Wednesday 5 August 2009

Tuesday 4th August 2009 – A Great Sporting Moment

The Volunteer Fire Department in Glasgow, West Virginia had to shut down over the weekend.  They had been notified that their staff liability insurance had run out.  They tried to contact the insurance company, but it was Saturday, and nobody was home (or, rather, everybody was at home).  The fire chief couldn't risk the volunteers, just in case.  So he had to pass their responsibilities to the county volunteers.

Of course, it was a computer error. 

The Insurance Company is called Brickhouse.  Am I the only one who finds that funny?

 

Later that night, we were watching the Cards (that's the St Louis Cardinals, the local Baseball team) playing the New York Mets.  They weren't doing very well.

But as the evening wore on, the bar got quieter and quieter, as the Cards began to pull back.  Until everyone was riveted to the screen.

The game came to a magic climax.  Let me try to explain it to you non-baseball fans.

The Cards were batting at the top of the tenth.  That means they're away from home (they bat first), and that they're playing extra time (the game was a tie at the end of the regular nine innings).

Albert Pujols, the greatest hitter in the current game, steps up to the plate.

The bases are loaded.  That means there is a cardinal payer on every base.  If he makes a good hit, they are going to score.

He is on two strikes.  Everybody, even people who know nothing of baseball, know that "three strikes and you're out".  He has one strike left.

The Cards already have two out.  That means the innings ends if he is struck out or caught.  This is absolutely the maximum pressure on both the hitter and the pitcher.  Everyone in the bar can vouch for the fact that no pins were dropped, since we would all have heard them.

And he hits a home run: he runs in the three players on base, and, of course, himself, which is called a 'Grand Slam': the Cards are now four runs up.  The Mets will have to score at least four in the bottom of the tenth just to stay in the game.  Which, of course, they fail to do.

The cream on the cake for these Mid-Westerners was that it was New York who got it stuck to them.  There is an especial pleasure in beating New York, particularly with such style, particularly in New York.  They all went home feeling really, really good.  And so did I.

 

I'm all packed up and ready to go.  At crack-of-dawn, I shall be off to Iowa.  That was a really good night to end my stay.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Or was that "Off at the crack of ten??"