October 31, 2009 [LINK / comment]
So much for home field advantage! Andy Pettitte was under heavy pressure in Game Three of the World Series tonight, at Citizens Bank Park, giving up three runs to the Phillies in the second inning. After that, however, he stayed composed and allowed his team to catch up and take the lead. Alex Rodriguez got his first hit of the 2009 World Series, a squeaker of a home run to the right field corner that was called a double and then revised upward to a four-bagger based on "instant-replay" review. Ironically, the ball hit a TV camera. Jayson Werth crushed a huge home run that bounced off the GEICO sign in front of the left field upper deck. It was estimated to have gone 445 feet, and according to my estimates, it traveled just about 400 feet in the air. Johnny Damon hit a two-run double, and Nick Swisher and Hideki Matsui added to the score with solo home runs. Final score: 8-5. All of a sudden, the momentum is solidly in the Yankees' favor.
When is this lousy weather going to end? Oh yeah, next April. Mother Nature keeps dropping hints that it is dumb to play baseball so late into the autumn, but the bosses of baseball refuse to listen. For a while it looked like the World Series (or at least tonight's game) had been rained out, just as happened one year and two days ago -- October 29, 2008. The start of the game was delayed for an hour and 20 minutes, but the rain and drizzle hardly let up at all, contrary to the weather forecasts. They decided to keep playing through it all, and fortunately nobody was injured from slipping on the wet grass.
And weather aside, how dumb is it to be playing baseball on Halloween, anyway? Booo!
Tonight was not only Halloween, but also the last day of Daylight Savings Time for this year. I already set my clocks back, so it's still before midnight.