Wed Apr 15, 2015 6:49 pm
I've been watching these playoffs and I have to say that it has been almost as exciting as the real thing. If this were a real baseball playoff the series between the Beavers and the Rainbow Warrior would be one for the ages! The Beavers won the first three games of the semi-finals in their last at bats, scoring two and six in the ninth innings of games 1 & 2 to come from behind and win. In game three they scored six in the bottom of the eight to rally from a 3-2 deficit. In watching the replay of game three I felt Rainbow Warrior's pain because he had Dale Murray on the mound and Murray quickly got the first two batters out. He then proceeded to give up a single, single, triple, walk, and HR, ALL ON THE HITTERS CARDS! Oh the pain. What a way to go three games down. I'm sure he felt like the Red Sox must have after falling 3-0 to the Yanks in 2004. The rest of the series looked like a replay of 2004 for sure.
After falling behind 3-0, the Rainbow Warrior's went on to sweep the next four assuring that the Beaver's would leave the playoffs very Angry indeed. The last four games were pretty much the Warrior's to win from the get go, although the Beaver's might have blown their best last chance when Luke Appling booted the ball for a two base error leading to the Warrior's winning run in game five. Eddie Collins probably would have made it home after tripling in the previous at bat, but Beaver fans are cursing the clumsiness of Luke Appling who many blame for their teams failure to make the World Series. And boy what a World Series it is!
While the Rainbow Warrior clawed their way back from three games down, the Terrestrial Rooters, who fell two short of the Warrior in the race for the division championship, handled the Lumbering Llamas in a relatively easy five games. Once in the championship the Rooters found themselves up against the buzz saw that was the streaking Warrior, losing the first two by scores of 5-0 and 10-7. From game three on this series has been a battle of the heavy weights with all four games being decided in the 8th or 9th innings. The Rooter have won three of these slug fests, all of which have been decided in dramatic fashion. Game three was won by the Rooters with a walk off single by Callison in the bottom of the ninth, while game four was won by the Rainbow Warrior when they took Bruce Sutter to the woodshed, scoring six runs off the Rolaid Winner in a top of the ninth rally. The replay of that inning made me think of the Royals in the playoffs last year, for the Warrior rattled off six consecutive singles followed by a couple of well placed sacrifice bunts. All Sutter could do was shake his head because every batted ball had eyes.
Trailing three games to one, it was the Rooters turn to have their backs against the wall, and, like the Warrior in their semi-final series, desperation has only brought out the best of the Rooters. They won game five in dramatic fashion, with George Selkirk smashing two home runs to equalize the game until the light hitting Dots Miller could double home the even lighter hitting Wayne Belardi in the top of the eighth. Even then Bruce Sutter tried to kill the home town faithful by allowing Joe Judge a one out triple before striking out Ghost Marcello and Bruce Pettaway to seal the game. With game five in the bag, game six was won with a six run rally in the top of the 8th capped by a Duke Snider 3 run shot to seal the deal. This was a bit of vengeance for game four in which the Warrior pulled off a six run rally of their own in the top of the ninth to overcome a three run deficit and go up 3-1 in the series.
And now here we have arrived, for tonight is game 7 of this epic struggle and I wonder if we might not see the Warrior suffer the same fate they inflicted on the Angry Beavers. Will the Terrestrial Rooters complete their historic come back from a three game to one deficit and steal the championship? Or will the Rainbow Warrior retain their championship and avoid the ignominy of blowing a 3-1 lead? We have only hours to wait for the outcome to be determined. I, for one, will be hitting that replay button before peeking at the results in order to watch the outcome be determined one exciting at bat at a time.
Good luck to both teams, and thanks for an exciting playoffs!
