Thursday, October 08, 2009

At-Game Recap--2009 NLDS Game 1: Feeling the Playoff Rush (Part 1)

As I wrote earlier, I was nervous about tonight's game. I mean, who wouldn't be, going up against Chris Carpenter? NL Comeback Player of the Year? Undefeated against the Dodgers? Likely top-3 Cy Young Candidate this year?

But even though my stomach was sick and I was nauseated with anticipation, driving up to Dodger Stadium this evening, it was easy to be calm. Especially when you're rolling behind a car sporting a "FREE MANNY" decal:

I'm interested to know if this decal was placed in May 2009, when Manny was suspended for 50 games, or in August 2008, when we picked Ramirez up for no salary. Put another way, is "Free" a verb, or an adjective?

Shoot, even the Goodyear Blimp was there to record the night (shot from the parking lot as I walked to the game):

Yeah, that blimp is pretty far away.

And the view during the pregame ceremonies was awesome. Here's two shots, one of the field (from the loge level, where I was getting Camacho's Nachos for Mrs. Sax), and one from the queue outside the Camacho's Nacho's stand (by the way, the saxophonist who did the national anthem and God Bless America was pretty good (enough to make Kenny G retire (who isn't?))).

Boy, that roof is low.

SoSG: Bringing to its readers the feeling of standing in a concession queue while watching the national anthem on a circa 1985 Zenith tube television.

Here's a picture of the first pitch (at least, that I saw once I had taken my seat):

Field level seats, finally!

But once the game started, the butterflies began to subside. I was able to eat nachos again. And by the end of the first inning, all was good. And about to get real good.

More tomorrow. (Part 2.) (Part 3.)

UPDATE 10/8 9:22a: New and improved, with picture captions!

27 comments:

Ken said...

TBS should be shot for their terrible broadcast

Anonymous said...

Just got home. (Currently live in San Luis Obispo). Awesome win! Glad I was able to escape TBS, I won't be so lucky tomorrow. Honestly, I wasn't THAT nervous about the game. My heart sank a bit after the Cards took a 1-0 lead, but overall I've been pretty cool about this playoff thing. I just feel like we have some unfinished business to take care of.

Fred's Brim said...

good stuff Saxy! looking forward to part 2!

Josh S. said...

Sweet!

Isn't there a Camacho's right behind where you were sitting on the field level? Why go to the Loge? The line couldn't have been that long during the pre-game. You're a mysterious man, Steve Sax.

Steve Sax said...

Can someone tell me how tbs botched the coverage?

Josh S. said...

For long stretches, the video was stuttering (I noticed it was when they cut between certain cameras). Also, (though I missed it since I was listening to the radio with the TV on mute), the audio went out for sometimes innings at a time.

Josh S. said...

I think I could have phrased that better, but it's still early.

Steve Sax said...

Very sleuthy, Josh S.

I had field level seats on the first base side tonight, and no preferred parking, so I entered at the sunset gate, and the quickest way into the stadium was to enter at the third base life terrace and just walk around the loge concourse to the escalators. One passes by a Camacho's stand on the way toward the stadium's spine. So, we just stopped there.

Steve Sax said...

Oh yeah, and my godmother sits in Loge 107, so I wanted to go by and see her before the game.

Fred's Brim said...

I think Josh and I were watching in the same way. I never noticed any issues with TBS, but I never had the sound up. MSTI is also east coast and had trouble with the picture, so it probably isnt west coast bias, but I never noticed it

Wicks said...

Last night was great and the only thing better was the reaction of the national media ESPN and the MLBN were in shock! They were wondering how a team with such "bad" starting pitching and weak bats could win a game over the Cardinals. If you listen to the "experts" one would think the 2009 Cards = the Gas House Gang......

Fred's Brim said...

Eck, on the TBS postgame show, called the Cards out, saying after Pujols and Holliday, they've got some real problems in their lineup

rbnlaw said...

Gee, national media waking up?

See, this is another reason I hate the Cardinales (not a misspelling). Everyone assumes they are a top-notch franchise and that La Russa is a god-manager. Yet, in the in-game interview his answers sounded forced. At the end of the interview, Stockton (who I hate from his Celtic-homer/Laker-bashing days with CBS) gives his charity a plug, and the guy looks as if he has no idea what Dick is talking about. Another clue that he may not be the sharpest tool in the shed is his inability to get relievers ready to pitch. How many times did Duncan have to come out, gather the troops on the mound, waste time, and have Dana Demouth come out and tell him to get his sorry ass back to the dugout? Two? Three? I'll tell you, too goddamn many times. The Readbird coaches ran their game in a state of shock from the bottom of the first on and were much of the reason the game dragged on (OK, that and a gazillion runners left on base).

The myth that St. Louis is all things baseball has been shattered.

rbnlaw said...

Oh, and TBS looked as if they have never telecast a baseball game before. Many rookie errors from the booth. Guess they sent the A team to New York.

Steve Sax said...

Fred's Brim: are you talking about Dennis Eckersley? Or MSB?

Kyle Baker said...

Hey, that was MY Camacho's last night. Get your own, Sax! I was last row so I just had to kind of lean around the Furcal-clad pillar to get a nachos order in.

Anonymous said...

Other than the big east coast bias we all know exists, I think a lot of people expected the Cards to win becasue they have all the big names. Pujols, Holliday, Wainwright, and Carpenter. They're the sexier draw, where the Dodgers are just a team of a broken-down roider and a bunch of kids. Last night was a perfect example of what ESPN is missing out on. It was a TEAM effort. Kemp, Furcal, Blake, the whole damn bullpen, everyone pitched in, and Torre managed a damn good ballgame.

Kyle Baker said...

Well said, PavilionBum!

What was hilarious to me, and I think I Tweeted and/or posted on this last night but it's all fuzzy because it was so late, was that despite the win, the sports network wrapup shows CONTINUED to talk about how much better Cards were, about how bad Dodgers were, how Cards would take the series - simply not even acknowledging we have won the first game. It was like some sort of Jedi medi mind trick. Never mind that we actually played a game and the outcome wasn't what these pundits had predicted (wanted?). Let's just keep talking as if Cards won 11-2. It's like there not being any WMD found in Iraq but hey, if we keep talking like there are, maybe people will start believing it. Even Mrs. Dusty was notably irritated (for once not at me) as she wanted to see our Dodgers on the sports wrapup shows. Not steeped in East Coast Bias lore, she innocently said "How come they keep showing the Yankees but only showed the Dodgers for a minute or so?" Indeed.

Anonymous said...

Thankfully I haven't seen any of the "experts" since I got home last night, but I have noticed that EVERY time I turn it to ESPN they're showing Yankees highlights. I've only seen the Dodger highlights once since I got home.

Anonymous said...

BTW- ESPNEWS had a twitter last night, saying how Hong-Chih "Quo" got the Dodgers out of a jam.

Fred's Brim said...

Sax, that was from the Eck who can grow a real mustache

rbnlaw said...

That's it. Feel your hate. Use it's power!

Oh sorry, just remembering what an old friend used to say to me as I was killing my old Jedi master.

rbnlaw said...

*its*

Kyle Baker said...

I'm feelin' the hate, RB. Oh, I'm feelin' it.

Mrs. Dusty snapped a shot of our clearly disgusted dog last night as we was made to tolerate the TBS broadcast:

http://pic.gd/9ae0a8

Kyle Baker said...

Those captions made me have a better understanding of what it was like to walk in your shoes, Sax. Now I have a finer appreciation.

Gotta love those concession tubes. I'd almost rather not have anything than have those. Some are so out of whack that the picture has slide 33% off the horizontal. In the old days when that happened, my old man would yell out, "Goddamit, fix the TV!" and I would dutifully walk over and give the telly a good Boom Boom Pow on the side so that the picture was (temporarily) fixed.

Josh S. said...

"BTW- ESPNEWS had a twitter last night, saying how Hong-Chih "Quo" got the Dodgers out of a jam."

That is majorly stupid, but "Status Kuo" would make a bitchin' t-shirt.

Nostradamus said...

@Josh S

I'm saving "quid pro Kuo" for when he goes into contract arbitration.