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GOD, I LOVE MY JOB!!! (Or, Happiness is Lubbock, Texas, in my rear-view mirror)

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Sam Waller, May 5, 2007.

  1. Sam Waller

    Sam Waller New Member

    I knew I was long overdue for the kind of high school baseball game we all dread, but tonight was effin' ridiculous.

    First of all, the best-of-three series I'm covering was scheduled for Abilene, but was shifted to Lubbock because rain on Wednesday left those fields unplayable. Then I sat through extra innings as deadline inexorably slipped past. We're supposed to be off the floor at 10:55 p.m. The last out was recorded at 11:06.

    During the course of the evening, I had come up with three or four really good leads, even had thoughts of a short sidebar, only to have it all come to nothing.

    The final score was 18-15 in nine innings. The teams combined for 40 hits, including four home runs and 14 doubles. The WINNING pitcher gave up five runs.

    And speaking of pitching, the teams combined to use nine guys, including both scheduled starters for Game 2 (although one kid faced only one batter and the other faced four, throwing 13 pitches).

    The starting pitcher on the losing team appeared to be cruising in the third, but came off the mound to catch a popup, got run over by the first baseman and had to leave the game with a knee injury. The coach's comment: "That's a play (the first baseman's) has all the way. Pitchers don't catch popups."

    A kid on the losing team had a homer, two doubles and six RBIs, but the winning team had five players with at least two RBIs. The winning team also stole 10 bases in 12 attempts.

    The winning team, in its first playoff game since 1964, scored eight straight runs to take a 10-5 lead into the bottom of the sixth. They promptly squandered it, but avoided pulling a Dallas Mavericks when a freshman pinch runner was thrown out trying to score from first on a double in the gap (the kid apparently didn't believe the coach was really waving him home and slowed up just a bit rounding third).

    The winners come back and score three in the eighth, giving me a chance to still get something in by deadline.

    Keep in mind this is the first night game for this team since mid-March. So, of course, with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the center fielder loses a ball in the lights for a two-run double to tie it up. (It was a well-hit ball to the deepest part of the park, but the kid was there and almost got hit in the head).

    When I called the office with that update, my SE produced a classic example of how to make colorful use of the English language.

    OK, three runs in the eighth wasn't enough. How about five in the ninth?

    Whoops! An error prolongs the inning, leads to two unearned runs and gets the tying run on deck. Ace of the staff comes in and gets called strike three, but the catcher DROPS THE EFFIN' BALL! Fortunately, the first baseman didn't have time to join the rest of the infielders in celebrating and was there to take the throw for the final out.

    Time of game: three hours, 36 minutes.

    And now I get to go through it all over again in Game 2.
     
  2. chazp

    chazp Active Member

    You have my condolences.
     
  3. Big Buckin' agate_monkey

    Big Buckin' agate_monkey Active Member

    There are ditches to be dug.
     
  4. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Kinda sounds like last night's game at Yankee Stadium.


    So stop bitching please.
     
  5. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    It does, but you were probably sitting in a warm press box. I've been to too many high school fields where their version of a press box is nothing more than a cardboard box with no protection from the elements.
     
  6. Mayfly

    Mayfly Active Member

    Re: GOD, I LOVE MY JOB!!! (Or, Happiness is Lubbock, Texas, in my rear-view mirr

    At least your high school baseball fields have press boxes.
     
  7. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    I wasn't siiting in any press box Angola...I was sitting in my office.

    But I guarantee you in my lifetime I've spent far more hours at bad high school events ... not to mention bad pro events .. than some of you have had years in earth.

    And some how, I don't think Texas in mid-May is exactly freezing.
     
  8. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Re: GOD, I LOVE MY JOB!!! (Or, Happiness is Lubbock, Texas, in my rear-view mirr

    PING!
     
  9. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    Well, it doesn't have to be freezing down here to hate life in the press box. Shit, it was 90 here yesterday and the box I was in didn't have AC and the guy running it didn't want to keep the door open. Needless to say I had swamp ass by the second inning.
    Spnited, so you are one of the examples of people that started at small papers and worked their way up? Or were you an effin stud who covered high school stuff for a big paper?
    Also, I think the thread starter was bitching more about the score than the elements. I changed it to the elements.
     
  10. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    The thread starter has no reason to bitch about anything because everybody goes through this shit with games running past deadline all the fucking time!
    I'm just tired of people whining about having to do thier job.

    I was neither an effin' stud nor one of those who started small and moved up. I was very lucky and made the most of it ...but that was nearly 40 years ago.

    What happened to me couldn't happen today.
     
  11. Coach was right. Pitchers don't catch popups. They're supposed to get the hell out of the way.
     
  12. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    I can see the happiness is Lubbock in my rear view mirror part.
     
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