Nothing If Not Entertaining

I had to go somewhere during the 6th inning of last night's A's-Royals Wild Card Playoff game. I recorded the rest. I left when Moss jacked his second home run of the night and felt awesome. 5-3, Lester pitching. We were hitting Shields. Felt like the game was ours. I come home, having received a few texts indicating something went wrong. I love the recorded sports game, but hate this element of texting, which ruins anything truly surprising from happening. No texts means nothing exciting. If something crazy happens, a text comes.

Still, I watch the recording. 7-3 in the eighth inning. Are you kidding? The game is over. And then, the game turned into a little league game. The A's couldn't throw out a single basestealer. The pressure started mounting. Tension up the ying yang. Panic. My recording ran out of space in 11th inning. I didn't even get to see what happened. I watched Sportscenter.

Another absolutely brutal post-season loss for the A's. This type of loss defines the Billy Beane era. There's a special irony in being defeated by basestealing, a practice Beane openly shuns as pointless to success in baseball.

James argued that offensive statistics like on-base percentage and slugging percentage were undervalued while offensive statistics like batting average and stolen bases were overvalued.

Okay, maybe he doesn't totally shun it, but he doesn't subscribe to it much.

Nevertheless, the game was awesome. Totally exciting and sloppy and best of all, a reminder that the whole thing is just a game and supposed to be fun. Joyous, guilt-free entertainment.