June
12th, 2012
Beginnings
with No Ends
It was June 1st,
but, of course it was June 1st. It
had to be June 1st,
because it
had to be the beginning of something. But
before the game began, June 1st
was only the beginning of normal
things: the beginning of the College World Series post-season
tournament, the
beginning of the Gary,
Indiana
Regional, and the beginning of a double-header of baseball for me and
three
friends (Scott, Matt V, and his girlfriend, Lauren).
Little
did we know, June 1st
was the
beginning of much, much more.
We got to the field
– The US Steel Yard – around two,
after winding through the deserted, worn-down streets of Gary. Only
in Gary,
by the way, could a baseball stadium be named “The US Steel
Yard.”
Parking was free, fitting to
the small crowd,
small town feel of the place, and we found a spot near the back of the
lot
before ambling up to the ticket booth.
At the booth, the ticket lady
asked which game we were there to
see.
The Gary Regional was playing
host
to four teams which would compete in a round-robin type tournament over
the
weekend; according to the ticket lady, we could buy tickets for any or
all of
the games to come.
I said we were just there
for the day and wanted tickets for both games: the 3:00 pm
match-up between Kentucky
and Kent
State,
and the late game, the 7:00 pm
match-up between Purdue and Valparaiso.
The truth was, we were really
only there to see Purdue
play, as they were the first Big Ten team to get a national ranking in
several
years.
But we figured that if we
were
going to travel out to see Purdue play, we might as well take in a
couple of
Regional games while we were at it. It
cost sixteen dollars total; only eight bucks a game.
But
before the lady printed our tickets, she
asked where we wanted to sit.
I turned
to Scott and repeated the question.
Where did we want to sit?
It’s common at
college baseball games for the stadium to
be divided into halves for the fans of each team, with the area behind
a team’s
dugout designated as their cheering section.
I interpreted the ticket
lady’s question as, “Which team’s section
do
you want to sit in, Kentucky
or Kent
State?”
But
because I had no particular interest in
either of the teams, I left the choice up to Scott.
He
stepped to the ticket window and spoke,
“The best seats available.” It
made
sense to me.
Why choose a side? Let
fate and the ticket lady decide.
She gave us our tickets and
we filed into the stadium to
find where fate had placed us.
Looking
back, it makes perfect sense where we ended up: on Kent
State’s
side…directly behind their
dugout.
The best seats
in the house. Row
A.
Seats 1-4. If
you were given the choice of any seats in
the stadium, these would have been the obvious choice.
They
were perfect.
The stadium, too, was nicer
than I’d imagined, as I
didn’t expect much of a baseball stadium in Gary,
Indiana
whose home team was the “Southshore
RailCats.” But
it was a big, beautiful field with
outfield walls at major league distances (320’ down the
lines, 400’ in straightaway
center).
The only odd thing about the
park was the lack of bleacher seats in left-field; a result of the
elevated
freeway which rose up just beyond the homerun wall, creating the
illusion that
if a car were to careen off the road, it might skip past the warning
track and
crush the left-fielder.
We
took our
VIP seats and caught the last of Kentucky
taking their infield reps before both teams retreated to their dugouts
for the
national anthem and the player introductions.
I leaned back into my seat
and stretched my legs onto the top of the
dugout, damn near dangling them over the edge to where the players
could see.
This was the closest
I’d ever sat to
pseudo-professional baseball; I was going to enjoy it.
The
only thing I regretted was that they didn’t
serve beer at the Steel Yard, but I had a mega-pack of sunflower seeds,
the
weather was mild, and there was an entire day of baseball to take in. I
was ready.
Then
the game
began.
The trouble started when the
game
wouldn’t end.
1st
Inning
The game started
innocently
enough.
Kent
State
went in order in the first
and though Kentucky
managed two
base-runners, they too failed to score.
It seemed apparent to us that
Kentucky
was the better team, but that was mostly conjecture, as none of us knew
much about
either team.
But still, we considered Kentucky
the favorite as they came from a far superior conference, and that
meant better
recruiting and better competition during the regular season. On
the other hand, everything about Kent
State made them seem like the underdog, from the old-timer uniforms
they wore
(complete with short pants and stirrups), to their off-kilter mascot
(the
Golden Flashes), to the shortness of their lineup (George Roberts,
their
cleanup hitter, appeared to be no taller than 5’8”).
2nd
Inning
There were little
things
to
remind me that this was no professional ballpark. For
example, though there was an immense
scoreboard in left field with a jumbo digital screen, the park
operators had
nothing to broadcast except grainy, pixilated images of the players as
they
came to the plate.
There were no season
statistics shown, and for subsequent at-bats, no game stats either. Later
in the game, Scott and I would regret
not having bought the one-dollar scorecards they were selling near the
entrance
to the park.
George Roberts led off for Kent
State
by singling up the
middle.
Several batters later,
Roberts
scored the game’s first run and the Flashes had the bases
loaded with nobody
out.
But after two quick
strikeouts by the
eight and nine hitters and a line-out by the leadoff man, who was now
hitless
in two at-bats, the score stuck at 1-0. In
the bottom half, Kentucky
got a
single out of Zac
Zellers,
prompting Matt V to question whether we knew anyone with the initials
Z.Z.
We thought of Zinedine
Zidane,
but that was it.
Regardless, Zellers
was quickly picked off of first base and caught in a run down to end
the
inning.
3rd
Inning
As we cycled through
the
lineups for the second time, we got to know the names a bit better. We
started to make nicknames for them. There
was a Tony Cousino
on Kentucky
who we dubbed “Kirk
Cousins.”
When Jimmy Rider came to the
plate to lead off the third inning for Kent
State,
Matt V asked, “You think his
middle name is Easy?”
I said it might be
“Knight.” “Easy
Rider” sounded a little
better, so we went with that.
Either
way, Easy Rider struck out swinging for the second time, George Roberts
collected his second hit (another single), and Kent
State
failed to score.
Kentucky,
however, used a few hits and some aggressive base-running to get two
across.
The score, after three, was Kentucky
2, Kent State 1.
4th
Inning
The weather
fluctuated
depending on the sun and the clouds.
When the sun was out, you
could feel it pressing down upon you. But
when the clouds shielded you, a cold
breeze wisped through the seats. There
were a lot of long at-bats and pitcher/catcher meetings; the game
already
seemed to be taking a long time. Kent
State only exacerbated this feeling by stringing together its best
inning yet,
scoring three runs, capped off by an RBI double by George Roberts (who
we were
now calling “Georgey
Boy”).
He was 3-3.
Kentucky
pulled their
starting pitcher and finally got out of the jam. After
they failed to score in the bottom half
of the inning, the score stood at 4-2 in favor of the Flashes.
5th
Inning
Our favorite nickname
was
“Toad,” which we applied to Kent
State’s
nine-hole hitter (who also happened to be the only black player on
either
team): Derek Toadvine.
Toad
was a typical college second baseman; he
couldn’t hit, but had a good glove and blazed around the
base-paths.
Toad had bunted his way on
base and scored
one of the runs in the fourth inning, but with his other two at-bats,
in the
second and in the fifth, he looked miserable, striking out both times. Kent
State
went scoreless in the fifth,
but Kentucky
got a run across on
a wild pitch.
After five, Kent
State
led 4-3.
6th
Inning
Scott was starting to
get
extremely agitated that he hadn’t gotten a foul ball. Sitting
directly behind the dugout, with fans
spread thin throughout the stadium, it appeared likely that we would
have a
chance at a few.
But, strangely, it
seemed that every foul ball popped in our direction would sail up over
the roof
and towards the parking lot.
Scott went
on several “smoke breaks” in search of the runaway
balls, with no luck.
He returned to his seat each
time further
agitated.
George Roberts doubled again,
but no one could get him home.
Kentucky
couldn’t score either and the score remained the same.
7th
Inning
I finally left my
seat
to get
something to eat, as the sunflower seeds weren’t really
filling me up.
I ended up getting a Polish,
though I was
disappointed to find out later that they sold Brats on the other side
of the
stadium, shaking my belief that we had been given the right seats after
all.
But a positive was that the
toppings were do-it-yourself, which I always love, not only for
avoiding
unwanted toppings, but for gorging on the toppings I love.
I
returned to my seat with a Polish piled
high with white onions and jalapenos. Kent
State
finally pulled their starting
pitcher, after 108 pitches, but not before Kentucky
scored a run to tie the game at 4. I
devoured the Polish and my medium Coke in under
thirty
seconds.
8th
Inning
Easy Rider singled
with
one out
in the eighth and advanced to second after a walk by the three-hole. Georgey
Boy came
through again, singling to right, scoring Easy Rider and breaking the
tie.
Georgey
Boy was now
5-5 on the day with two doubles and two RBI.
I guess height
isn’t necessary to be a great clean-up hitter; Georgey
Boy was putting on a clinic.
Kentucky
threatened in the bottom half but came up empty. Heading
into the ninth, Kent
State,
the underdogs, led 5-4.
9th
Inning
Kentucky
put in their ace for the ninth inning to stop Kent
State
from adding any insurance
runs.
Whispers in the crowd
confirmed
that the new pitcher, Trevor Golt,
was an
All-American closer.
He looked like it
too.
He fanned all three hitters Kent
State
sent to the dish in the ninth.
Kent
State,
on the other hand, stuck
with their reliever when Kentucky
came to hit and it cost them: Kirk Cousins scored on an RBI single by
Luke
“You’ve Got” Maile
and the game was sent into extras,
knotted up at five runs a piece.
10th
Inning
Golt
sent down Kent
State’s
batters in short order once again, striking out Toad along the way. Kentucky
used some none-too-bright base-running to squander their chance and the
score
remained tied.
11th
Inning
The scoreboard at The
US
Steel
Yard was like other scoreboards, in that there was only room for ten
innings.
By the eleventh, the
scoreboard
reset, erasing all of the innings that had been played, leaving only
the Runs,
Hits, and Errors.
Looking up at that
blank scoreboard, it felt like an entirely new game had started. When
Georgey
Boy
got out for the first time all day and neither team scored yet again,
that
feeling amplified.
A new game
had
started.
12th
Inning
The medium Coke was
coming back
to haunt me and I really had to pee. But
it was extra innings; the winning run could come at any time. I
resolved to wait until the game was over,
which I didn’t think would take long, and then find a
bathroom before the Purdue
game started.
Toad got his second hit of
the day (on another bunt), but Kent
State
couldn’t get him across. Kentucky
started the bottom half promisingly, with their catcher knocking a
drive to the
wall.
Unfortunately, he forgot to
touch
first base and Kent
State
won the appeal; the umpire emphatically called him out.
No
runs were scored.
13th
Inning
It was already close
to seven o’clock
at night, which was when the
Purdue/Valparaiso game was supposed to begin.
The fans and players who had
arrived for that game stood on the tarmac
area behind the seats, begging for the Kentucky/Kent State game to end. I
didn’t blame them; most of us just wanted
the game to get over with too.
Kentucky
brought in their fifth pitcher: big AJ “Fulton”
Reed, the first basemen.
Both teams
managed a single base-runner in the 13th, but neither advanced past
first.
Going into the fourteenth,
Scott assured me
he had a feeling that it would be the deciding inning.
14th
Inning
Kent
State
got a runner over to third
with two outs, but Toad struck out for the fourth time, stranding him
ninety
feet from home.
For the second or third
time, with Kentucky
hitting, a
bench coach from Kent
State
emerged from the dugout to call out a shift for his outfielders. For
the second or third time, the Kentucky
hitter smacked a ball to exactly where the bench coach told the
fielders to
go.
It was amazing. At
this point, both teams had made so many
substitutions, both in the field and in their lineups, that we now knew
the
names of every bench player as well.
Unfortunately, none of the
new subs made any difference and the inning
went scoreless.
15th
Inning
Scott continued to
moan
about
not having caught a foul ball, watching them continue to sail over the
roof and
into the parking lot.
Every time I
laughed at his despair over this he said he hoped they all hit my car. Kent
State
grounded into a double play
to end their half of the inning. Kentucky,
however, got a double with one man out from double-Z (Zac
Zellers). A
strikeout and two walks followed, leaving the bases loaded. The
winning run seemed so close. The
Kentucky
hitter dug into the batter’s box. After
several tense pitches, the count was full.
The Kent
State
pitcher wound and hurled.
The runners
ran with the pitch.
The batter swung. Scott
moaned again as another foul ball went
sailing over the back roof and out of reach.
The very next pitch, the
batter popped out to third to end the inning.
16th
Inning
My huge bag of
sunflower
seeds was
empty.
The discarded shells were
strewn
all over the top of the dugout.
It was
after eight
P.M. Night
had fallen almost completely.
Both teams went in order. Scott
assured me, for the fourth inning in a
row, that the next inning would be the last.
17th
Inning
Apparently the
stadium
had run
out of songs to play in between innings, because they started to repeat
ones we
had already heard.
Matt V asked if we
had somehow been transplanted into the movie Groundhog
Day. Toad
got out again and Kentucky
squandered another chance to score by playing small-ball, and I turned
to Matt
V and shrugged my shoulders, not really sure that we hadn’t.
18th
Inning
Kent
State’s
leadoff hitter started the
inning with a single (his first and only hit of the game).
After
a sacrifice bunt by Easy Rider and a
sacrifice fly by Georgey
Boy, a pinch-hit by “Billy”
Koch brought in the go-ahead run for the Flashes. After
a quick fly-out, Kentucky
got things going as well, with a base-on-balls and a single that
advanced the
runner to third.
With runners at first
and third with only one out, Kentucky
seemed on the verge, especially with their best hitter (who was also
their
catcher) coming to the plate.
Scott was
optimistic, “If they blow it, the game is over.
If they score two, the game
is over.
Either way, we’re
good.”
Sure
enough, the brawny back-stop nailed a drive out to the gap in right
center.
The first runner scored
easily,
but the runner from first tweaked something in his leg while rounding
third.
The relay came in on time and
he
was tagged out many steps away from scoring the winning run. The
next batter grounded out on the first
pitch. Both
teams had scored a run for
the first time in nine extra innings, yet, the game would go on, tied
6-6.
Scott collapsed onto the top
of the dugout
with his eyes closed, exasperated. When
he finally stood back up minutes later, he had a mess of sunflower
shells stuck
to his back.
19th
Inning
We could see the
headlights of cars
streaming past on the freeway.
It was nine P.M.
Lauren seemed on the edge of
mutiny.
When she agreed to come to
the ballpark with her boyfriend, she surely
hadn’t agreed to this. I
wouldn’t
have blamed her if he had dumped Matt V on the spot.
Neither
team scored.
We looked to the twentieth. Scott
had finally stopped making his
predictions that the next inning would be the last, content to spend
his time
picking the sunflower shells off his shirt.
20th
Inning
Kent
State
went down quickly, with Georgey
Boy striking out to retire the side. Georgey
Boy had
pulled an impossible one-hundred and eighty degree turnaround: he
started the
game with five hits in a row, only to follow that up with five outs in
a
row.
We were all sure this was
some type
of unbreakable, impossible record for a single game.
Kentucky
then looked to end the game once and for all in the bottom half. After
a HBP, they loaded the bases with only
one man out.
All it would take is a
simple fly ball to score the winning run.
Instead, the hitter grounded
back to the pitcher, who hurled it home to
the catcher for the force out, who then sent it over to first to
complete the
inning-ending double play.
Scott
collapsed back onto the dugout.
21st
Inning
The scoreboard
“reset” trick
must only work once, because the operators were baffled at what to do
in the 21st
inning.
The bulbs blinked all sorts
of
strange numbers before finally settling on six runs a piece in the
first
inning-slot on the board, which must have been the only way to make the
total
score read correctly.
It was after 9:30
when Alex Miklos
(“The Greek”) tripled to dead center and brought in
another go-ahead run for Kent
State. Though
they only scored one, to take the lead
7-6, the scoreboard read that Kent
State
had scored seven runs in the inning.
With how foggy my brain felt
with numbers, they very well might have
scored seven runs and I hadn’t noticed.
I realized that I still
needed to pee very badly.
I wondered in the game would
ever end.
Kentucky,
of course, threatened right away, getting runners at second and third
with two
outs.
I turned to Scott, who seemed
terrified to say anything.
At that
moment, the Purdue and Valparaiso
fans were indistinguishable from the Kent
State
fans, joined in their hope
for the game to end.
Three strikes
later, it did.
-------------------------------------------------------------
There were plenty of crazy
statistics that resulted from
this 21-inning marathon.
Ten pitchers
were used,
most for long stretches (eight of them
threw 50 pitches or more).
AJ Reed, who
spent the first twelve innings playing first base, came in to pitch a
complete
game, or nine full innings, and threw 108 pitches.
There
were 678 pitches thrown in all, with 15
walks and 47 strikeouts.
The teams
combined for 38 hits in 154 at-bats, but not a single homerun. More
shocking than anything, perhaps, was
that there were only two errors made; one by each team.
But the real takeaway was
that the game took six hours
and thirty-seven minutes to complete. It
was the second longest game in College World Series history.
Even scarier for us, we still
had tickets for the second
game.
We had seen our share of
baseball,
no doubt, but we didn’t really want to let the tickets go to
waste.
It was a tough decision. As
it turns out, NCAA rules state that a game
cannot start any later than 11:00 P.M. It
was only 9:40,
so this was not a problem.
Then came
the announcement that the Purdue/Valparaiso game would
begin an hour later, at 10:40
(almost four full hours after it was supposed to begin).
The
prospect of waiting an entire hour for
the game even to begin was too much to deal with. Matt
V reasoned that we had paid for two
games and, if counting by innings, we had actually seen more than two
full
games anyway.
In my tired mind, this
made sense.
We headed back to the car
(which was free of any foul-ball dents) and drove towards Chicago
and home.
I considered the ordeal over
with.
But, like I said at the
outset,
June 1st
was only the beginning of the story.
The next day, Kent
State
beat Purdue easily (who was a
#1 seed and hosting the Gary Regional), by a score of 7-3.
On
Sunday, Kent
State
played Kentucky
again.
After seven innings, the
score
was 0-0.
I wasn’t there, but
I’m sure
most of the fans hunkered down, expecting another drawn-out battle. Then,
in the top of the eighth, Kent
State’s
leadoff man launched a
three-run homer over the right-field wall.
Kentucky
would tack on two
runs in the bottom half of the inning to keep things close, but would
go
scoreless in the ninth and fall yet again to Kent
State
by a single run.
Improbably,
Kent
State
had won the Regional and was
advancing to the Super-Regional, which is played best two-out-of-three. Their
opponent was to be Oregon
(ranked sixth in the country, as opposed to Kent
State,
ranked 74th
in
the country).
If the Flashes
weren’t
huge underdogs in Gary,
they surely
would be against the Ducks.
Worse yet,
the CWS affords home-field advantage to the higher-seeded teams, which
is a
caveat of college baseball that no other sport shares.
Can
you imagine March Madness being played
with home-court advantage?
It would be
an almost insurmountable disadvantage to the lower seeds.
But,
though Kent
State
had gone undefeated in the
Regional, they had to travel all the way across the country to Eugene,
Oregon
to play one of the best teams in the
country on their own twenty-million dollar home-field, with the winner
earning
a spot in Omaha
and the Elite
Eight.
None
of the
games would be easy, with each decided by exactly one run.
Kent
State
took the first game 7-6.
Oregon
took the second game 3-2.
The third and
deciding game was yet another thriller, threatening for more extra
innings.
Kent
State
was batting last, as the home
team, in the bottom of the ninth with the score knotted at two a piece. Toad
drew a walk to start the inning and
advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.
Easy Rider stepped to the
plate and lifted a harmless-looking fly ball
down the left-field line.
The Oregon
outfielder lost it in the sun and it dropped fair by a few inches. Toad
scored easily.
Oregon’s
season was over.
Kent
State
was headed to Omaha.
June
1st
was just the beginning.
The end…well,
just like in that 21-inning game, seems like it might never come.