Hope for baseball?

Anyone been through a major hurricane?? Been evacuated? Lost valuable property due to wind or falling tree damage? Lost water and/or electricity for days? No? Well, it isn't fun. I haven't had this happen to me too often, but living in New England has brought its share of bad hurricanes with high-speed winds and huge coastal waves. When I was in high school, I had accompanied a family that I babysat for to the Cape for a week when Hurricane Bob hit. Everyone was evacuated to the local high school. Once there, we were given a square of floor to set up a blanket and some paper bags of food and our 5 bodies. Generators ran dim lights for a few hours; one bank of pay phones was available to attempt to call home (before cell phones and call waiting). After about a day and a half of this, the hurricane passed out to sea and we were able to return to the house. We found that we would be without water for 2 more days. We cut the vacation short, packed up and returned home.

My point? The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are from Florida. Florida has recently been pounded by hurricane after hurricane. This latest one has derailed many home games in FL. It has also caused much worry for the players who are constantly on the road, away from their homes and families. The team was supposed to play a double-header in NY yesterday against the Satans. They had a tough time getting out of the state due to airport closures and bad weather, caused by Hurricane Francis. They were late for the first game of the double-header. They played the second game.

The Y****** cried foul. No, not weather. Play. The Satans were on the field at the appropriate time, in NY, where they live and where they are not experiencing any hurricanes. The Devil Rays were not at the field in time for the first game, so NY is lobbying to have the Rays charged with a forfeited game. They don't think that it's fair that they were ready to play and the Rays were not there.

The last time a major league game was forfeited because a team didn't show on time was July 17, 1902, according to retrosheet.org. Yet NY believes that they are so important that they can ask the baseball commissioner to give them a W because they were on the field, in no danger, while the Rays players flew through dangerous conditions to arrive late to work.

I am so overwhelmed with disgust for this team and the perversion and depravity that it interjects into the game of baseball. And it is just a game. It is a wonderful, thought-provoking, exciting game, but it is not life or death and the people participating are not gods. Delays happen and schedules get messed up. And most people have the decency to fold these delays and errors into the fabric of life and graciously say, how can we fix this? how can we find a way to mend this without injuring the game of baseball?

Sorry, it's not by shouting "foul" and "not fair" and trying to use your clout and name to get something for free, especially an unearned win. To me, the tactic smacks of a team that has never been asked to hold fans or fellow players in regard. It is petty and small. Step down, George, and let an owner who respects not only other players, but his/her own guys to run this ballclub and infuse a little more dignity into the word 'Yankee' thereby protecting the legitimacy and honor of the institution of baseball.

Ok,I'm done. Sorry to put you all through that, but I just can't let stuff like that go. In other news, Kate's party was smashing. My Kate Trivia game went over pretty well - even Kate learned some things about herself courtesy of information provided by her brother and parents. Thanks, Heather, for letting us party in your kicked-out condo and beautiful back yard.

Saturday, we did make it to the beach - Wingaersheek in Gloucester. Bryan and I met up with my older brother, sister-in-law (7.5 months pregnant!) and nephew, Noah, to catch some rays and play in the tolerably cold water. It was lovely seeing the wonder and delight on Noah's face as we caught Hermit crabs and sea slugs for him in a bucket. Unfortunately, we didn't find any 'amphibians', which was this 2 and a half-year old's word of the day - that's right. Gets his vocab from his aunt!

Sunday brought us to Tom's surprise graduation party in Connecticut. There was lots of eating, drinking and catching up. And Bryan and I discovered that we are nasty at bocce. We were briefly considering entering some tournaments and taking on 80 year-old Italian men everywhere!

It was my first "normal" holiday weekend in almost 2 years and it was just what a holiday weekend should be. I saw friends, family, ate great food, slept a little more than usual, experienced long stretches of relaxation, and didn't think about work, except to gush about how much I like it when asked about my new job. Beautiful.