen upon their shoulders. Champagne bottles were uncorked and, after some initial fumbling—it was clear this was new to Mason—indiscriminately sprayed. A tub of ice was upended on the G.M.’s head. Silly string. Noisemakers. A victory speech. And okay, I’ll admit it: it was funny, and kinda great.

The bastards won me over again, damn it all to hell.

FINAL SCORE: RED WINGS 12, SKYCHIEFS 3

LIFE DURING WARTIME: There just isn’t anything for me to add here. The War on Terror all seems so far away these days.