Because I Love Baseball...

I'm going to give you three reasons, all from last night, that you should feel the same way. Yeah, football's right there on the horizon--fantasy drafts are underway, pre-season games are in full swing (allowing backup Charger running backs to destroy the Rams defense), and Pro Bowl tight ends are finally rewarded with big contracts (anyone notice Antonio Gates' "Best Damn" t-shirt at his first day of practice?)--but it's still baseball season, and we've got another month or so before another awesome post-season gets underway...

1) Got back to my desk last night after finishing up the show and was alerted that Freddy Garcia had a no-no going against the Twins on channel 114 (FSN North). Tuned in and quickly learned that Freddy's opponent, the electrifying Johan Santana, had allowed just two hits to this point (the seventh inning) and we had ourselves a 0-0 ballgame. Bottom of the eighth now, Jacque Jones leads off with a solo shot to center and the Twins now have one hit and one run. Johan gives way to closer Joe Nathan, who mows 'em down in the ninth and sends the Sox down to their eighth loss in nine games. Despite Minnesota's bad second half (they're still 2.5 out of the wildcard), the Metrodome was rocking and going crazy on every one of Nathan's ninth-inning pitches. I just love that kind of atmosphere...

2) At commercials of the Twins game, I flipped over to channel 57 (YES Network) to check out the Yankees-Blue Jays tilt. Having discovered a little more rooting interest in those Yanks since my pilgrimage to the Stadium two weeks ago, I was looking forward to them taking a one-game lead in the wildcard race over the A's, who had already lost. Down 2-0 heading into the sixth (and having gotten a surprisingly good outing from Al Leiter), Bernie hit a sac fly to score Tino, and they're within one. Leiter gets threee in a row after a leadoff double by St. Francis alum Gregg Zaun, and the Yanks tie it up in the bottom of the seventh on a Posada sac fly. Sturtze in for Leiter, Blue Jays get a run (Hillenbrand single), then Bernie singles in Womack to tie it up again. Mo's on to maintain the tie, but Russ Johnson singles in Orlando Hudson and the Jays are up 4-3. Bottom nine, Godzilla leads off with a homer to tie it up, and a nice little rally ensues. After they walk Jeter to load the bases, superstar Felix Escalona singles up the middle and Posada comes home with the winner. Tremendous back-and-forth action over the last four innings, culminating in a role player's game-winner. The Indians won as well, tying them with the Yanks, a game up on Oakland--great race...

3) Left the office as soon as the Twins game was over, so I got home for the majority of number three. I'd been looking forward to the final game of the evening for a few days now, after seeing that Roger Clemens and Jake Peavy would be matched up in game two of a three-game set at Petco. During a commercial at the very end of the Twins game, I saw inning number one, which consisted of a Dave Roberts leadoff triple and a B-Giles RBI single, and I then got to listen to Ted Leitner and the great Jerry Coleman for a few innings on the drive home. Tuned in on MLB.com when I got home (still very happy I made that purchase) and watched the rest of the thing on the computer screen. Rocket quickly overcame his first-inning woes and gave up very little, retiring 17 straight after the Giles single. However, Mr. Giles came back up in the seventh (unfortunately, I was in the kitchen preparing my meals for the following day) and bombed one to right, giving us a 2-0 lead. This was more than enough for big Jake, who went the distance and scattered three hits, collecting his 11th win. Yes, I'm biased, but it's unbelievable to watch this guy at his best--he's going to keep getting better, too, and it's just a shame that Clemens had to lose this one.

This represents like a three-hour stretch in a random regular-season day, and there's way more that I didn't even get to: Pirates phenom Zach Duke pitching a perfect two innings before leaving with a sprained ankle, the Mets destroying those second-place Diamondbacks 14-1 (David Wright, the future of major-league third baseman, was 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles), and those in-fighting Dodgers made some more news with the Milton Bradley-Jeff Kent racism debacle. Good times.

On any given day in the baseball season you can watch Vladimir Guerrero swing the bat (the single greatest thing in sports right now), Manny be Manny, any number of Yankees go yard (A-Rod spearheading a ridiculous lineup), some random Oakland A's pitcher throw a shutout (Harden and Zito have been sick in the second half)--and that's just the American League. Should be a great finish to the regular season and, like I said, another wonderful playoffs. Enjoy it...