On giving up
A bunt on 2-2 and suddently it's over
It was 26 degrees in Southern Ontario the night the Astros beat the Phillies to claim their second World Series, a stark contrast from the frigid cold that fills the air tonight.
Typically as we say goodbye to baseball, cooler temperatures begin to settle in. This year they arrived late - not fashionably - and have made for a gray mix of misery and sadness over everyone I know.
Hang in there, friends. Baseball will be back before we know it.
As I watched the life leave Kyle Schwarber in the eighth inning of game six, bunting aimlessly and - if I may so - cluelessly, on a 2-2 count, I saw the baseball equivalent of a white flag being waved. Maybe there’s a hair-brained strategy to all of it, but I couldn’t find it. If you’ll be so graceful as to think back to that time, you’ll remember the face of a man who looked defeated. As I looked at Schwarber and his teammates, I saw a team that knew what was coming and was tired of pushing that proverbial rock up the hill.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of giving up on things lately; how we quit the things we love when they get hard, or when motivation leaves us. What does it mean to quit a job, or a career, or a marriage? I’ve done all three in my life for better or worse, making me a self-proclaimed expert on the subject.
I think what I’ve learned is that life isn’t about not quitting, it’s often about knowing when to walk away from something, or having the self awareness to know when things are beyond repair. We don’t always get that judgment right, but it’s something we strive for.
Life isn’t about not giving up, it’s about giving up on the right things at the right time
Schwarber knew how that game was going to end. I think most avid viewers of the World Series could tell by that point how it was going to end.
Of course in sports, unlike life, there's always another season. If you don’t like how this season finished, there’s always next year. It’s part of what makes sports so intoxicating, keeps us coming back.
We can have hope, even when things feel hopeless.
It’s only fitting that the most consistent team in baseball wins the World Series. The Houston Astros have overcome a number of hurdles, many of which were self-inflicted, to find themselves back on-top of the baseball world.
The Astros rode Framber Valdez’ six-inning gem through the final game, exploding for four runs of their own in the sixth to claim their second World Series and first, presumably, without substantial allegations of cheating.
For the Astros, this will feel like redemption. The team that has been much maligned for riding their garbage-can banging scheme to the 2017 World Series has been booed in every park north of Houston they’ve played in since, with many considering that championship to be illegitimate.
But there’s no doubt about this one. Considerable turnover has taken place and through genius signings and a constant pipeline of young talent emerging at the Major League level, the Astros have proven to be the most dominant American League team we’ve seen since the New York Yankees’ run of the late 1990’s.
To the surprise of very few, the Astros were the better team throughout the series, save the 87-win Phillies thrashing of Lance McCullers in Game 4.
The garbage can fiasco is a part of the Astros legacy, but thanks to this run through the postseason and a second championship, it is not their entire legacy. This is a brilliant team of players guided by one of the most genuine and thoughtful managers the game has seen in Dusty Baker.
Whatever we think of the Astros, we can probably be happy for Dusty.
Now our teams begin the process of getting ready for next season - building rosters, adding coaches and putting together gameplans. It’s the most dull time of year but as the calendar turns over to December, it means we are only a few short months away from spring training.
I’ll be here more frequently moving forward. I promise.
Talk to you soon.