An Enjoyable Postseason, but.....

Thursday was one of the bad days of the year. The day after the last baseball game of the season. Oh the pain, the long cold winter of my discontent. I thought the playoffs were great, I watched almost all the games. I read a lot of net articles complaining about the timing of the calling of the game Monday night. I was watching carefully and thought they did it just about right. I like seeing nature disrupt the best laid plans of mice and men. Clearly baseball wanted that game Monday night to get played, and get to Tampa if needed, but when the rain comes, the rain comes. You do your best. While writers and talk show callers were complaining that the popup Rollins couldn't catch in the top of the 5th was proof that the conditions were too bad to be playing, no one seems to want to talk about how Carlos Pena, in the bottom of the 5th, caught 2 popups just as difficult as the one Rollins missed. Then with seemingly the World Series on the line ready to be called off in the top of the 6th, with 2 outs, Pena hits a low outside pitch to left and BJ (Bossman Junior) Upton scores the tying run, to stop anyone from even considering calling this game before it could go 9. It was dramatic. I watched over and over with the dvr, BJ steal second, then score. He never slipped. He was running hard, maybe slightly carefully, but he was awesome. The throw from Burrell was good, the slide by Upton was good, the game was tied. The weather was tough, but it was playable.

Somehow with these Rays especially, I feel like if these guys had come up 5 years ago they'd be on the A's. Upton and Longoria especially, seem like they should have been A's players. The league seems like it has caught up with Billy Beane on scouting. I hope he can reinvent himself again, cause it sure would be great to see the green and gold in the postseason again soon.

It was great to see all the A's guys in the playoffs, I couldn't help thinking these guys should all still be on the A's. Maybe some of them would still be A's if some of the other A's guys had been better and the wholesale rebuilding wasn't happening. There were 13 of them on 6 teams, not counting Ethier and Hinske. I counted Bradford, Pena, Blanton, Stairs, Dye, Swisher, Dotel, Kendall, Durham, Harden, Gaudin, Lilly, Kotsay. It is just proof that the A's have had a lot of great guys, and gotten rid of a lot of great guys.

My daughter Deedee, thought Bradford was bouncing the pitch off the mound into the catcher. He is so awesome, but he gave up the hit that scored the run that won it. I thought Maddon was outstanding, but it was a little weird for him to pinch hit for Baldelli on the next ab after he had homered, just to get the righty-lefty matchup. Also what was that reliever, J P Howell doing batting for the rays in the top of the 7th? I thought those were a couple of managerial calls which were questionable. All I really wanted was to see it go to 7 games, just string it out as long as possible. Just give me more games.

That's it, all done, the season's over. I don't know if it was that amazing in any respect except that it's baseball, the greatest game ever invented and proof of God's love for us. But now it's over and the cold dark winter takes over. I should not complain, living in San Jose. But after 5 months of nearly perfect weather, on cue, all day Saturday it rained. How am I ever going to make it to spring?