{"id":9454,"date":"2009-06-21T14:14:55","date_gmt":"2009-06-21T18:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9454"},"modified":"2019-11-11T19:35:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T00:35:53","slug":"the-quiet-of-a-shutout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9454","title":{"rendered":"The quiet of a shutout"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nJosh Beckett pitched a shutout game last night against the Atlanta Braves, and it felt like the fastest most uneventful baseball game I have ever attended. Ellsbury, my favorite hottie of the moment, made a kickass catch, sliding into the green monster – and that was really the play of the game, although we did get to see a thrilling double play at the end (with Beckett catching the ball on the bounce from the plate) – but other than that, not a hell of a lot happened. We got to see Youkilis throw a little hissy fit about some ump’s call (surprise surprise), he stood and stared off into space, exuding annoyance and passive-aggressive huffing and puffing, and it was hysterical. We got to watch Josh Beckett do his little OCD step-step through the white lines on the first base line – so delicate!! What’ll happen, Josh, if you don’t do your little ritual? Will the world fall off its axis? I love that he does that, and that he does it in as macho a manner as possible. “Look. I’m a tough sonofabitch but I must tiptoe delicately with both my feet in between the white lines, or I will totally lose my concentration and fuck you for making fun of it. I deliver, don’t I?”<\/p>\n

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\nNo huge hits – a couple doubles – no homers, nothing exciting really.<\/p>\n

Because of a massive car pileup on 95 we missed almost two innings. We didn’t miss much. The game was over by, what, 9:30?<\/p>\n

That’s what happens when you have good pitching. Nothing happens. It’s actually quite amazing.<\/p>\n

Quiet, yes, but along the way you start to realize: “Hm. This is a pretty awesome game.” BECAUSE it is quiet.<\/p>\n

Derek Lowe, back on the mound at Fenway for the first time since 2004, was in fine form – and it was strangely emotional to ‘see’ him again. I’ve missed that big lanky emotional rosy-cheeked headcase with the huge swinging-to-the-side leg. He pitched a good game, and kept it just as quiet as Beckett did – it was a battle of the pitchers, most definitely. He had been interviewed the day before about what it would be like to be back at Fenway, and what did he expect from the fans. His answer was along the lines of, “I am sure they will be polite, welcome me back and all that – but after that, they’ll treat me like any other pitcher on any opposing team. That’s to be expected.”<\/p>\n

Not quite, D. Lowe.<\/p>\n

When he left the mound for the last time in the bottom of the 7th, Fenway Park stood, as one, and gave him an ovation. It was pretty amazing. An opposing team’s pitcher. Well, well, we remember.<\/p>\n

The best part of all was the stoic little tip of the hat he did to the crowd.<\/p>\n

It was classy.<\/p>\n

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We love D. Lowe!<\/p>\n

At one point we thought we saw Papelbon warming up in the bullpen. Hmmm. All quiet on the Fenway front. Then we thought it was Okajima. But by the 9th, there was no more action in the bullpen. Nobody warming up. Beckett still on the mound, still dominant, pitch count still very low.<\/p>\n

He finished the game. It was his first complete game of the season.<\/p>\n

Guess that little tip-toe dance you do along the first baseline pays off, huh tough guy?<\/p>\n

We were home by 11 p.m. What the hell.<\/p>\n

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A shutout is a quiet kind of a game. There isn’t much action and there isn’t much that is actually visible. Important to keep in mind, though, that “l’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.”<\/p>\n

Baseball is, as always, an apt metaphor for almost anything.<\/p>\n

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Josh Beckett pitched a shutout game last night against the Atlanta Braves, and it felt like the fastest most uneventful baseball game I have ever attended. Ellsbury, my favorite hottie of the moment, made a kickass catch, sliding into the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[2401,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9454"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152673,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9454\/revisions\/152673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}