Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
While it’s seemed more and more inevitable since the All-Star Break, the optimistic fan keeps hope till the bitter end. That end has now achieved full bitterness with the mathematical elimination of the Dodgers from possible playoff contention. Now we begin Phase 2: rooting against the Giants from making the playoffs either.
Accompanying Phase 2 is a certain sense of relief that the suffering is almost over. Not many depressing Dodger displays to go this season, say a dozen left — and then the pain will ease, and we can look forward to the vagaries of Hot Stove season and then Pitchers & Catchers.
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Dodger Divorce (which sounds like a comedy from the 50s with, maybe, Doris Day and Danny Thomas [1]) proceeds with all the speed and amusement of a difficult appointment at the dentist. There is reportedly a “mediation” session scheduled for tomorrow, though what that means for the interminable process is unclear. I can’t say my optimism extends to this portion of the 2010 Dodger Follies [2], and rather expect the legal equivalent of chimp tribes throwing poop at each other.
And of course I am anxious (as I am every year) to see what signings and trades the team can accomplish this off-season. There is seemingly so much wrong with the team, that the penny-pinching of recent years would be a recipe for a repeat performance in 2011 — and how hard would that be to watch?
Not to be too melodramatic (hey, why stop now?), but I can’t really bring myself to look beyond the end of the season with any real thought or projection. I’m exhausted by the slog of the last few months, the “safe” leads lost, the inevitable 3-run homers given up, the snarky comments around me when some once-reliable reliever comes out of the bullpen or yet another strike 3 goes by.
Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin’ anything to roll the dice just one more time
These are the times that try a fan’s soul, but I can’t even begin to imagine how spent the players are. Making it through a baseball season is a physical feat when things are going well, never mind when they have been, as Casey Blake put it the other day, “swimming upstream” — an apt description.
Still, these are autumnal thoughts, appropriate to the equinox just now marked, and written with the tired eyes at the end of a long 2010 campaign. As much as I love Fall as a season (the impending hellish temperatures notwithstanding), there’s nothing like the optimism-inducing Spring and its “hope” and “confidence” and new “manager.” ;)
There have been some wonderful moments this year, and some awful ones. I look forward to a whole new set next time around.
You can stop believin’ now.
But only for now.
[1] Not, however, “I’ll See You in My Dreams”. ;)
[2] Dodger Follies (1945) with Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, and Leo Durocher.
