Baseball has the great advantage over cricket of being sooner ended.
– George Bernard Shaw

Today’s headline in the sports section of our local newspaper said, Angels close out Papelbon, Sox. I knew that already. I saw the game. Amazingly enough, I understood the word game. Jonathan Papelbon’s job was to close out the Angels (not vice versa), and he failed miserably. Baseball season is now officially over. No, don’t tell me, there are other games, and two other teams will eventually compete in the World Series. Every citizen of Red Sox nation will agree, baseball season is only over when either the Sox win the World Series, or, as they did yesterday, loose in the play-offs.

Many moons ago, when I arrived here in the Unites States, coming from Germany, I had heard about baseball, but I never considered it a real sport. As Yogi Berra said in his own typical way, “Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical.” I never understood the concept of holding a bat and looking at the ball swishing by, waiting either to be walked or struck out. I never understood how you can injure yourself by running a mere 90 feet from the batter’s box to first base. I’ve seen it several times now.

Being a football fan, I vividly remember seeing my first Superbowl – San Francisco 49ers vs. Cincinatti Bengals. One of the players broke his leg during the game, and they showed it in detail and slow motion multiple times on TV. The player refused to be driven to a hospital. He insisted on staying in the locker room and watching the game on TV until it was over. Then he agreed to the trip to the hospital. Compare that to a pitcher who is being replaced because he broke a fingernail. It did happen! So, for many years football was my kinda sport! And by the way, why do they call it World Series…?

No, wait, don’t start yelling at me! This season I watched almost all Red Sox games, and only a few minutes of the New England Patriots. I have to admit I had problems following the games when the Red Sox were on the West Coast. We have a two-year-old, and we’re happy when we go to bed after an East Coast game, which is usually around 10:00 pm.

My Red Sox addiction started after I met my wife, who is a vivid fan. She was the reason that the 2003 season was the first I watched from beginning to end. I experienced the typical Red Sox drama by watching them losing in the seventh game against the New York Yankees. Even I yelled at the TV when the Red Sox manager (whose name is not to be uttered in this household) did not pull Pedro Martinez when it was obvious he didn’t have it anymore. Well, the rest is history, and the Red Sox won the World Series the next year. Many people here in New England and beyond have waited a lifetime to see this happen, while I was privileged to wait only two seasons. Maybe it’s the German efficiency.

So, coming back to yesterday’s game. I saw Papelbon allowing two runs in the eighth inning with two outs, and, in view of Papelbon’s track record so far this season, I expected the worst.

At the beginning of the  ninth inning, with Papelbon still up, I looked at my wife and asked, “Can we load the bases, please?”

My wife looked at me and said, “You know Max’s famous word when he left the wild things?”

She was referring to Where The Wild Things Are, one of my son’s favorite books, and now a movie.

“His famous word,” continued my wife, “was NO!”

“But,” I muttered, “can’t we just load the bases to make things a bit more interesting?”

“NO!”

“We could also allow another three runs.”

“NO!”

Yet again, the rest is history. Papelbon did load the bases eventually, and he did allow three more runs. And I still don’t understand the concept of loading the bases with an intentional walk. For me Torii Hunter was as much of a threat as Vladimir Guererro. In the end, the Angels were the better team.

Last, but not least, while I, as an author, have the liberty of distorting the facts, the conversation with my wife happened as I described it. Now it’s time to focus my attention on the Patriots, even though I have the nasty feeling that Tom Brady’s priorities are currently more with maintaining his status as a star, rather  than his performance as a quarterback.