All wet
Not to make excuses for myself, but most of the morning is gone and I'm just getting around to the painful rehashing of last night's events at Camden Yards. One semi-plausible reason: the late night and the quick change in plans, from this column about the trial and tribulations of Daniel Cabrera, to this one, about the trials and tribulations of the entire Orioles organization. The other reason: DirecTV has a Tiger-cam going at the U.S. Open (coverage, of course, by ESPN). I have to presume that Comcast has one, too, but if not, let me know, or, I'd suggest, let Ray Frager at Medium Well know.
The last couple of posts from last night concerned the awful weather yesterday afternoon. A few people did, as it turns out, stay home, or turn around. But an announced crowd of more than 21,000 did make it, braving terrifying conditions that had all the TV stations go into full weather-catastrophe mode. It ended up being a clear, cool night. It also ended up wretched for Orioles fans, and very joyous for Nationals fans who came up the parkway in the cruddy weather and ended up gloating.
O's fans who did make it to the game: does that make you even more mad than you otherwise would have been? You made the conscious decision to come to the ballpark, gambled that the weather would cooperate, and that the home team would reward you with something other than the usual fold-up at the end. Even if they had simply lost, it might have been just another soggy night at the Yard. But no, they teased you, then served up more of the same that's made you sick for the past couple of months.
For the effort the hardy fans made to get there, couldn't the O's have chased down a pop-up or laid off walking the bases loaded? A lot of you bolted after the eighth inning, so you missed the ninth-inning rally, and then a whole bunch more threw in the soaked towel after the top of the 11th. The mass exodus while Felipe Lopez' triple was still rattling around in the right-field corner was pretty dramatic.
If you suffered getting to the game in the midst of area-wide tornado warnings and flash-flood warnings and then sat through that disaster, let me know.
Comments
I fought my way through traffic and the rain to get to the game. I was bummed that my efforts were not rewarded with a win. However, I had fun anyway. There were some good people sitting around me.
There were also some bitter, bitter people that I encountered at the game. These people were longtime fans who have become just so upset at the way things are going. It is not just about last night's loss. To them, it is all about the last 10 years.
Posted by: itstim | June 14, 2007 1:22 PM
Since I rarely listen to the haircuts who do the TV news, I had no idea the world was supposed to end. So I made my way to the ballpark in the rain, grabbed a sandwich and sat in my seat (I was lucky to have lower deck seats, under cover from the rain.). It was fine. Nice night, even.
I don't feel like I didn't get my money's worth because of some defensive lapses. Or that, because I came to the game on a rainy night, I'm somehow entitled to something different. I don't like it, but I don't feel ripped off, as Steele seems to imply.
Posted by: kramdenyards | June 14, 2007 1:25 PM
Didn't suffer getting to last night's game but I did suffer getting to Tuesday night's dreadful game. I picked my wife up from the Vienna Metro in Fairfax, VA and from the time we got on 495 for 66 until we got to the Connecticut Ave exit, we never went above 20MPH. After a 2.5 hour drive that without traffic takes an hour, we sat through 2.5 hours of miserable uninspired baseball.
Posted by: Jon | June 14, 2007 2:02 PM