Game Three - A new day dawns

and all of the baseball fans who wandered here to watch their beloved NY AL team loose two to the upstart 2007 Cleveland AL team are all rested up and ready to view a spirited third game played this evening in the old Bronx ballyard up near Arthur Avenue.

Good luck fans!

A crafty future hall of famer Roger Clemens takes the mound for the hometeam against a working man middle rotation starter for the visitors in Jake Westbrook. Irrespective of Clemens or Westbrooks outings this evening, NY AL slumbering bats will awaken, and the hometeam will win this evening.

Not so much the fabled "pride" often associated with the NY AL team, as much as saving face considering their current 2007 postseason team batting average of .121. will result in a fourth game in the 2007ALDS , and more likely than not a fifth game.

Friday evening's victory for the Cleveland AL team simply stated a masterpiece complete game for starter Fausto Carmona trumping the superb scoreless seven innings tossed by Andy Pettitte. Then came the Canadian soldiers to the rescue, extra innings, and finally sweet victory.

It was a pleasure to attend this pivotal game in person, due to the good graces of a fellow terminal baseball habitue, who laughed up his sleeve and broke into a rousing version of " Oh Canada,", while the person of NY reliever Joba Chamberlain was being sprayed with bug juice, and then proceeded to toss two wild pitches and pave the way for a hometown victory.

You see folks, those 'gnats' that offended Chamberlain so much are actually a late hatch of the Lake Erie "mayfly", also known as ' Canadian Soldiers'. Their collective appearance being enough to unhinge Chamberlain, despite the fact that they do not bite or sting in any way, they are totally impervious to bug sprays, and their life span is twenty four hours in length at best. Their timing sublime, their collective outcome ' priceless'.

As lucky as I was to have attended the game in the grandstands with my pals Rudy Shakes-Moore, James McKnight and his polite and savvy thirteen year old son Will, a mutual friend who is so known as Cheeze was doomed to a hellish baseball evening while in the left field bleachers.

The cheeze reported great drunken mayhem occurring between the hometown Cleveland fans and those NY visitors who insisted in wearing their hometown team garb. The cheeze is a polite fan, whose baseball knowledge is copious and not prone to braggadocio or venomous comments.

Our poor Cheezely was seated near a beer and nachos battle between rival fan factions resulting in a total drenching of beer and nachos on his person, and many others around him.

The cheeze got cheesed up!

Not a nice way to view a ballgame. The fan culprit most at fault was a Clevelander who insisted in pelting the ears of all around him, including a few children, with invective concerning the perceived sexual orientation of the NY AL Fan. No place for this inside a major sporting event where customers have laid down hard currency to view a game.

These 'lager louts' are best tossed from the venue as early as possible , and in no way should be allowed to create havoc among the relative civility of a baseball
game.

Shame on the Cleveland AL team security for not nipping this in the bud. A heartfelt apology goes out to any NY visitor to the "Jake", aptly named, having to have suffered this hooliganism of these hometown sots. An old adage concerning social behavior in a new situation is ' act like you have been there'.

Never would this be as true as to be embraced by current Cleveland baseball fans with social diseases, behavioral problems, and low self esteems. Grow up, and turn off your lousy diseased cheerleader, Mike ' twib' Trivisano, and his half baked "mister know it all" sports mentality!

While hoofing up East Ninth Street one mile north to our parking spot near the old Cleveland stadium, Rudy and I saw a fine elderly couple, in their eighties, holding hands, with matching HAFNER 48 team jerseys on their backs. A nice omen. Hafner having supplied the game winning RBI, and 48 being the last year the Cleveland AL team won the World Series. At least we can dream, and the fat lady has yet to sing, merely the buzz of our Canadian soldier pals.

Early results in the new nickname contest for the Cleveland AL baseball team. "Gnats", who woulda thunk it?

And the perennial "Tribe", our collective multi-cultural Midwest heritage expressed at its best, and my personal fave so far. Keep your suggestions coming, and do not forget we are renaming the NY AL team nickname as well.

Time to sell a book department. We have had two requests this past week towards the purchase of a truly rare baseball volume and are proud to offer a copy for sale of Gerald Beaumont's 1921 HEARTS AND THE DIAMOND.

The words of the author in his one paragraph introduction says it all:

"To the men of the diamond, worshipped yesterday, abused today, forgotten tomorrow, - and to their sweethearts, wives, and children, - who will understand."

A tip of the old Tacoma Tigers baseball cap to all of our own long suffering spouses, my wife Deb especially, John and Kim and all the good folk downstate, Every Family directly involved with any form of war on the face of this planet. We all deserve a better collective fate. Pray for peace.

Final note. Yes, LeBron James has the right to wear his NY AL baseball cap anytime, any place he chooses to. After all he is "King James", and we all know that what is “good for the King is good for his subjects".

Consider the previous paragraphs and the "Much to do about nothing" that the team garb clothing wars account for. Not much except the materials they are printed upon, and you will never catch this party advertising any sports team in cloth in public, save the Tacoma Tigers, while in Cleveland or on the road.

Go Tribe!

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