July 2, 2007

THERE'S NEVER BEEN AN EXCITING ONE SCORE GAME IN ANY OTHER SPORT:

Sunday night game was a masterpiece (John Lowe, 7/01/07, Detroit Free Press)

It's just about midnight. The park is empty. The full moon is up beyond left-center. The game has been over for more than 1 1/2 hours. And I don't want to leave.

It was that good of a show tonight.

After watching this game, I feel like I have just heard the final movement of Beethoven's Seventh -- amazing beauty at a breakneck speed. Jeremy Bonderman and the Twins' Scott Baker needed a little over two hours to put this together.

I give Baker my Harvey Haddix award for the season so far: best pitching job in a loss. No one (I hope) will top Haddix in this department, which he practically invented in 1959 when he threw the 12 perfect innings in Milwaukee and lost in the 13th.

You can have all the slugfests. I'll take these games, the kind in which -- to quote former Boston Globe ace sportswriter Ray Fitzgerald -- "every baserunner is a lighted stick of dynamite."

This 1-0 game also verified what Roger Angell once wrote in The New Yorker: the most tense games of all are the 0-0 games that stretch into the late innings.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 2, 2007 11:37 PM
Comments

Happens fairly frequently in soccer, where it's also usually more exciting, more creative, less tediously drawn out, and less commercialized.

Posted by: Jorge Curioso at July 3, 2007 8:48 AM

What Jorge said.

As an example, though not strictly 1-nil, the 1-1 draw between the US and SKorean under-20 teams at the World Cup going on in Canada right now -- being shown on ESPNU and on one or other of the Spanish-language networks for those interested in the football superstars of tomorrow -- was absolutely enthralling.

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at July 3, 2007 9:00 AM

Soccer is Latin for tedious.

Posted by: Bob at July 3, 2007 10:13 AM

The highlight of the game being when the fans burned down a couple of Paki packies afterwards....

Posted by: oj at July 3, 2007 12:37 PM

Wish I had seen this. I love pitching duels: The games move along and the talent on display takes your breath away. Watching the whiff-whiff-whiff as they strike out batter after batter with some unbelievable pitch is way cool.

A person should watch such a game with someone else in the room, preferably one's dad, so that expressions and looks of amazement can be frequently exchanged. I guarantee you soccer has nothing like this.

Posted by: Matt Murphy at July 3, 2007 3:25 PM

Jim in Chicago:

Do they do re-runs? I can't wait to not tune in.

Posted by: Matt Murphy at July 3, 2007 3:27 PM

Well Matt, your loss then.

Several excellent match today btw as the US beat the Poles 6-1 and Brazil held off SKorea 3-2 in the same group.

But no, load that highlight dvd of the Huskers 2006 gridiron season and thrill to a sport where you get, what, 5 seconds of action for every real time minute that passes?

Posted by: Jim in Chicago at July 3, 2007 11:54 PM

Jim in Chicago:

As opposed to soccer which has, effectively, zero?

Posted by: Matt Murphy at July 4, 2007 5:24 PM
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