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My younger brother is not as young as he used to be. In fact, he has another birthday coming up, so he soon will be even older. Which seems a likely reason why he was sleeping when the St. Louis Cardinals rallied for four runs in the ninth inning to win Friday’s National League Division Series decisive Game 5 against the Washington Nationals 9-7.
Dani is a point guard who also has football skills.
After all, my brother is an early riser, so it made sense that he was in a deep sleep when the game ended at 11:28 p.m. (St. Louis time).
It made even more sense that Rob would watch the replay on Saturday (Oct. 13) on MLB Network. After all, the replay was 2-4 p.m. Central time. So it made sense that a game that took 3:49 would be distilled into two hours and he could save some time by watching the replay.
What didn’t make sense was MLB Network cutting away from the game with about 30 minutes or so left — to show some live action. Rob saw the situation as an exercise in futility with the picture showing the New York Yankees doing jumping jacks rather than the Cardinals’ late heroics. He marveled at how New York-centric the network was.
Your humble correspondent also watched the Cardinals-Nationals replay — although only for an inning or so. A previous commitment called. In that the commitment was in the form of chronicling tryouts for the Chicago Desire of the Bikini Basketball Association, it wasn’t a difficult decision. And, yes, I would have been equally baffled by showing calesthenics rather than a comeback of historic proportions. At the very least it was a stretch — of credibility as well as ballplayers.
As pained as my brother felt not seeing St. Louis rally, Yankees fans were in even greater agony later — much later — Saturday when shortstop Derek Jeter stumbled and fell to the dirt after fielding a 12th-inning ground ball as the Detroit Tigers prevailed 6-4. New York had rallied for its own four-run ninth inning to extend the game.
Jeter is out for the rest of the postseason with a fractured left ankle. Whether the injury will mark the end of his illustrious career is even more painful to ponder for Yankees fans.
And something says there will be no cutaways from replays of the Yankees to show the Cardinals or San Francisco Giants exercising before their game Sunday.
Three of the players who were at Chicago Desire tryouts (they also are in one of the videos below).
As previously mentioned, your humble correspondent did attend the Chicago Desire tryouts. As fate — and Chicago traffic –would have it, all the on-court action was over by the time I arrived at Sheridan Park. On the bright side, the players were still there, as general manager Donovan Price was addressing them as they sat on the wooden grandstand seats.
And there even was time to chat with some of them after Price had finished talking to the team. Final cuts were still to be made for the team that is scheduled to begin play in the summer of 2013 after the NBA season has ended.
Among the players who entered tryouts with a place on the team — although not guaranteed — was Dani, who should have no trouble playing in a bikini. After all, she once was a member of the Chicago Bliss of the Lingerie Football League.
Speaking of the Bliss, former coach Mark May was on hand for the tryouts, too. Hey, we all have to be someplace, and for a few hours Saturday afternoon, Sheridan Park was as good as any.
Some video from the tryouts:
Sunday stats day:
* As bad as Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has been in the postseason (and 2-for19 certainly qualifies as bad), he does have company. Robinson Cano is 2-for-28, while Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher each are 3-for-23. It would be hard to be wose than Rodriguez in driving in runs this postseason. He has none.
* In 173 postseason at-bats, Swisher is a .138 hitter. For those who think size — or in this instance, sample size — matters.
* Cano is hitless in his last 22 at-bats. If all this futility keeps up, manager Joe Girardi will be pinch-hitting for everyone any minute now.
* Yankees slugger Raul Ibanez, who hit a game-tying, two-run home run in the ninth, became the first player to hit three homers in the ninth inning or later in one postseason. He also became the first player with two game-tying, ninth-inning homers in a postseason Johnny Bench had two such hits — oe in 1972 and the other in 19576.
* Jeter recorded his 200th postseason hit.
A brief musical interlude — or something like that:
And a non-musical interlude (in keeping with something of a bikini theme):
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