Baseball Karma

Game Six of the World Series, and the visiting team is up by two runs. In the ninth inning. There are two outs, and two strikes. And the visitors are one pitch away from winning their first Series…. Does any of this have a familiar ring to anyone? The difference was that in 1986, no one was on base when Calvin Schiraldi began to melt down. This year, there were two men on base, but still, the Rangers were only a pitch away.

Then it happened again in the bottom of the tenth inning. But in the tenth, by the time there were two outs and two strikes, the Cards had already scored once, and were only one run down. But there it was again; another pitch that could have meant the Rangers' very first World Series championship.

So what I’m wondering about is whether Rangers fans are more miserable than Sox fans? Right now—probably yes. They had a great run in September, and for much of October, but what’s it going to be like from November through March? I guess I would have rather melted down in September than to have waited until Game Six. The Rangers' bullpen, which had been so dominant against the Tigers, had a collective ERA over seven during the Series. That sounds familiar. Right?

The Cardinals, however, were the reason that Sox fans kept hoping, until the season’s very last blown save, for things to turn around. St. Louis snuck into the post-season on the very last day of the season, and only managed that with some considerable help from the Atlanta Braves. Of course, they fought their way into the playoffs, and that’s a much better harbinger of a successful post-season, than what the Sox were trying to do – back into the playoffs with a losing September by winning a couple games here and there. I can’t imagine that, even if the Sox had secured the wild card, they would have been able to make a run like the Cardinals did.

The Rangers all seem to be pretty good guys – Ron Washington especially. At times, I felt bad for them as Game Seven slipped inexorably out of their reach. But the problem was that whole high-fiving routine with George Bush in the owners’ box. I think that’s bad luck for the Rangers, and Nolan Ryan would be well advised to have the Bushes hanging out in some luxury box somewhere, behind tinted glass, and far from the spotlight. See, when Bush and Ryan started celebrating, there were so many haters who couldn’t stand to see that, and then those haters collectively summoned up just a smidgen of bad karma. The next thing you know, Nelson Cruz didn’t go all out after Freese’s line drive. Two runs scored; the game was tied; and there just wasn’t enough residual karma for the Rangers’ bullpen to hold off the Cards.

Oh well, as we in RedSox Nation are so used to saying…. Wait till next year. I’m just guessing about this, but there’s probably a lot of that going around Texas right now.