7.23.04 LOS ANGELES DODGERS vs SAN DIEGO PADRES
Heading to the park Friday night, I realized I had not been in attendance since Gagne’s streak was broken. I was wondering if mine might be over as well. I shouldn’t have worried.
Dodgers: 57/39, .594
With TK in da house: 7/0, 1.000
I watched a fine game from some mighty fine seats in the blue section, right above the plate, four rows back, courtesy of my new friend Karrie. She turns out to be not only an enthusiastic student of the game, but a keen observer of the freak-show fans. I’ve never had the luxury of sitting in the same seats year after year, so I was delighted by her tales (among others) of the woman that always brought her home-cooked Mexican meal, bitched non-stop about the Dodger management, and then left in the fourth. We compared stories about fly balls injuring babies and thoroughly enjoyed the game.
The highlight of my baseball going years would have to be the bunt-home-run I witnessed that night. Cora laid a perfect bunt up the third base line to score Werth, rounded first on a wild toss by the third baseman, rounded second, never looking back as the right-fielder bobbled the ball and charged home after the confused second baseman let the ball pass him by!
NO! I’ll have to settle for the bunt-triple, thanks to the ever-effusive third-base coach Glenn Hoffman sending Cora momentarily back to second (apparently unable to see the right-fielder chasing the ball) before holding him at third even after the infield could not retain possession of the ball.
ERROR 1 – HOFFMAN.
That tied the game in the eighth. With the go-ahead run in the speedy Cora standing at third, with no outs, and Gagne due up to close them out, I was confident things were going as God plans, and God always has a hand in Dodger victories.
Then Ventura hit a deep fly, easily scoring Cora.
Only…Hoffman once again held Cora. Making things worse, the fielder’s throw pulled the catcher off the plate by about 12 feet.
ERROR 2 – HOFFMAN. (And my point here is that we need to start assigning errors to these numb-nuts who call the plays – or in this case – mis-call the plays!)
I watched in horror as the winning run on third with no outs became 1, 2, 3 outs and inning over. I must have been in some pretty demonstrable pain, because Karrie told me to take a deep breath and go to my happy place. All I could do was spread my palms, encompassing the park in a helpless embrace, and mutter: “This is my happy place…”
The rest: Gagne (1 hit, 3 strike-outs) and Beltre’s first pitch home
run!
Game over! I love L.A.!
God does work in mysterious ways! And if you’re listening, Big Man, just keep on keepin’ on with what you’re doing, just possibly smote Glenn Hoffman a little bit. Just a light smoting, Sir.
And thank you for keeping the beloved Blue first in the West! Amen.
Tim Kirk
