Take me out to the ballgame

Spring has sprung, the grass has ris

Arizona and Florida are where the baseball is

Real baseball, with commentary, real big-league players and a TV feed.  Look!

Yes, it is only spring training baseball, but with the amount of snow dumped in Winnipeg over the past few days, it will do. 

Baseball is great for stories as there is conflict everywhere.  Each at-bat is it's own little chapter in the game, each run and out are important plot-points.  So here's what happened following the above screenshot.

The 8th inning ends on the next pitch, a flyout to centre.  The Yankees come up in the top of the 9th and add a couple runs.  The score is Yankees 8 and Phillies 2 heading into the bottom on the 9th.  Even the poor Mudville team had a better chance when old Casey was at the bat.

Michae O'Conner is out to pitch for the Yankees and Juan Pierre leads off the bottom of the 9th for the Phillies.  Pierre gets a single by swinging at a pitch so low that he probably gets his knuckles dirty as he brings the bat around. 

The next batter pops out to centre and then Kevin Frandsen takes a pitch from O'Conner deep to left for a two-run homer.  Can the Phillies come back?  Or will the home run kill the rally, as it is so often said to do?

It certainly seems to start that way.  O'Conner gets a little help from his defence when short stop fill-in Ramiro Pena makes a leaping grab to prevent a lob from Freddy Galvis for dropping into shallow left for a hit.  Not a highlight reel grab, but for the first outing of spring, it is pretty impressive.

But the pendulum starts to swing the other way with the next at bat.  Someone feeling chariatble to the young Yankees hurler says that Scott Podsednik shows a bit of veteran poise in turning 0-2 count into a walk.  Someone less inclined to sugar coat things would say O'Connor is suffering control problems as the four consecutive balls that out Podsednik on base were all well outside the zone. 

But spring training is the best time to see how a player will respond to adversity so O'Connor is left on the mound.  Tyler Gilles is up right after Posednik and the first pitch his way is errant and comes dangerously close to his head.  O'Connor settles down and again finds the strike zone, but gives up a RBI double to deep left field. 

Even though the Yanks' lead is cut in half and the tying run is on-deck, nobody motions to the bullpen for another pitcher.  It is the first spring training game that is on TV and in just this half an inning there's already this awesome story line.

Then it all falls apart when the pateience the Yankees have with O'Conner is rewarded when Cesar Hernandez strikes out on three straight to end the Phillies' chance at coming back.  O'Conner has a 27.000 ERA but he is out of the inning and his team wins.

OK, it's a bit "what could have been" from where the Phillies stand and it certainly doesn't come close to the awesomeness that was game 6 of last year's World Series, but it will more than do for the first  spring training game.