I blame Boswell for getting me fired up to watch the Nationals play the Mets yesterday. In Monday’s paper he wrote:
 |
| https://www.washingtonpost.com |
(For those of you non-baseball fans Thomas Boswell is just maybe the best baseball writer ever.)
At Buzzy’s Country Store I watched the game and sure enough it played out kind of like Bos suggested with a couple exciting high points but a lot of lows as the Nationals lost 8-5. Boswell can take one game and spin it as a metaphor for life itself. (The title of his first book How Life Imitates the World Series says it all.) Yesterday’s game would be a good one for him to dissect as the Nationals fell behind early, hung in there, took the lead with a grand slam home run but then watched their middle relievers give it all back to the Mets. While it is not quite the end of season for the Nationals, it is still a big nail in the old coffin’s corner.
However, that’s the other great thing about a baseball pennant race, there is always hope until your team is mathematically eliminated. The old baseball rule of thumb goes – as long as the number of games behind doesn’t exceed the number of weeks left in the season your tem has a shot. Today the Nationals find themselves 5 games back with 4 weeks left. However, if they could win the next two games from the Mets then…… Darn you Boswell, you got me.
Remember the Blues Magoos talking baseball? One day you’re up and the next day you’re down.