Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 27 - Mets

Cardinals 13, Mets 4
Record: 11-16

Well, I was already typing bits about déjà vu from last night when Vance Wilson hit a home run with two gone in the 9th that did nothing but spoil a hundred obnoxious headlines. Two batters prior, Mo Vaughn had enabled the quips to begin when he hit a monstrous 466-foot bomb into the upper deck. To their credit, the Cardinals fans gave him a standing ovation. Of course, courtesy is a smidgen easier when the victory is already in hand, but I feel sure he got more applause in Busch Stadium than he would have received in Shea, at least the non-sarcastic kind.

As predicted in this column, our Pedro was no match for Woody Williams. While the Wood-man threw what should have been seven shutout innings (save for J.D. Drew's Met-like outfield play), Astacio gave up four taters and nine runs in four innings and gave away most of the game before it really got going. When you surrender a solo shot, a 2-run shot, and a 3-run shot in the first 10 batters you face, you ruin it for the rest of the guys on the team -- and even moreso for me sitting at home! I get settled in for an evening of baseball watching (upwards of 10 games on the DirecTV slate) and 15 minutes in I know the one game I want to follow most closely is done. It vaguely reminded me of when my associate Mr. Russell hunkered down with a bottle of rum intending to watch a Sox-A's playoff game, made himself an unwise, alcohol-related wager, and was dragged to the shower room and left for dead by the 4th inning. At least in his case he didn't have to witness the eventual dismantling of his team that day.

At least I got to watch one interesting game, coincidentally the Red Sox game. The Sox were handed a gift of a win from Kansas City tonight. The Royals first allowed the tying run to score in the 8th on a wild pitch (after Albie Lopez shook off Brent Mayne four times -- nice head, Albie), then scored twice in the 9th and gave it right back when they hit three, count them, three Sox batters in the bottom of the ninth. That and a couple of hits tied it, but it took a booted grounder to score Manny Ramirez with the winner. I know a little team from Queens that could really use such generous gestures from their opponents, but I suppose luck is something you create sometimes. The Mets would have swung through those 3 HBP's and never given themselves a chance.