A Win-Win Evening

Would you believe it? The rain stopped and it was actually quite a bit of blue skies. I got home around 5pm, watched some Simpsons and a little bit of whatever I could find on TV, then called Tom to see if the game was still a go. He said he drove by the fields, everything still looked alright and that it was sunny out around Shouldice, so everything looked good to go. D'oh!

It's pretty safe to say that I didn't really wanna go and play ball last night, the game was on. But I got myself dressed and took off for the ballpark around 6pm and started to get warmed up. By the time the ballgame was supposed to start, it was already 1-0 Carolina.

To no real surprise to me, the team we were supposed to face last night, didn't completely show up. Actually, there were two games supposed to go on the diamonds, but only one team on each diamond was actually full. We warmed up and then had a meeting on the mound, Tom said that we could go home right then, take the win, or play a makeshift team and the result would somehow count, win or lose. Well, I was quietly saying to myself, 'let's go home,' but all the lads aren't as big of hockey fans as I, so we stayed. Dave went over and filled the last roster spot on the makeshift team and we played ball.

Munden led off the game for us with a home run, 2nd or 3rd pitch, straight into the tree, right behind the left field fence. An early 1-0 lead for us. That was as much as we could muster for most of the game. Thankfully, Alex pitched an awesome game and the defense was pretty good, even a 4-6-3 double play in the 2nd inning... even after taking yet another errant hop in the face.

Finishing up the warm-ups in the top half of the second inning, Ryan threw down his practice throw to second, as if to catch a guy stealing second, but his lack of effort didn't even make the throw close. It moved me to my backhand and was so short that it had to take a couple hops, including one that jumped away from my glove and into my face... right above my mouth on the left side of my face. Man, did that ever suck. I was spittin' out blood from the cut in my gums, but I was still okay. There was a little bit of a ring, but nothing major. It actually took away the concentration of my bothering tooth for a while. Nevertheless, I stuck it out and it was that inning that we turned the double play.

In the top half of the fifth inning, still up 1-0, the makeshift team was starting to find ways of knocking around the first guy who hit on Alex. With a runner on third, one out, Alex came out for Alan to try and close out the inning, but unfortunately, there was a Sac Fly out to Derek which scored the runner on third and we were tied 1-1.

The bottom half of the inning, we could generate any offense. Top half of the sixth, I almost retired the side with one pop up in the infield and then a very slow liner to me at second, before Alan struck out the third batter and we were up in the bottom half of the sixth.

Top of the order came up, Munden, then myself, then Aaron... Munden grounded out to short, one out. I thought I would try and lay down a bunt to just reach base, but my first attempt down the first base line rolled foul. I watched strike two, which I thought was a little wide, but it was still called. Two balls followed. The 2-2 pitch I found and skyed it into the right-centre gap. Whoa!! I got on my horse and was moving... rounded first, rounded second and even got about half way to third before I finally realized that Tom was trying to stop me. I put on the brakes and as I turned around, the ball had already been thrown to third, so I was able to make it back to second without a problem. Aaron came up swinging and grounded to the second baseman, advancing me to third base. Alan was intentionally walked by the pitcher, so then it was first and third with two out. Alex was up next and he grounded into a Fielders Choice, but everyone was safe, including myself at home on an error by the shortstop... 2-1 Royals. Ryan then came up and the result was another groundball to the shortstop, who made no mistake the second time around, but we were up by one going into the seventh and final inning.

Well, Alan just mowed them all down. A couple more fly outs and struck out the last batter in the game and we had won it, 2-1. It was quite the game, I must say. Everyone seemed to play well and it was certainly one of the more memorable ones for myself. Everything worked well in the field and the bat came up clutch finally for me this season... so I'm pretty pleased.

Afterwards, I knew it was 2-0 Carolina with about a couple minutes left in the second, the last time I called Chris. After the game was done, I called him again and he said Edmonton had just scored to make it 2-1 with 18 minutes left in the third. So, I packed up quick and jumped in the car and headed home. Finally, got to the house and just went downstairs to watch the final 10 minutes with Chris. So, luckily, I got to catch the end of the game, Justin Williams scoring the empty-netter and all the celebrations.

A congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes for winning last night. Cam Ward was awfully deserving of the Conn Smythe, he certainly played some MVP hockey in the playoffs this year. When I woke up this morning, CJAY 92, the local radio station that I listen to was going on about a debate, although awfully late for political reasons, about club and country, when cheering in hockey. Now, I'm sure if Edmonton won last night, they'd be all happy & gay, but they didn't and they were justifying why that was okay. This is the same argument I've been asked about when people find out that I've been rooting against Calgary and Edmonton through the whole process.

Let's not forget people, I am a Canucks fan. In the Canucks' division, are the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers... they are considered rivals. I don't want to cheer for my rivals, despite both of these teams being based in Canada... and the fact I actually live in one of these cities. I am a hardcore, die-hard Canucks fan and nothing is gonna change that... not even a Cup run by a rival.

"Oh, but don't you want to cheer for Canada?"

Cheering for Edmonton is not cheering for Canada. Cheering for Canada in a World competition is cheering for Canada. Edmonton is a club team that has more than their fair share of European players. Both Carolina and Edmonton are a mixed bag of nationalities and walks of life, that they don't represent any one country. They only sing the Canadian and American anthems, because that is tradition for the countries that are represented by the cities. That's it.

So, I'm glad that Carolina won... I didn't want any division rivals to rub our nose in a Cup victory this summer. It would have made it all less fun.