The Good, The Bad and The Umpires

Wednesday, October 14 2009

A few days ago, Melissa and I went out food shopping instead of going out with the gang or anything similar. I had a list of things that I wanted. I was out of regular strength coffee and know better than to drink espresso every day. I also wanted to try a couple of new and exotic beers if possible. We took our time and picked out two very interesting selections.

The Pumpkin Ale seemed like quite a reach for me. I like pumpkin pie sometimes and I like pumpkin coffee. Melissa was also interested so we took a closer look at the description of what flavors were supposed to be involved. Then more we looked at it, the more we realized that we had to try this crazy idea. It was a big hit tasting like savory pumpkin pie with nutmeg. Of course, this is likely no surprise to you. The stuff was selling like crazy while we were in the store. We may be the last two people on Earth to have tried it.

The Belgian White beer is something I like a lot sometimes. Melissa wanted to try it and we should have gotten an orange while we were out before trying it. It is the tangiest beer I've ever tasted. There's a citrus flavor hiding behind what my inexperienced palatte tells me is pepper. Thus, it is served traditionally with an orange slice in the glass. Robert Parker's famous character, Spenser, drinks Belgian Blue Moon Ale if I remember correctly. That's the best known brand as far as I can tell. This is not a beer for the casual guzzler of your typical American style beers. Not only does it have taste to spare but it is unfiltered with little flecks of spices you need to stir up to get from the bottom of the bottle.

We also bought coffee. The real point behind the destination of our trip was the exceptional coffee selection at the particular supermarket. I was looking for something mild to supplement the remaining espresso and the super-good (but dark and intense) Royal Vinter blend. My goal was fresh ground pumpkin spice coffee but they had none in their bean dispensers.

We went looking through the bagged coffee and only found one pumpkin spice coffee available. It was Dunkin' Donuts and I think we bought it although I couldn't find it when I last brewed a pot. I can't speak for the quality of something I have yet to try but Dunkin' Donuts had the best variety of flavored coffees in the bagged section. I look forward to trying some soon.

While hunting for that particular flavor, I came across a few bags of Peet's coffee. Most West Coast journallers who drink coffee rave over the stuff. I bought some that was supposed to be chocolatey. The blend was even called Mocha Java. I couldn't wait to find out what all the rage was about so I made a pot of it yesterday. Somehow, I missed that they were espresso beans so they were very dark and I didn't taste any chocolate whatsoever.

It is quite possible that I brewed it too strong and the next pot will be far better. I'm mainly annoyed that I bought espresso somehow while shopping for something to keep me from getting sick on espresso! Coincidentally, I have not slept since I brewed that pot but it's only been 24 hours. That's a rounding error in my general insomnia issues.

As for now, I need to get some sleep. The Phillies are playing a night game in Denver after starting off with two day games here on the East Coast. Someone decided to make the most inconvenient schedule possible for us but, at least, we're not the Twins. Can you imagine the fuss I'd make if my team lost a game on a call like that?

An umpire cost the Twins at least one run by calling a ball foul that was fair by two different rules! The Yankee outfielder seemed to touch the ball with his feet in fair territory. More obviously, the ball then dropped several inches fair. There might have been some excuse during the regular season but there are two extra umpires in the postseason. All they do is watch to see if a fly ball in the outfield is fair, foul, caught or a homer! Anyone who can miss that call shouldn't be a major league umpire.

But now I shall sleep.

Believe it or not, I did sleep! I slept about two hours that afternoon and then another four to six hours that night after the Phillies won. That was an adventure of its own. Before the end of the game, I was able to give Melissa a definitive answer on why I've been watching so many other postseason baseball games. Unlike with Phillies' games, I don't sweat blood on every pitch. I can sit back, enjoy myself, even yell at the umpires but not care all that much about the results.

The fact is that I care about the Phillies' results. Close games are thrilling during the regular season but they almost hurt during the postseason. When it looked as if the Phils would lose Game Three to the Rockies, I posed the usual postseason defeat question to Melissa. Would I prefer that they had a good season falling just short of the playoffs or that they lose in that postseason in a moment of sharper grief?

It's one of those philosophical questions that I hope never to answer. What I prefer is that celebration followed by a parade that they got as World Champions. I can be magnanimous in defeat as long as you give me a little time to cool off. My two favorite Phillies teams ('83 and '93) didn't win the World Series. Both of them suffered heartbreaking ends to the season. The pain was sharp and terrible yet the pride never stopped.

Today should be interesting in that sense of the word. I have a pain doc appointment followed by the Phillies' game. In a sane universe, the four hours between the two events would be plenty of time to spare. In this universe, I may not get to see any of the game at all. We've been screwed royally for every game time but this would have been the best time yet without the appointment.

I suppose I can hope that the office will not be crowded today.

The pain doc visit went about as well as anyone could have hoped. The wait was better than average, I walked away from a crazy Fox News watcher and I got some questions answered. I was supposed to get a shot in my right shoulder for the pain and swelling but they forgot. My shoulder wasn't bothering me that day so I didn't remind them. My surgeries are still up in the air thanks to the damned insurance company.

As usual, I was fried by the time we got home. All I wanted to do was get home, relax and watch the baseball game. We made it home with an hour to spare and I unwound by playing some Facebook apps. I knew I had very little ability to handle stress left in me so I watched no pregame coverage. The game is often enough to make me want to pull my hair out.

The Phils played a great game through sloppy officiating for about seven innings. Finally, the home plate umpire ran out of gas. He issued a four strike walk to start a rally for the Rockies. (The Phillies pitcher threw four pitches that had been strikes all game and were strikes according the the TBS computer model. All four were called balls so the Rockies got a man on.) They scored three runs to go ahead by two. Despite the fact that I believed the Phillies could come back to win (the best part of the order was scheduled to lead off the next inning), I couldn't enjoy the game anymore. Bad umpiring ruins games and it pushed my stress buttons so high that I couldn't stop flinching.

Sure enough, the Phillies sent up their best hitters and we scored three runs of our own. That put the game exactly where it had been before without the umpirial interference. Unfortunately, I was fried again. Pain doc day does not lead me to be tolerant of...well...anything! I love games with good pitching and great defense. Our pitcher was made to look bad and lost the win that was rightfully his.

Despite all the bad talk about the Phillies' bullpen, they did the job in Game 4. Brad Lidge even struck out the final hitter to trigger the celebration but I was numb. I didn't feel any joy until the next day when I watched some team coverage on Comcast Sportsnet.

They didn't mention the bad umpiring that hurt us like they never do. I believe that Major League Baseball has some sort of rule forbidding any serious questions regarding umpires. This is a little confused by the fact that CSN did mention the bad calls that presumably helped us earlier in the games. Maybe it is something else in addition to the possible rules against questioning the power of the umpires.

Once I had spent some time watching the coverage of the good things that happened, I felt much better about it all. In spite of the bad calls, we won the game. No, forget that! We won the game and the series to earn the chance to defend our National League Pennant! We have a chance to become the first National League team since the Reds of the 70s to repeat as World Champions!

In order to do that, we need to win eight more games. It starrts tonight against the Dodgers!