Respite

After my first exam this morning, I settled in this afternoon for a brief respite in the form of baseball before the real tempest begins – preparing for and then taking 3 exams in 4 days. For now, though, baseball. In fact, I’ve even got Vin Scully calling the Dodgers / Diamondbacks game on in the background. I know some people don’t like Scully’s solo calling style, but I love it. And as I listened to the recently discovered recording of his first Koufax no-hitter call on NPR a few weeks ago, I wondered how anyone could not appreciate Scully’s ability to make a baseball moment even more literary, channeling the moment rather than imposing on it.



And the Cubs are playing better.

Granted, my perception may be skewed. During a break yesterday, I turned on the game and saw the rally, the first Cubs baseball I’d seen all week. When the rain delay began, I never checked back in. So, I was surprised that the game was finished today after being suspended under the new MLB rules covering those situations. (I think the new rule tracks our intuitions better anyway, our at least my intuition, which is that anything that actually happens on the field should never be taken away due to uncontrollable circumstances such as rain, so a 7th inning by a visitor like the Cubs shouldn’t be wiped.) I had to put my blank scorecard to the side for a little while before today’s game began. A nice pause: grades won’t come in for a month, I haven’t checked e-mail all week, my phone was on silent across the room, and for at least a few hours, life is good because as far as I know there’s nothing but baseball in the entire world.

Before I knew it, the Cubs were ahead, which boded very well. I’m not sure if the 0-fer still stands as far as losing games in which their opponent scores first, but it’s still like the Cubs are a different team playing ahead than behind. Plus, there was some good fan cam action – and not just good for Pittsburgh on account of the shift. Yep, it felt like a day to log two wins.

And that’s what they did.

I was flipping through my game notebook, and saw a note I had written last fall, when Len and Bob were commenting about how Lee came back from injury without a minor league rehab stint. JCB: “Well, the Cubs playing the Pirates kind of is a minor league rehab assignment.” This year, though, the Pirates are a bit better, and the Cubs at least ought to be.

The difference ought to be in pitchers like Marquis, and today the difference was there as Marquis flung 8 stellar innings: 1ER, 1R, 4H, and 0W. No walks is my favorite part. The difference ought to be there in a guy like Soriano, too, who slugged an opposite field homerun that was downright intimidating, and almost slugged another one high off the wall in center. With his single as well, Soriano is squaring up on the ball as well as anyone could – well, except for Derek Lee, who’s a line drive machine. Just like that, the team seemed confident, and played confidently. Dig it.

I can’t help but wonder if the season has reached a fork with Zambrano pitching on Friday. A season has a lot of forks, but a good start from Z could really push things over the edge in a positive way. And a bad start could really reopen the wounds of doubt that have barely started to scab. With momentum gathered, I hope it gains speed rather than derails.

The other thing, though, and perhaps the most important thing, was the Cubs 5th inning, where they scored 2 runs without a hit. We shouldn’t take blame away from Snell, but he really wasn’t pitching badly. The Cubs were laying off good pitches. (Between that and a great baserunning play by Jones, stealing a run at the end of the game before, I had to rub my eyes.) They drew 3 walks, scored a run on a wild pitch, and then Snell hit Floyd with a pitch with the bases loaded. 2 runs earned without hits was a good month last season -- for that matter 3 walks was a good series -- and here it happened in an inning.

Today the Cubs rewarded me for taking a break, shutting out the world, and enjoying some baseball. It really was enjoyable, maybe the most satisfying win of the season (although I may be projecting). You roll the dice on any given game and especially the last few seasons the odds may be stacked against you, but still you sit down and you hope. Not a bad afternoon when it turns out right, then.