My Looking Glass

Dodgers Not So Blue

Yesterday, Monday, I talked to my brother who was on his way to the Dodger game to entertain clients. I don't really follow baseball like I once did, so I asked a few questions and discovered that the game in question was Dodgers vs Padres who were neck-and-neck for their division title. So when I woke up today, I checked the sports page (okay, online) and learned the scoop about what might be the greatest baseball game in history. In case you haven't heard, the Dodgers tied the Padres in the bottom of the 9th with four consecutive home runs, and then went on to win in the bottom of the 10th.

I quickly emailed my brother to ask if he had stayed for the whole game and what his thoughts were. Following is his summary, and to have a little perspective, you need to know that our father was in sports management and as a family, we have all been to Super Bowls, World Series games, NBA finals, Rose Bowls, etc. My brother works for one of the two sports cable channels and has literally attended hundreds if not thousands of games in his lifetime. This is what he had to say:

"Including World Series games, it was probably the most exciting game I’ve ever been to. It was total bedlam after the game, people were going absolutely crazy. When I was walking to my car, this huge guy was coming towards me for what I thought was going to be another high five with a random person, but instead he bear hugged me and actually lifted me off of the ground. It was crazy!"

Okay, I'm dying laughing here. This is Los Angeles. People are nothing if not cool. Dudes here do NOT give bear hugs to strangers in parking lots of baseball stadiums. OMG, I totally wish I had been there. It sounds really fun.

Last night's Dodger game reminds me of this one. I used to be a huge college football junkie. I'll never forget a game during Thanksgiving weekend in 1984. I was in college myself at the time, and this was probably my lifetime peak of loving football. Boston College was playing University of Miami on national television. The game was really, really close, and Bernie Kosar of the Hurricanes drove his team down the field to score with like less than a minute left in the game. Miami erupted (home team), thinking they won the game. But Flutie threw what was probably the greatest Hail Mary pass in history which was caught by his roommate, Gerald Phelan, in the end zone as the clock ran out. It was totally fricken amazing.

That settles it. My memory for inconsequential trivia is pretty spectacular. I wrote the above paragraph from memory, and found that the above referenced game actually has its own Wikipedia page, so you can check out my accuracy here. Not bad. I'd forgotten the yardage of the pass and the score of the game and failed to mention that Flutie won the Heisman. What I do remember was when Miami was in the middle of their rally, you could hear Kosar on television yelling "fuck yeah, let's play football!"

I'm going to see if I can find pix of Flutie and Kosar. Goddamn, that was a great football game. (I found a picture, too.)

posted by LA @ 6:17 PM