Redemption at the Church of Baseball

On Monday night, the softball team I manage, the Loan Sharks, lost a heartbreaker in extra innings, casting me into the softball version of the Lake of Fire.

On Tuesday night, I found redemption, for the moment at least, at Fenway Park.

First, after standing in line at Gate C for an hour and a half, I was able to buy a seat on the Green Monster from the box office. It was for a wheelchair space -- so, no chair to sit in, just a square patch of concrete. But there was a railing I could sit on. And this was the Green Monster -- one of the toughest tickets inside the toughest ticket in town.

So right off the bat I'm doing well. Then the Sox jump out to a big lead with five runs in the fifth.

Now it's the seventh inning. The Sox are still up 7-2. Matt Clement has twirled another beaut, and one of the two runs was due to a fielding error behind him.

So they bring in Mike Remlinger, a lefty just acquired from the Cubs. I had emailed a couple of friends in Chicago to ask about him. One said, "Mediocre." The other said, "We were glad to get rid of him." Super.

Against each of the first three batters, Remlinger jumps out to an 0-2 count and then proceeds to lose every single one of them. A double, a walk, and a single. The guy faced 6 or 7 batters and failed to record an out. (UPDATE: Actually he only faced four batters. It just seemed like 6 or 7.) Before the inning was done the Rangers had tied the game. Forty-five minutes later we were into extra innings.

So now I thought I was going to be relocated from the softball version of the Lake of Fire to the softball version of the Sheet of Ice where I'm Embedded up to My Neck so that The Beast Can Gnaw on My Head. Two big leads squandered in two days, leading to extra innings? Aaaaah! Make it stop!

Actually it was pretty exciting. We were hanging on every pitch up there on the Monsta in the late innings. David Ortiz missed a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth by about six feet. Curt Schilling gave up a long double to center in the top of the tenth and got out of it.

And then came redemption. Edgar Renteria, he of the two errors (one legitimate and one due to an awful umpire's call), came to bat in the bottom of the 10th with runners on first and second and one out. He worked the count to 3-2 and then pulled a pitch down the left field line for a single, scoring Bill Mueller from second and winning the game.

More photos at Ball of Dirt. Don't miss the one of the drunk guy in the Red Sox jersey sleeping it off on Landsdowne Street.