In the understatement of the year, what a ride the 2020 Major League Baseball postseason has been. All the highs and lows expected in a postseason, crammed into a daily festival of game schedule, with no breaks to speak of, and none sought. Somebody, please get me some new spikes, because I’ve worn my fan-spikes out, down to the nubs of my sated soul, exhaustion raining on my senses and dulling the hoot-tank I use for my brain. My bosses and co-workers, split like political parties as cohorts or no-sports, either emphasize or raise a concerning eyebrow. I failed in my attempt to qualify for Jeopardy because I kept asking “who is Randy Arozarena?”
I last wrote the eve of September 29, when this all began. I was fresh. I was young. I was excited about the prospect of two straight weeks of baseball. I warmed up the hoot-tank, and scared a lot of people. I ordered wings, and practiced eating one-handed while holding a bottle, all the while working on my posture and saying things like “bad call,” “are you kidding me?” and “little jimmy buttersweet, that was unbelievable.” My wife left to visit her mom shortly after hearing that. And all too soon after, Framber Valdez notched the first win of the postseason. That’s a guy worth watching. And then, all too soon later, Julio Urías, the man from Culiacán, would notch the last win of the World Series qualifiers. That’s a guy coming of age.
Can we see seven more games? Please?
I went numb, very comfortably so, after the NLCS. I wasn’t sitting in my chair, or laying on my couch. I was floating, hands frozen on my remote, powerless to turn off the TV. I heard the late Jack Buck in the back of my head telling me he didn’t believe what I just saw. I nodded in agreement with a stupid grin on my face, until another voice told me to hurry up and get to bed, I had work in the morning. It was my wife, and I realized I hadn’t even known she was back from her mom’s. To culminate the first foray into this crazy 2020 baseball postseason, I watched two incredible game sevens. Ever the fan, me selfish – gimme more.
With numbness gone, exhaustion on the brink of a hoot-tank fill-up, bags of Halloween candy and a box of Cracker Jack, I do dare ask for more. It will be hard to top what I have seen so far (still can’t believe it), but this is what just might do it for me over the next seven games:
Game 1: Dan Shulman and John Smoltz calling the game. Tim Kurkjian and Buster Olney in a seventh inning stretch cage match, with Tom Hamilton calling the action. Clayton Kershaw is a perfect game winner, 1-0. Mookie Betts robs Randy Arozarena at the wall for the final out.
Game 2: Vin Scully in a final national call. Enough said. Dodgers win in extra innings, 5-4 after Rays tie it in the 9th on a Randy Arozarena grand-slam, in the park style, after Buster Olney confuses Mookie Betts with Tim Kurkjian and tackles him before he can make a play at the wall.
Game 3: Dick Vitale adds color to a Tampa home game with Jon Sciambi, and Jim Bowden. Frank Thomas and David Ortiz have an arm-wrestling match called by – you guessed it – Tom Hamilton. Rays put the devil on the Dodgers, 8-0 as Charlie Morton pitches a complete game shutout. He loses perfect game and no-hit bid when Tim Kurkjian tackles Randy Arozarena in left field on a shallow fly in the top of the seventh, thinking it was Buster Olney.
Game 4: In a pivotal game, Bob Uecker gets the call, and Joe Girardi provides the color and a sense of décor, putting a stop to plans for a seventh inning stretch cage match re-match. In a postseason of crazy, the game is well played resulting in 7 innings from both starters, 7 stolen bases combined, 7 double plays and 7 solo home runs. Michael Perez wins it in the ninth on a squeeze play. Rays win 7-6.
Game 5: Jon Miller and Ron Darling call a wild one, with Chris Singleton providing the color. The game is again well played, but full of drama despite the Kurkjian-Olney dance off in the seventh inning stretch. Corey Seager goes deep three times, but is outdone by Randy Arozarena who sets a new World Series record for home runs in a game, including a game winning grand slam in the bottom of the 9th for his fourth of the game. The Rays walk it off for a second straight night and head to Los Angeles for Game 6.
Game 6: Vin Scully, back on short rest, works with Rick Sutcliffe and Orel Hershiser and will the Dodgers to a 5-0 victory, as Mookie Betts hits for the cycle and robs Austin Meadows and Ji-Man Choi of home runs. He also steals two bases and scores all 5 runs in the victory. Baseball fans needed the lack of drama in forcing a game 7.
Game 7: Give me Schulman, Smoltz and Bowden, a big box of Cracker Jack, beverages of my choice, and my buttercup calling me to bed after another fantastic finish. Give me some pitches a little high but very tight, a couple of staredowns, some bat flips, a steal of home and a deciding base hit in the ninth inning. I will not tell you who won. In fact, I don’t even want to know. Just give me game 7 at its best and most dramatic.
Note to those who believe in destiny: the Rays have played this postseason as if a team of destiny, but the Dodgers are looking for World Series Championship number 7. Who wins it?? I hope we find out on Wednesday, October 28 – on the Seventh Game.
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