Why I Watch

I've written about the constant war within me, the fight between optimism and second guessing.  But there are other games when it seems my team is simply overmatched.

I know this happen- the pitcher is on, the hitters are off balance, the calls all seem to go against you.  I should let those games go.

I couldn't sleep last night.  Every time I started to doze I was awake again, trying to find where things could have gone differently.  Only Jeter hit the ball hard, CC made a couple mistakes, Phil Hughes keeps moving himself farther down the ladder of trust, and the rest of the bullpen looked just as unsteady.

It's these kind of games, with little to talk about, that are the toughest for me as a writer.

But these are the games that make me love baseball the most.  There's another game just a few hours away, and with new pitchers on the mound, a whole new team will take the field.  It's not like football with a week between games, and it's not like basketball where an outsized or outclassed lineup can expect to lose hopelessly each game.  Baseball allows no statements, no unbeatable odds, no sure things.

So we're down one in a long series.  This team has too much fight in it to give up after one, and so do I.

I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel.