Baseball - The Greatest Play Ever Performed

The MLB playoffs are amazing. They are the only important games happening this month. Yes hockey and basketball are starting but it's only the beginning of their seasons. The NFL is only sundays and mondays so what are sport fans supposed to do the rest of the week to get their sports fill.

What makes the playoffs so exciting you ask? Well for starters there is baseball on for at least 6 hours a day, during the playoffs life becomes eat, work and baseball. Anytime there are 6 hours of a great sport on a day it's great. There is unrivaled drama. More drama than in any other sport, besides maybe the NHL playoffs. The NBA playoffs you don't have to watch until the fourth quarter and the NFL you only get two days of games a week.

Unrivaled drama? Eric you are insane baseball is way too long and slow to have such drama. Baseball has many flaws, it's slow, sometimes there is not a lot of action, sometimes it can lull you into complacency; however these flaws only add to the drama and here is why.

Let's say you are at a Broadway play, at a movie theater or reading a great book, do you want the entire book to be the climax, the entire story to be the one lasting event. No, mostly you want the story, the background, you want to get to know the characters but the most important part, the buildup, the anticipation. A great story, at least for me, is one where the anticipation is so intense that you almost can't handle it. You know the ending is coming but you have no idea what it's going to be. Yes you probably know all the characters and have an idea what you think the ending will be but the beauty of a story is that until you've finished it can be anything. It can be exactly what you expected or the exact opposite of what you thought. The character you knew and hated could turn out to be the hero and the villian that you prayed would ultimately fail can succeed.

A baseball game in many ways is in its essence a story. The players, coaches and increasingly the umpires are the characters and the game is their journey. Let's look at the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves game from last night to understand the baseball game to story comparison. Big time Timmy Jim Lincecum was on the mound for the Giants against Derek Lowe for the Braves. The Giants featuring rookie of the year candidate Buster Posey against the Braves Jayson Heyward their rookie of the year candidate. The starting 9 of the Giants vs. the starting 9 of the Braves, these were the main characters, the main players. The game started out with a couple of scoreless inning. They were setting the scene, introducing us to the characters and giving us their background, allowing us, the audience, to decide who we loved and hated and cheered and booed. Next came the bottom of the fourth. Buster Posey comes up and hits a single. Next up Burell, 3-2 count, Derek Lowe delivers and Posey takes off for second. With the entire stadium holding it's collective breath Burrell strikes out and McCann throws to second. The stadium is ready to erupt and everyone is staring at the second base umpire, "Safe!". The crowd goes crazy. Juan Uribe is retired harmlessly and Pablo Sandoval is intentionally walked. both are retired harmlessly and up to the plate comes Cody Ross. Everyone San Francisco Giants fan is now nervous, "here it goes again, we are going to waste another base runner in scoring position," says Little 12 year old Jimmy Sveds to his dad a lifelong Giants fan. His dad Kevin Sveds had seen this all time to many times, Giants look promising finally get to the playoffs and lose. He is part of the cursed Giants franchise which has been unable to bring home a championship to San Francisco since moving the franchise from New York. Derek Lowe gets ready and deals, Cody Ross hits it hard and singles to left, Posey scores! They have done it they broke the 0-0 tie and know that that might be all they need to win. Lincecum is just dealing, he seems only slightly hittable and seems back to his Cy young form.

Fast forward to the top of the 9th inning. The Braves have been trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to score a run and are now down to their last 3 outs. No one in the stadium is comfortable, everybody is nervous. Giants fans hoping that their Cy young ace can hold the 1-0 lead and the Braves fans hoping they can miraculously score a run. (The beauty of baseball is now everyone in the stadium has a break between innings to let the emotion sink in, to increase the tension, to try to truly understand the situation and figure out what the ending is going to be. Whether they will be depressed or elated, cry or cheer.) First up is Omar Infante and he proceeds to ground out. Next is Jason Heyward the stellar rookie and he strikes out swinging. Derek Lee is up, with 2 outs in the top of the 9th, Lee is the braves last hope. Lincecum delivers, first pitch strike 1. Next pitch strike 2, next ball 1. Derrek Lee is now down to his last strike, Lincecum is ready, the crowd is on it's feet ready to go crazy. Lincecum gets set and delivers....Strike 3!

The crowd goes crazy, the game is over, the ending has been written, all that is left is tomorrow, knowing that there will be more at bats, more games, but for tonight the story is over and the ending has been written!

So until tomorrow, until the next game we can go back and analyze and try to figure out why it ended the way it did, knowing that we were all along for that thrilling ride.