| The Chronicles | No Joy In Mudville | ||||||
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 The Story of Mr. Devine (continued) In the last entry, I recounted the story of a pitcher just out of college. Having been called up to the majors by the Braves, his first two showings displayed potential, but both had disastrous outcomes - grand-slams by the opposing teams. Well, his story continues. The Braves stumbled a bit, but they wrapped up a somewhat tight division race going into the final weekend. The rest of the NL East faded, and the Astros held off the Phillies to take the Wild Card berth. The Astros overcame the Braves in the first round of the playoffs last year, and the prospect of playing them again wasn't enticing. The Braves have now gotten bounced in the first round four years in a row, though they've fought admirably each time. On paper, the first game of the series was a blowout for the Astros, but in reality, the game was close until late. The ever-suspect bullpen let the game get away. The second game, pitched by the grizzled Smoltz, was a blowout in the Braves' favor. In the third game, the bullpen again blew an otherwise close contest. Today, we arrived at a pivotal fourth game in Houston. The Braves won the same game last year to force the series back to Atlanta for final fifth game. Early this evening, my brother woke me up (my sleeping schedule has been a bit whacked). He informed me that the game was in extra innings. You see, the Braves led 6-1 in the 8th. Our most reliable reliever then allowed a grand slam to make it 6-5, but escaped without further damage. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th, the Astros catcher launched the ball deep. It cleared the home run mark by mere inches to tie the score at 6-6. We were bound for extra innings. I love extra inning games, but they force me to hold my breath. There's a constant excitement mixed with fear. The next pitch could be the last. The Braves were getting baserunners, but they couldn't drive them in. Our bullpen was mowing down the Astros hitters. Finally, the Astros exhausted their roster. They were forced to bring Clemens (their starting pitcher from Game 2) in to bat and pitch. The innings wore on. The game showed no signs of ending. After almost six hours and 17 innings, the Braves brought in Devine to pitch. He shut the Astros down in the bottom of the 17th. When the Braves failed to produce in the top of the 18th, he made his way back to the mound. He struck out Clemens in strong fashion. I had little doubt that we'd get through this inning and push the game into a mindboggling 19th. Then, he started to look a little wild against a guy who was originally brought in 8 innings prior to pinch-run. He got behind 2-0. On his next pitch, the hitter let loose. The ball flew off the bat. It didn't look encouraging. As the left fielder looked up, the ball left the playing field into the stands. The inevitable. For the second time in the past few months, sports came close to driving me to tears. The taunts will continue. "The Braves are chokers." I love the team. I love the unparalleled streak of division titles. I hate the feeling of coming up short again.  Braves' firstbaseman LaRoche said: "It was frustrating, and I've said it before, if I knew we were going to lose in the first round, I'd rather not be in the playoffs at all." I'm not sure that I agree with him, but I can certainly with his frustration.Braves' pitcher Smoltz related: "It gets old when you battle your butts off and don't get rewarded. We're tired of playing in these classics and losing. It reminds me of the game [seven] in Minnesota -- the Greatest Game Ever Played. But we lost. This was probably the Greatest Division Series Game Ever Played. But we lost...To be one out away, one pitch away, from winning and then have to play another nine innings -- it's a tough way to lose. When you're put in this position, you're going to have one of two feelings in the end: gut-wrenching or ecstasy. There's only one way you can feel. We got the gut-wrenching. And it doesn't feel real good." Do I blame Devine? Nope. He shouldn't have been in that position. The blame for this one falls squarely on our otherwise reliable closer (Farnsworth) for surrendering a 5-run lead. I went back to sleep after the game. I hoped that I could pretend it was a bad dream, but the inches are still eating at me. One postseason, we'll get a reliable combination again. Those inches will go our way. Wake me when next season starts. Okay, so I do have a last vestige of joy and hope this postseason. My favorite AL team, the White Sox, won their first playoff series since 1917 and have a shot to win it all. It'd rank even higher than last year's consolation prize of the Red Sox. Cross your fingers. Editor's Note: Holy crap. I've only posted 10 entries since I last had to make this speech. I really need to update more. =P Glennliness I went up to Chattanooga last weekend for Glenn's wedding. Seems like I go to one every other entry or so. I don't really know his wife, which is a bit strange. Most of the weddings that I've been to over the past few years, I've known both the groom and bride. He started dating the girl in spring, so this was somewhat sudden, but I trust Glenn's judgment.  It was a good chance to see the gang from Nooga. We hung out some at the reception before heading over to Taco Mac. From there, we went up to my place on the mountain. Jordan convinced us to play a game called Bags (or Cornhole). It's basically a northern version of Horshoes involving bean bags...and it's quite fun. We played 25-30 rounds worth. Jeremy and Brian went on a blistering streak of more than 10 games to begin play. And actually, frustratingly, my team never won. =/Still, it was quite fun, and I enjoyed catching up with the guys. I may look online to see if I can find a game set. If I get some pictures from David A, I'll post them. Sat. Night Mafia & Movies The classic game made a return a few weeks ago. We're trying to start playing again most Saturday nights. If you're in town, drop by. In the past few weeks, I've caught two movies that originally slipped by, and a couple anticipated recent releases. I'm not a fan of "horse movies"; I think it's an actual genre at this point. The animal has never really appealed to me that much, but "Hidalgo" manages to be pretty engaging due to its epic nature and relatively constant action. The set-up of a late 19th century cowboy in the Middle East is also rather fresh. I am a fan of "Family Guy". "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" was just as funny as anything in the actual show. I'm not sure what it is that gives the series so much replay value, but I think we've watched every episode of the new season at least three times by now. It's not as deep of a show as some of the other current cartoons, but it succeeds in a flurry of comedy bits that are great to watch in a group setting.  Also on the comedy front, I caught the double-titled "Waiting" with Matt the other day. Having worked in a restaurant, the dynamics of the characters felt like an in-joke that I was privy to. I really liked the movie despite the crudeness of certain parts. Ryan Reynolds is his typical arrogant but likeable self.Finally, I watched "I Heart Huckabees". I'd been meaning to see it for quite some time, and I'd heard very positive reviews, but I'd managed to stay oblivious of the plot. In a blend of comedy and philosophy with a touch of surrealism, the film explores two different approaches to existentialism and its impact in the lives of several different characters. Dialogue is certainly a huge part of the film, but the fact that they managed to address the topic in action-filled manner is pretty amazing. As for my personal slant, I believe that we're definitely connected to each other and to the universe, but in a "created" and "spiritual" manner. Despite the surface chaos and randomness that surround us, there is an underlying plan (God's plan) for this world. The Girl Part So, you may have noticed that I've neglected to mention much interest in girls in quite some time. I know I mentioned that I crushed on the violinist at Evan's wedding last entry, but heck, I'm not sure that I've said anything else along those lines in a year and a half. In fact, a few months ago, I almost got to the point of making an entry called "The Romantic is Dead". Last fall and spring, I had some brief interest in a couple girls, but those never really worked out. In one of the more terrible examples, I liked a girl who knew I was interested in her. She went behind my back and hit on my brother...somewhat exacerbating my fear of introducing girls to him. Being a good brother, he came to me immediately with the news. There was a brief bit of crisis in the realization that I've only met one girl that was really interested in me for me. In other cases, I just happened to be the guy at hand. Coupled with walking by pretty girls every day, knowing that some of them had to be Christian, single, and intelligent, the realization was somewhat depressing. My mom and some of my friends occasionally discussed/discuss setting me up with someone, but nothing ever resulted/results. After that, though not really due to that, I sort of got wrapped up with my job and the single life. Add in the lack of prospects, and over the past six months, I've had very little interest in girls. Sure, there are times that I think it'd be nice to be dating someone, but I'm grateful for the freedom that I've been enjoying. It's really a strange place for me. As you recall, this journal was originally oriented in a pining direction. Now, I struggle to recall romantic feelings. This is not to say that I've stopped meeting girls. I've actually gone on a few "lunch dates" and met some nice girls so far this semester, but I'm not really dwelling. I guess it's not worth my time to make the emotional investments that I used to make. I think that's actually a good thing. There's certainly not as much dissatisfaction and expectation here. Perhaps I'll drift back, but it's nice not worrying about it...or at least, worrying about it very little. I'll keep you updated. Finally, in a bit of academic news, I dropped Computer Architecture & Design. It wasn't going to work out. I don't recall being so lost in a class in a long time. | |||||||
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