Gorilla Ball

Rule #1 of attending a game is, "never leave your seat." That comes from when I took a friend of mine to his first Cubs game back in 1984. He got up in the bottom of the sixth to get a beer, and while standing in line and watching on TV, he saw his empty seat during the seventh-inning stretch as they showed our sheet sign, and then he saw it again a couple of batters later when a Cubs home run hit two rows below us in the right field bleachers. That was it for the Cubs offense in the game, and he missed it in the beer line. At least the Cubs won.

Apparently, this applies to watching on TV also. Last night, I was watching game two of the College World Series final between Georgia and Fresno St. I got to it a little late because of eating dinner, and when I turned it on, it was 5-0 UGa, withe Georgia still batting in the top of the 3rd. A few minutes later (now bottom 3rd), I had to put the little kids to bed. That only took 10-15 minutes, and when I came back, Georgia was up again in the 4th, but the game was now tied at 6. At the end of that inning, I went out to put up my grill - a relatively short task, but when I got back to the game, it was 8-6 Fresno. Runs were being scored at will, but only when I was away from the television.

I did manage to catch the last 15 runs of the game though, a 19-10 Fresno win that extends the series to a deciding game tonight. Pitchers, especially Georgia's, were hiding in the clubhouse, hoping not to get called into the game.

Check out my friend and CSTV colleague Eric Sorenson's coverage on his Extra Innings blog.