Three walk-offs in a day
As the Detroit Tigers have oscillated between mediocrity and pitiful ineptitude for the past ten years, I've lost much of the interest I used to have in baseball. But the most exciting play in baseball is a walkoff hit, where the home team in the bottom of the ninth or in extra innings gets a hit to drive in the winning run, leaving the visitors to walk off the field with their heads hung low. So yesterday was a banner day for baseball, since there were three walk-off wins in the two league championship series. First, in game four of the Yankees-Red Sox series, Boston's David Ortiz hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the twelfth at sometime around 2 am Monday morning. (I gave up and went to sleep after the tenth inning.) Then, about 21 hours later, Ortiz got a single in the bottom of the 14th inning to drive in Johnny Damon from second base. And about half an hour later Jeff Kent of the Houston Astros hit a three-run homerun in the bottom of the ninth into the architectural silliness that is the stadium formerly known as Enron Field.
I bring this up, in part, because it's not out of the question that baseball may end up affecting the election. Aside from the excitement and inevitable doom of another run by the cursed Red Sox and the inevitable superstitious linking of their fate with Kerry's (and there will be a much stronger link if the World Series is Houston-Boston), the fact is that the World Series will be played during the week before the election. If it goes to seven games, the seventh and deciding game will be scheduled in Boston or more likely New York on Halloween night, Sunday, October 31, two days before the election. Since weather in the northeast in late October isn't always ideal for baseball, there is a distinct possibility that the game could be rained or snowed out (like Friday's NY-Boston game was). If that happened, game seven would be played Monday night, the night before the election. If that game goes until two or three in the morning, it might well have a significant impact on voter turnout.
I bring this up, in part, because it's not out of the question that baseball may end up affecting the election. Aside from the excitement and inevitable doom of another run by the cursed Red Sox and the inevitable superstitious linking of their fate with Kerry's (and there will be a much stronger link if the World Series is Houston-Boston), the fact is that the World Series will be played during the week before the election. If it goes to seven games, the seventh and deciding game will be scheduled in Boston or more likely New York on Halloween night, Sunday, October 31, two days before the election. Since weather in the northeast in late October isn't always ideal for baseball, there is a distinct possibility that the game could be rained or snowed out (like Friday's NY-Boston game was). If that happened, game seven would be played Monday night, the night before the election. If that game goes until two or three in the morning, it might well have a significant impact on voter turnout.
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