This post comes slightly delayed as it took me a few days of rejoicing being back from the 8 game road trip that saw lots of rain, a double header and to cap it all off, a 23 inning game that would seemingly never end.
I have had quite a few people ask about that 23 inning game so I thought I would cover it and shed more light on what that actually feels like.
To start, the game felt like any other game. We had plenty of scoring opportunities and great pitching performances. The difference was, the numerous scoring opportunities that we generally cash in on as a team were not being taken advantage of. Thus we were locked into a 1-1 tie for 22 innings. Tip your cap to the opposing pitching staff, and ours as well, on that one because they finagled themselves out of quite a few sticky situations.
After around the 13th or 14th inning everyone started to get that unsettling feeling that this game might last for a long time. It just seemed that both sides were at an NFL lockout style stalemate and neither side was budging. Games like this give pretty serious weight to the fact that hitting, or lack there of, is contagious. With that being said, the guys in the dugout who were not playing (I was included in this because I was lifted for a pinch hitter in the 8th or 9th because a lefty reliever was on the mound and there was a runner on second) tried just about everything to switch it up and get the bats going. I'm sure you have seen at some point, baseball players donning "rally caps" in an attempt to coax an offensive rally from the dugout, well we started with that and eventually ended up inventing new rally starters throughout the remaining 14 extra innings, obviously, none of them worked. In a game that goes that long with no scoring, the guys who have to sit through it become quite delirious which is why all the ridiculous rally hat stuff starts in the first place. Here is a laundry list of our antics that I can remember: It started with traditional rally hats, we went with the shark fin hat, folding out hats back to front like they are when they are on a retail shelf and then placing them on our heads, bill sticking straight into the air, next inning we added Oakley sunglasses despite the fact that the sun had gone down hours ago, next inning we turned the Oakleys upside down, then at some point we tried backwards helmets in the dugout, then we tried huddling in a group of chairs and not talking to the guys that were in the game when they were in the dugout, then we tried freezing in the dugout like statues (pretty much like a flash mob), we made a tunnel for them to run through when they came off the field into the dugout and lastly and probably most original, we put our folding chairs together in rows of two to form a fake bus to"drive in runs". This all sounds so stupid now that I am going back over it haha, but at the time, when you have been sitting there for well over 3 hours, it seemed like the logical thing to do to keep things light and shake things up in the dugout and get our offense out of the mini funk it was in.
On top of all maniacal rally starting antics, the game also saw two of our position players throw scoreless outings from the mound. Well, Joe Savery is a position player now, but if you ask the opposing team, they would tell you otherwise. Admittedly, this is Joe's first year playing the field again after being a pitcher in our system for a few years. It was pretty funny, when he was walking out to the mound the other team was probably licking their chops when they realized our DH was about to pitch, but then he faced the first batter and was painting a 90-92 MPH fastball on the corners from the left side. Their heads must have been spinning. Joe threw 2 scoreless innings and gave way to our first baseman, Darin Ruf. Darin proceeded to come in and throw another 2 scoreless innings. There were a couple balls hit pretty hard off Darin to the outfield, but that field is a graveyard and the balls were easily run down by our outfielders.
Our only pitcher that was left in our bullpen who could throw was our closer Justin Friend. Of course, with how bizarre this game had been so far, and with the umpires and managers agreeing, that after the 23rd inning, we would suspend the game and finish it the next day, our closer who is leading all the minor leagues in saves and hasn't been touched all year got the loss. To Friend's defense, he didn't really get hit hard at all. He gave up a soft line drive that got through the middle infielders, they sacrifice bunted the runner to second. I think he struck the next guy out, and then the dagger that lost the game was a perfectly placed jam shot blooper that dropped in behind our first baseman and in front of our right fielder and our right fielder, Leandro Castro, still almost threw out the runner at home plate. Also, not to mention, Friend was probably running on fumes because he had already been summoned to warm up a few times in the bullpen when we had runners in scoring position earlier in the game and it looked like we were going to take the lead.
It was a marathon game and a dagger to the heart when it finally ended and we came up on the short end of a 2-1 game. The disappointing feelings didn't last too long though because in baseball, and especially when you play a 23 inning game that lasts into the early morning, you have to get ready for tomorrow, or later that day in this case. Plus, everyone was exhausted and didn't have enough energy to think about anything but sleep once we got on the bus.
I have had quite a few people ask about that 23 inning game so I thought I would cover it and shed more light on what that actually feels like.
To start, the game felt like any other game. We had plenty of scoring opportunities and great pitching performances. The difference was, the numerous scoring opportunities that we generally cash in on as a team were not being taken advantage of. Thus we were locked into a 1-1 tie for 22 innings. Tip your cap to the opposing pitching staff, and ours as well, on that one because they finagled themselves out of quite a few sticky situations.
After around the 13th or 14th inning everyone started to get that unsettling feeling that this game might last for a long time. It just seemed that both sides were at an NFL lockout style stalemate and neither side was budging. Games like this give pretty serious weight to the fact that hitting, or lack there of, is contagious. With that being said, the guys in the dugout who were not playing (I was included in this because I was lifted for a pinch hitter in the 8th or 9th because a lefty reliever was on the mound and there was a runner on second) tried just about everything to switch it up and get the bats going. I'm sure you have seen at some point, baseball players donning "rally caps" in an attempt to coax an offensive rally from the dugout, well we started with that and eventually ended up inventing new rally starters throughout the remaining 14 extra innings, obviously, none of them worked. In a game that goes that long with no scoring, the guys who have to sit through it become quite delirious which is why all the ridiculous rally hat stuff starts in the first place. Here is a laundry list of our antics that I can remember: It started with traditional rally hats, we went with the shark fin hat, folding out hats back to front like they are when they are on a retail shelf and then placing them on our heads, bill sticking straight into the air, next inning we added Oakley sunglasses despite the fact that the sun had gone down hours ago, next inning we turned the Oakleys upside down, then at some point we tried backwards helmets in the dugout, then we tried huddling in a group of chairs and not talking to the guys that were in the game when they were in the dugout, then we tried freezing in the dugout like statues (pretty much like a flash mob), we made a tunnel for them to run through when they came off the field into the dugout and lastly and probably most original, we put our folding chairs together in rows of two to form a fake bus to"drive in runs". This all sounds so stupid now that I am going back over it haha, but at the time, when you have been sitting there for well over 3 hours, it seemed like the logical thing to do to keep things light and shake things up in the dugout and get our offense out of the mini funk it was in.
On top of all maniacal rally starting antics, the game also saw two of our position players throw scoreless outings from the mound. Well, Joe Savery is a position player now, but if you ask the opposing team, they would tell you otherwise. Admittedly, this is Joe's first year playing the field again after being a pitcher in our system for a few years. It was pretty funny, when he was walking out to the mound the other team was probably licking their chops when they realized our DH was about to pitch, but then he faced the first batter and was painting a 90-92 MPH fastball on the corners from the left side. Their heads must have been spinning. Joe threw 2 scoreless innings and gave way to our first baseman, Darin Ruf. Darin proceeded to come in and throw another 2 scoreless innings. There were a couple balls hit pretty hard off Darin to the outfield, but that field is a graveyard and the balls were easily run down by our outfielders.
Our only pitcher that was left in our bullpen who could throw was our closer Justin Friend. Of course, with how bizarre this game had been so far, and with the umpires and managers agreeing, that after the 23rd inning, we would suspend the game and finish it the next day, our closer who is leading all the minor leagues in saves and hasn't been touched all year got the loss. To Friend's defense, he didn't really get hit hard at all. He gave up a soft line drive that got through the middle infielders, they sacrifice bunted the runner to second. I think he struck the next guy out, and then the dagger that lost the game was a perfectly placed jam shot blooper that dropped in behind our first baseman and in front of our right fielder and our right fielder, Leandro Castro, still almost threw out the runner at home plate. Also, not to mention, Friend was probably running on fumes because he had already been summoned to warm up a few times in the bullpen when we had runners in scoring position earlier in the game and it looked like we were going to take the lead.
It was a marathon game and a dagger to the heart when it finally ended and we came up on the short end of a 2-1 game. The disappointing feelings didn't last too long though because in baseball, and especially when you play a 23 inning game that lasts into the early morning, you have to get ready for tomorrow, or later that day in this case. Plus, everyone was exhausted and didn't have enough energy to think about anything but sleep once we got on the bus.
i don't understand how the folding chair bus didn't work.
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