The Baseball Desert

Thursday, June 12, 2003

When asked by non-fans why they keep watching "boring" ballgames day after day after day, baseball fans often quiet rightly observe that no two games are ever the same, and that there's always a chance that you'll see somthing at the ballpark that you've never seen before. Well, last night was no exception, as a record total of six Astros pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter against the Yankees at the Big Ballpark In The Bronx. It's not something that often happens to the Yankees (it last happened 45 years ago...), and manager Joe Torre's detailed analysis of the defeat seemed to sum things up pretty well: "The whole game stunk". His candour is not too surprising, since I have information from a reliable source (a Florida-based Phillies fan) that the Yankees were swinging at everything - so much so that star 2B and potential MVP Alfonso Soriano swung and missed at a ball that was so far off the plate that it was called a wild pitch (which in turn allowed reliever Octavio Dotel to tie a Major League record by striking out four batters in an inning).

The Yankees need to turn things around quickly, as Boston is still a 1/2 game ahead of them, and the streaking Blue Jays are coming up strong behind. Wow, that almost sounds like a pennant race in the AL East, and that is definitely something you don't see very often...