How to waste a day

[rsc]

Well, I suppose the day was going to be wasted anyway, seeing as it was chilly and damp and likely to start raining again at any moment. And we had gotten up late on account of having having gotten home from Saturday's dance well after midnight. So why not start up a blaze in the fireplace and sit down to watch the Braves-Astros game at 1:00 PM, knowing there would be plenty of time afterwards to eat dinner and maybe get in some TV-catching-up or other, um, productive activities between the end of that game and the start of the Yankees-Angels game at 7:55?

Somehow the idea that the first game would run 18 innings didn't enter into our calculations.

It didn't rain, however, and I was able to tear myself away from the game long enough to harvest what I suspect is the last crop of blueberries -- they were a little bit wet, but manageable -- while John went back and forth from the kitchen (where he was making corn muffins to go with supper) and the living room. We did get through rather a lot of firewood. And we did have time to eat between games.

One might wonder why we're still in Gloucester, where temperatures are resolutely refusing to get out of the 50s and the threat or actuality of rain is due to continue for the next five days or so. But we're not quite ready to move back, and we have to be here when our new mattress is delivered (sometime later this week, we think), and there's still more work to be done outdoors... so I guess we're going to hold out a little longer.

Fortunately the Yankees-Angels game didn't go into extra innings. But the Yankees had the nerve to win and force a 5th game tonight, when we could otherwise be catching up on Desperate Housewives and other important matters.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I'm telling myself that if the Yankees win, it will help encourage me to root for the White Sox. But I really would prefer to see them get bounced out in the first round.

[lcohen]

why would you not root for the white sox anyway?

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I would, and I will. But my enthusiasm will be increased if their opponent is a team whose defeat I actively desire.

For reasons I'm sure you can understand, I'm finding it hard to summon up enthusiasm for the White Sox on their own, even while rationally recognizing that they, at some level, deserve to win.

[lcohen]

i do understand, although you could root for them on the "let them not have beaten my team in vain" principle.

and it has been a heck of a long time for the white sox, too. why not bury some more old curses?

i am torn--i think the white sox match up better against the yankees, but i hate the yankees so i want them to lose in the first round. it's a dilemma.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

why not bury some more old curses?

That's the real reason for rooting for the White Sox, although "let them not have beaten my team in vain" could apply as well (although it never applies to the Yankees).

In the past, I've tended to root against the team that beat my team -- kind of a revenge reflex. I remember when our household used the term "Evil Empire" to refer to Oakland, and then Toronto (long before Larry Lucchino applied it to the Yankees).

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

My gf deplores the Cardinals and was disappointed that they swept the Padres in the first round, the one time (she claims) she'll ever root for the Padres. I told her the ideal situation would be to have the Cardinals lose in the World Series to the White Sox. She insisted she doesn't want the Cardinals going that far. When I explained, though, that such a scenario would have the Cardinals breaking World Series curses in consecutive years, she suddenly agreed with my thinking.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

My gf deplores the Cardinals and was disappointed that they swept the Padres in the first round

OK, this is not going to exactly endear me to you, but although I really didn't care in any real sense about the Padres-Cardinals series, I felt that the result was the correct one, given that the Padres didn't belong there in the first place. I would have been disappointed if they had even won one game.

After seeing that 18-inning game, I find myself rooting for Houston in the NLCS. I didn't think I would ever root for Houston.

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

Hey, even though I would have been happy to see the Padres pull off the improbable, I'm not really disappointed. My homerism isn't so extreme that I thought the Padres belonged in the postseason!

I was rooting for the Astros simply because I can't stand the Braves. I actually found myself rooting for Clemens to hit the series winning HR in the 18th, though, which I know won't endear me to any Red Sox fans.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I kind of feel the same way about the Braves -- I'm tired of their winnning the division every year, and I really don't want to ever hear that stupid chant again. And (insofar as I cared about the NL at all) I was a Braves fan in the early 90s, too.

As for Clemens, opinion on him is divided in "Red Sox Nation" -- some feel that his departure was all Dan Duquette's fault. (Of course we all hated him while he was on the Yankees.) I actually felt that it would have been neat if he had hit a home run, but there were already enough improbable events in that game.