Gus: It's a throwaway, Billy. It means nothing.
Billy: Not to the Red Sox.
--"For the Love of the Game"
This is the first of a series of blogs about the wonderful end to this years MLB season, and the subsequent postseason. You have been duly warned :)
Baseball had a whirlwind end to the 2011 season... as exciting and finger-nail destroying as I've seen in years. I could go into all the details of what happened that final day, but if you love baseball, you know what happened. The disastrous collapse of the Red Sox and the Braves. The incredible comeback of the need-a-defibrillator Cardinals. That crazy, had-to-stay-up-to-wee-hours to see it all wrap up finish. But that's not what I want to talk about.
The quote above is from the Kevin Costner movie "For the Love of the Game". Costner plays Billy, a pitcher at the tail end of his career. At the beginning of the movie he is warming up and the pitching coach tells him he shouldn't be pitching with his nagging injury, since the game means nothing. Costner looks at him with that clear-eyed steely gaze he does so well, and says "Not to the Red Sox." The message is clear... he owes his best against this team, because the Red Sox are battling them for something important. He will bring his "A" game because it honors the game and the teams who do have something to play for, something to gain.
That was a movie. Over the last week of the 2011 baseball season, we saw it in real life.
In the last few days, all the division winners were locked up. The only thing in play for them was who ended up with better records for home-field advantage. The wild card races were where it was at, and none of them were playing each other. All of these exciting games as baseball steamed to the marathon finish line were played against opponents that no reason to play hard... other than to honor the game. Because it meant something to the Cardinals for the Phillies to play Atlanta hard; it meant something to Tampa Bay for the Orioles to bring it in their final series.
And all of these teams stepped up. Philadelphia could have eased up in preparation for the playoffs, but they played hard... played strong defense, and hustled on on offense. The Orioles, one of baseball's worst teams in 2011, played Boston like they themselves had a chance to nick a wild-card spot.
And it made a difference. A big difference. And for us lucky fans who were watching, we got to see a honest-to-goodness, real-life "For the Love of the Game"
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