Long Lasting

Last night I was listening to the Dodgers-Diamondbacks game on the radio- a game which a few years ago I would have called a Diamondbacks-Dodgers tilt. I was listening on the radio because whereas there were before only a few LA games on free TV, there now are none. For most Angelenos, those games are inaccessible no matter what you're ready to spend- the consequence of setting up a new cable channel. You can see it upsets me.

That stuff isn't the point I'm trying to make. A while ago, I was getting tickets to almost every game from a friend. Every other week, I was at Dodger Stadium either six or seven nights in a row. Though it was enjoyable, it became routine, and I started to want for nothing more than speedy, punctually-concluded games. The games mostly would start at 7:10, and I was ready for them to be over just as soon as the clock struck 10. Even earlier was preferable, but almost impossible.

Any game which threatened to drag on beyond that earned my ire in spades. It didn't matter if it was a high offense game that only went 9 or 8 1/2 innings, or a tight, nail-biting pitcher's duel that ran swiftly but also ran deep into extra innings, it was no good to me. I would start anxiously checking my clock against the bus schedule and wondering how severe a betrayal it would be to abandon the game before its conclusion. It had to be a great game to sit there in the cold as the arrival of the last bus drew near.

Last night's game on the radio felt like that. It went twelve innings, and though I was rather committed to it, I was planning on watching a movie after it was over, and I felt a low level of what I described happening at the stadium. It's funny that I should feel any reluctance to turn off the radio and do what I really wanted to so out of some obligation to the team or some urge to keep up with friends who follow baseball. I can do what I want, right? Still, that's how it was.