World Series Diary, Game One

At 8:38pm on October 22nd, 2008, I watched Scott Kazmir throw out the first pitch at the World Series. In St. Petersburg. For the Tampa Bay Rays.

Chew on that for a moment.

Unlike the previous series against Chicago and Boston, the pregame show on Fox Sports Florida was mostly benign. We took the extra step of hiring a security guard to hang with me by the Rotunda entrance at Tropicana Field -- a necessary step after the Division Series and the ALCS. As I many have mentioned before, the drunkenness at these playoff games has approached SEC football levels, but with a much meaner spirit.

It's more of a "NASCAR drunk," or maybe an "Arena Football drunk." "Itchin' for a fight" drunk. "Convinced that hollering the name of the TV host at the top of one's lungs while he's on the air is hysterical" drunk. At the end of the pregame show, I watched a St. Pete cop damn near punch out a rather belligerent Phillies fan who had some choice words for an equally energetic Rays fan. Not good times.

But Game One of the World Series was a bit more manageable from my end. The knowledge that the security guard had my back helped. Also helped that this crowd is a little older and more subdued than the previous crowds -- those World Series tickets are expensive, and hard to get. Different demographic. However, as a whole, I still maintain that these have been the drunkest crowds I have ever personally witnessed, and I've been to tractor pulls, people. Not sure if this is a statement about Rays fans, the Tampa-St. Pete market, neither, or both.

8:45pm: Chase Utley just demolished a Kazmir offering to right. 2-0 Phils. The Philly crowd is much louder than I thought they would be. Also, Kazmir is precisely as shaky as I have long believed him to be. The Rays get out of the inning, then go down quietly in the bottom of the 1st.

8:57pm: Question -- if the uppermost seats at Tropicana Field are obstructed by the catwalk (called the 'D-Ring' here), then why were the rings installed at all? Was that a late addition? Did someone discover that this place was structurally unsound? Now I'm concerned.

9:00pm: Top of the 2nd inning, and bedtime for every child in America under the age of 12. How Major League Baseball manages to draw young fans despite these ridiculously late start times for World Series games is beyond me. Would a day game kill them?

9:04pm: Know what? I like the cowbells. The cowbells can stay.

9:08pm: BJ Upton just hosed Shane Victorino. The Rays center fielder threw out the Flyin' Hawaiian trying to score on a sac fly, and beat him by three feet. I have a new term for this -- he got Upton'd. When a baserunner is lulled to sleep by Upton's laconic body language, then gets picked by a cannon shot from center? Upton'd.

9:13pm: The Cole Hamels kid is good, by the way. Just made Longoria look stupid on a swinging strike three. Got Pena to fly to center, then K'd Aybar. The crowd is officially lulled. Probably just the buzz wearing off.

9:18pm: Raymond, the Rays' mascot? Good dancer, but silly-lookin'. Is that supposed to be a manatee?

9:26pm: Kaz settles down, gets Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell swinging. Still 2-0, heading to bottom of the 3rd. The Phillies have already stranded 3 runners.

9:34pm: Signs of life...Hamels gave up a solid single to Zobrist, then walked Bartlett. Two on, one out, Aki up. They're chanting his name...

9:36pm: And a base hit. They're loaded for Upton. Stand by.

9:39pm: Aaaaaaand a 6-4-3 double play, inning over. Meh.

9:45pm: Two more runners on for the Phils. They've had runners on base in every inning so far. They're out-Raysing the Rays right now.

9:48pm: RBI groundout from Carlos Ruiz. 3-0, top 4th. Kaz gets Rollins swinging, and the inning is over.

9:51pm: The touch tank in center field, filled with real-live rays? Very cool. You can see them flapping around all the way from here, in our auxiliary press box. The tank holds 10,000 gallons of water and is filled with cownose rays that were caught in Tampa Bay. They're cared for by the Florida Aquarium. It's my job to find stuff like this.

9:54pm: Carl Crawford almost splashes the tank with a homer, and it's 3-1. The crowd is still oddly subdued. More cowbell! Fitting that Crawford, who was an All-Star on 100-loss teams prior to this magical year, scores the first run in Tampa Bay Rays World Series history. Man, I cannot believe what I am writing...

10:09pm: Carlos Pena makes a rare error at first, allowing Pat Burrell to reach on a squib grounder. It's worth noting that the Rays, one of the best defensive teams in the American League, have committed some key errors in the postseason games that they lost -- I'm thinking of Bartlett and Longoria, specifically. As it stands, the Rays will get out of this inning, but it's cause for concern.

10:15pm: I just looked up at the scoreboard and saw that the Phillies have 5 hits, and the Rays have 4. It feels like the Phils should have about 12, and the Rays maybe two. That's the vibe in this game.

10:25pm: And a bit of a jump in the 5th, as Aki Iwamura doubles home a run to make it 3-2. This crowd is begging for an excuse to get crazy. It's just not the same vibe as the White Sox series or the Red Sox series...I'm starting to believe the "corporate crowd" theory. Feels like 40,000 sponsors, sponsors' families, and sponsors' families' neighbors in here. By the way, it's 10:29 now, and the top of the 6th. But baseball is all about the kids! (Mine went to bed two hours ago.)

10:40pm: Todd Kalas just made his way down to my row. I happened to find a bank of unoccupied seats up against the railing here in the upper deck...a good find. Seating is at a premium here, more so than parking. We can do parking in Florida, friends. We're professionals. Seating, not so much. Is there still a game going on?

10:50pm: The "baserunner in every inning" trend continues as new Rays pitcher JP Howell allows a single to Chase Utley in the top of the 7th. Seventh hit for the Philies, feels like the 428th. Then Utley steals second. Good news: Kazmir and Howell should have their stretch move pretty much perfected by now.

10:53pm: Wild pitch from Howell allows Utley to move to third. The Phils have stranded 7 runners tonight. How much longer can the Rays cheat death?

11:00pm: Maybe a bit longer, but Howell won't be the guy to do it. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Grant Balfour! Howell walked a guy, 1st and 3rd, 2 outs.

11:05pm: And they do it again. Balfour gets a strikeout against Shane Victorino (favorite nickname from his Wiki page: "Hawaiian Punch"), and we're onto the 7th inning stretch.

11:09pm: BTW, I have to get up out of this seat in the 9th in order to get down to the clubhouse for postgame interviews. Gotta leave early enough -- it requires a sherpa and a yak to get down there. So I won't be here for the final out. Whatever.

11:19pm: Two outs, top 8th. Balfour is cruising. Gets a fly ball out, and we head to the bottom of the 8th...

(leaves seat to go get interviews in the clubhouse. Rays lose, 3-2.)

(drives back to hotel)

2:01am: Followed Peter Gammons out of the stairwell by the Rays clubhouse, and a fan who was most likely drunk (really?) hollered something about "Hey, Peter, what happened? We came out flat!"

Gammons never broke stride as he muttered under his breath, "no, that's just what happens when you face good pitching." And then he mentioned something about people who know nothing about baseball, but I kinda missed it.

Anyway, he's right about the pitching. The Rays got Hamel'd. This game probably should have been worse, as the Phils stranded 11 runners. Luckily, Tampa Bay has a bullpen, too.

Back at it tomorrow. Or, today. Whatever.