For The Love Of The Game

In 1999, when I was a freshman at the University of Southern California, a movie came out called For The Love Of The Game, based on the novel by Michael Shaara (more famous for his excellent historical novel The Killer Angels, which was later turned into the film Gettysburg). I watched this movie while returning home from the Feast in Hawaii that year, and then bought the soundtrack, whose title track was an excellent song by Semisonic, a band best known for its hit "Closing Time," which uses the last call for a bar as a metaphor for birth. Anyway, I spent early Sunday afternoon with some friends of mine from Houston watching a particularly exciting baseball game, which led me to reflect upon many things.

The movie, directed by Sam Raimi ("Spiderman") details a perfect game that is pitched by Billy Chapel (played with restraint in an excellent performance by Kevin Costner), a washed up pitcher playing in Yankee Stadium for a bad team (only recently good--the Detriot Tigers). As he plays the game he reflects upon his life, as his love (played not-very-convincingly by Kelly Preston) prepares to move to Paris for a job. One of the more convincing aspects, for me, of the movie is the way in which Billy takes a fatherly role to Heather, the daughter of his sweetheart, played very well by Jena Malone. One of the flashbacks involves Heather going to college, and she ends up at USC, which I thought was an amusing and touching detail.

Lyrics to "For The Love Of The Game" - Semisonic

In the morning of the first night of my life
I was feeling like I'd lost my inspiration
Then in the afternoon she walked into the light
To relieve me of my doubt and desperation.

She's not coming here to make herself a name
She only wants to play with me to see if she can win
And we both want it to happen.

None down in the bottom of the ninth with three men on
And she saw me like nobody's ever done before
Now in the glory of victorious dominion
She's receding in the sunshine down the corridor.

She's not in it for the money or the fame
She only came to play with me to see what place I'm in
And we both know who's gonna give in.

For the love of the game
Sometimes you've gotta cry a little.
For the love of the game
Maybe even gotta die a little.
For the love of the game
I made a sacrifice I never thought I'd have to make.

For the love of the game
Sometimes you've gotta cry a little.
For the love of the game
Maybe even gotta die a little.
For the love of the game
I made a sacrifice I never thought I'd have to make. (I made a sacrifice...)

Sometimes you've gotta cry a little.
For the love of the game
Maybe even gotta die a little.
For the love of the game
I made a sacrifice I never thought I'd have to make...

[End song lyrics.]

Anyway, baseball is a pastime I associate closely with my family. As I was watching the game, I wore my Pittsburgh Pirates shirt (even though the Pirates were not playing that day--the Astros and Padres were). When I would visit my father as a child/teenager up in Pennsylvania during the summer, we would often go to Pirates games on Sunday afternoons, not an uncommon way for fathers to try to bond with their children. Indeed, on this particular afternoon the game was originally planned to have a father and one of his friends in the church taking his daughter (my friend Kristin) and some of her friends to watch the Astros. Even the seats we had were with this goal in mind, as we sat in the right field, a few rows up in the closest area to the field, right next to the Astros bullpen. Luke Scott, a rookie for the Astros, plays right field, and one of Kristin's friends is particular fond of him. She and her brother (Jimmy, who went to Burlington Coat Factory on Friday with Kristin and I and with him many funny "hat" pictures on their myspace profiles were posted) were not able to make it to the game, though, because they were in Texarkana at the funeral of their grandfather, who had died of cancer on Thursday. So, they were not able to go.

Before I got to my seat, the Astros were already down 3-0. Richard (the father) and I had gone to get peanuts and beer (no beer for either Kristin and I), and due to the limit of 2 beers per person, my id was useful. Luke Scott had made a bad play on a ball and it ended up as a ground rule double, ending up in the row in front of where I was to sit. Too bad I was not there to catch it. By the time the first half inning of the game ended, Houston was already down 11-0 and their starter had been taken out of the game. I figured at this point the game would be a blowout, but it ended up being a compelling offensive game.

In the second inning, San Diego added to their lead, pushing it to 12-0, but in the bottom of the third the Astros hit a solo homer to spoil a hitherto perfect game from the Padres starter to make it 12-1. Then in the bottom of the fourth inning Berkman and Scott homered and Houston finally showed some offense, narrowing the deficit to 12-8, at which point the Padres starter, who was handed an 11 run lead before he even took the field, was pulled.

In the 5th inning San Diego scored a run on an interesting play where a player (with the last name of Bard) hit a fielder's choice grounder to the pitcher, and the pitcher threw too far to the left of home, letting a San Diego runner score. Then the catcher threw to second base, trying to get a runner out there, but failed. It was a strange play that left the stadium booing loudly. At the middle of the fifth inning, Houston was down 15-8. In the bottom of the 5th, Houston scored some runs themselves. With two outs, Biggio (whose name and number my friend Kristin had on her pink (!) Astros shirt) came in as a pinch hitter, but he did not reach base, and left two on to stop the rally. Before his out, though, the entire stadium was chanting his name. Biggio, you see, is past his prime himself, and is retiring at the end of the season, the last of Houston's famed "Killer B's". Houston ended the inning down only 15-11.

And so the game remained until the 9th inning, though there were some dramatic moments. In the bottom of the 7th inning, for example, after an entertaining seventh inning stretch where three songs were performed ("God Bless America," the Astros version of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" and "Deep In The Heart of Texas" were played), the Astros loaded the bases with two outs, but were unable to drive in any runs with the tying run at the plate. At the top of the 9th inning, though, the Houston closer, Lidge, ran out of gas and allowed three runs, the last two coming from a blast to deep left field. Houston was unable to score any more runs, so in an exciting game with three errors (two by Houston and one by San Diego), seven home runs (four by Houston and three by San Diego), and fourteen pitchers (eight by Houston and six by San Diego), the game was over. By then most of the fans had streamed out of their seats, no doubt disappointed. After the final out, "Come Monday," played on the stadium PA. There is always tomorrow, or next season, for those who do not win today.