The San Francisco Giants were sure glad to leave the Mountain Time Zone.

After losing 3 of 4 to the Rockies the previous weekend, baseball’s G-Men swept Colorado this weekend to pull even in the NL Wild Card race - leaving each team six games back of the Dodgers in the NL West division “race.” (Sidenote: has there been a more mercurial team over the past few seasons than the Rockies? Did I just realize this is an inherit personality trait adapted from their team name?)

And they’re getting timely pitching from…Barry Zito? And grand-slam hitting from…Edgar Renteria? And in other good timewarp news: Randy Johnson believes he can ride this vortex and pitch again this season? My head hurts.

Personally speaking, my eyes were trained on the midwest this weekend, as I paid my first visit(s) to that whole Chicago shrine of baseball, Wrigley Field. Though I expected to be hurled racist comments at while being doused with beer during my attempt to interfere with a foul ball still lingering in the field of play, I had an insanely pleasant stay with Cubs fans in their North Side habitat. I think the good spirits might have had something to do with playing the Mets: there was a monumental amount of pity to spread around.

Though yesterday, they missed a crucial opportunity to complete the sweep and close to within three-games in the loss column in the NL Wild Card race by falling to the last healthy player available on the Mets roster, Nelson Figueroa, who struck out ten in a 4-1 Metropolitan victory. (Zambrano didn’t get through the 4th-inning, and Cubs hitters left 7 runners on base. That might have played some part in the defeat. Not entirely sure.) But the shirt I decided to wear to the ballpark went over well. So there’s that.

And Cubs fans, Mets fans, Monday mopers, sports worshippers of all shapes and forms that need to put the concept of a “loss” into perspective: read Canadian sportswriter/author/regular ESPN and NYTimes journalisitic contributer Jonah Keri’s incredibly life-affirming, cheating death story over at his blog. It’ll be the best read you’ll have for days, and will probably stay with you for a while after.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 7:04 am by Matty Baseball and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.