The Baseball Desert

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

History Will Teach Us Nothing

Beth (and Bill Simmons) have a few words of sympathy and encouragement for the Astros' fans. They know how Monday night's defeat felt, because they've been there - Simmons even has a "Levels of Losing" scale he can apply to such games.

I've been rooting for the Astros and against the Cardinals throughout this series, for reasons very similar not only to those of Beth:
For my taste, [the Cardinals are] just...meh. Their fans are...meh. Their soon-to-be-torn-down Stadium is...meh. I just can't get into them.
but also to those of The Sports Guy:
Note: I love rooting against La Russa and have no idea why. Even read Buzz Bissinger's La Russa book just to be annoyed by him some more. I think it's solely because of the announcers and writers who constantly talk about what a genius he is, but it also might be his hair. It's one or the other.
So tonight I'll be rooting once again for Houston. I don't know how the majority of Astros fans feel going into today's game, but they should take heart from their team, who seem - on the surface at least - to have put Monday behind them and are looking forward to sending Roy Oswalt to the mound in Game 6 and Roger Clemens in Game 7.

Thomas Boswell has a great take on how Game 5 shows us once again that you don't never know nothin' in baseball:
Yet, in the span of just eight pitches, baseball proved once again that, just to show off, it can drop a redwood tree on our heads whenever it wants.
Baseball often seems to take on a life of its own in these kinds of situations - as Boswell says, it's almost as if this has to go to a Game 7, with Clemens pitching a do-or-die game for his hometown team. The romantic in me would like to see Brad Lidge close it out against Pujols in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7, but I know that would be like asking the baseball gods to strike me down with lightning, so I'm prepared to settle for a Houston victory in Game 6 and an extra night's rest before the World Series kicks off on Saturday.