Baseball is a wonderful game. Win or lose, it makes me happy. But, it can be especially stressful this time of year. Losing stinks in September.
I admitted to my friend Jay that a game earlier this week stressed me out so much I started to cry (just a little bit). He reminded me, “There is no crying in baseball.” My response: “This isn’t baseball. This is September.”
Just a few games left to go in the regular season. The Baltimore Orioles are hanging on … still in the running for the post-season. Just barely.
But, they need to win their next few games or their season will be over just as October begins.
If my team is going to lose a game, I ask just four things of them …
1) Don’t get no-hit.
2) Don’t get shut out.
3) Don’t get hurt.
4) Don’t take all night to lose.
They violated Rule #4 last night/this morning – taking 18 innings and nearly seven hours to lose to the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the longest game in Orioles’ history. Sigh.
After long games, Orioles Manager Buck Showalter will always say, “Sleep fast.”
Because there’s another game today. Another chance to win.
Orioles Pitcher Miguel Gonzalez — starts today against Tampa Bay. Go Miguel!
photo credit: me!
It’s not over yet. Gotta find a new lucky shirt to wear (I’ve squeezed all the luck out of my few trusty favorites.)
And, I’ll sleep in November.
The Baseball Bloggess 
I’d offer to cheer for the Orioles through the coming days, but my cheering for the Cubs over the past 50 years seems to have been counterproductive. Perhaps it’s best I simply remain a friendly, but silent, bystander.
But, just imagine if you weren’t a Cubs fan … imagine how many MORE games they would have lost over the past 50 years! So, maybe you’re luckier than you think. Plus, every fan needs a “favorite” in both leagues. You’d be welcome in Birdland!
I sometimes think it’s easier to be a fan of a team with no expectations of winning anything. When your team is out if contention in August, you can relax and wait for football season. I, on the other hand, have to worry inning to inning what the Cards, Pirates and Reds are all doing. It’s exhilarating, but exhausting too! Playoff baseball is worth the abuse. It’s just incredible. I hope your Orioles make it in. The whole city has a different feel when it’s baseball team is in the playoffs. We’re suddenly all fans and our differences become unimportant. At least that’s how it is here. It’s great.
I think you’re right about having it easier when there are no expectations — before last season, the Orioles were 15 years of no expectations. It was shrug-your-shoulders-have-a-beer-we-suck-stress-free living.
You Cardinals fans have vastly more experience coping with the stress of Septembers that mean something. Still new to Orioles fans. The Orioles tweeters and chatterers turned ugly on themselves after today’s loss. Just horrible. The opposite of losing our differences. We were eating our own. So, I think we’re at the end of the line.
I live in Virginia — which used to be part of “BirdLand” but is now Nationals territory. Sigh. I’m a lonely, exhausted Oriole … but, who knows? It isn’t impossible …
Cardinal nation welcomes all. Whenever you’re ready.
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Buck’s admonition is, of course, in direct opposition to the mantra of Warren Zevon, who wrote “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.” Of course, Warren is asleep now, so…
Maybe Buck and Warren were actually in cahoots — as Buck says, no dawdling with sleep when there’s baseball to play, and Warren says, no dawdling with sleep at all. Benjamin Franklin gets to weigh in, as well, when he wrote, “There will be sleeping enough in the grave.” And, as I always say when post-season games keep me up late, “I’ll sleep in November.”
Thanks for stopping by, and for giving a shout-out to Warren Zevon … very cool, indeed.