"I Will Never Forgive Myself"

Those were my final words to Kim last night before she went to bed and I decided to stay awake to watch the final at bat on MLB.TV with the Dodgers trailing 9-5. To be truthful, I had actually decided to go to sleep after the Padres scored three in the top of the ninth to go ahead by four. Nomar had just stepped on first to bring an end to the hapless inning when Kim yelled, "Are you coming to bed yet?" I gave a begrudging, "yes." I walked in and started to brush my teeth and apologigize for my Dodger addiction that would only last another two weeks or so. I then said I had to get a drink of water, which was just a way of checking the score one last time. When I walked past my computer, Kent was circling the bases with the first homerun. I went in to Kim and told her I would need five more minutes because if something happened, I would never forgive myself. Little did I know what I would be in store for.

As soon as I went back out, Drew was circling the bases and Hell's Bells (Hoffman) was entering to be the finishing touches on the bums. Heck, he hadn't even blown a save vs. the Dodgers in five years and was 55 for 57 over his career against the Dodgers. First pitch to Martin was cracked over the fence to bring the Dodgers to within one.

Now, with MLB.TV the picture quality isn't the greatest; it's a little grainy and the ball is sometimes hard to track when it heads into the outfield and near the fences. As Marlon Anderson hit the next pitch high and deep, my nose was inches from the screen to try and watch the flight of the ball. When Cameron climbed the fence and came back down, I thought he had a ball in his glove. Then a moment later, Vinny said the game was tied and he couldn't believe what was happening.

My excitement was almost an exact opposite the next inning when Aaron Sele came into the game. Those of you that read this blog know my feelings for Sele. He got the first batter to line out to Lofton followed by a double, walk, and single to lose the lead again. I found myself pleading to higher power to help, but knew the higher ups had bigger things to worry about. I started to think about the bottom of the tenth and wonder if Hoffman would be back out. I had a glimmer of hope in the tenth when Rudy Seanez, former Dodger, was spotted warming up. With Lofton up I knew he was the key to the inning. He had to get on and steal second and pray for a single. After the walk, Nomar came up and I started to put myself in Little's shoes. What do you do here? Nomar hasn't looked good tonight swinging the bat. So, do you steal, hit & run, or let him swing away? Once the count hit 2 & 1, I started to think about whether or not you have Kent, who was up next, sacrifice if Nomar walks to try and put runners at 2nd & 3rd. They would then walk Drew, which would bring up Martin with the chance to be the hero or the goat. All of these things went through my head until Nomar uncorked on a 3-1 fastball down broadway. I did my little jig a pumped my fist a little bit looking around for somebody to tell. I almost wanted to wake up my wife and tell her, but she probably wouldn't have felt the impact of the moment, especially since she was snoring and in dreamland. Needless to say, I wasn't able to fall asleep for a couple hours because I was so wired, but I would've never forvgiven myself if I would have gone to sleep.

Here is a great link to some photos of the night by the LA Times.