Are You Listening To This?

Last night, John made a point worth repeating.

If baseball were a different sport, the coach of a talented team that had fallen behind could get them together in the middle of the game and tell them to try harder, and the Yankees are a talented team. And that talented team playing that different sport would then go out and execute a full court press, say, or some football thing called, I forget.

But in baseball it's all about the pitcher, and what are you going to do? You can't tell the Yankees, who are a talented team, to try harder, because it's all about the pitcher. Then Suzyn made the very good point that if the pitcher were to throw harder, the hitters would hit it all the way over the mesh up there. So in baseball, which is an unusual sport not like any other sport, you can't get the team together and tell them to try harder so what can you do?

That was last night.

Right now John is saying it would be nice if A-Rod went on one of his tears.

UPDATE! After A-Rod got plunked and both sides were warned, John observed that this only hurts CC, who has to throw inside and hasn't even thrown a pitch yet, and if you add up all the hit-by-pitches between these two teams the Red Sox hitting the Yankees outnumbers the Yankees hitting the Red Sox by two-to-one.

Suzyn just went to the numbers and said, as gently as possible, that's not even nearly true.

UPDATE! I have not updated since the last update because of the way this game is going. It's only one run and it's only the third inning, but John and Suzyn's voices already have that depressed edge. I don't know if the Red Sox have gotten inside the Yankees' heads, but they have gotten inside John & Suzyn's heads.

UPDATE! Wow, that singer lady is really putting a "hep" jazz spin on the Chock Full O' Nuts jingle. If Chock Full O' Nuts isn't already a synonym for weed, she's making sure it's only a matter of time.

Now John is talking about a "hot shot," which is a deliberately administered fatal overdose as described by William S. Burroughs in Naked Lunch. I'm sure John would tell you he was referring to a "hard-hit ball," confusing Lunch with Burroughs' Queer.

WOW! Here's a really good collection of William Burroughs quotes.

"Ever see a hot shot hit, kid? I saw the Gimp catch one in Philly. We rigged his room with a one-way whorehouse mirror and charged a sawski to watch it. He never got the needle out of his arm. They don't if the shot is right. That's the way they find them, dropper full of clotted blood hanging out of a blue arm. The look in his eyes when it hit --- Kid, it was tasty."
-- Naked Lunch: The Restored Text

UPDATE!! This one could have been -- and maybe should be -- said by John:

"I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits."

UPDATE!!! Frankie doubles Melky in to tie the game, and the life is back in J&S' voices. They're as easy to please and uncomplicated as preschoolers, which explains why only the very worst people hate them.

UPDATE! The Yankees are winning because A-Rod is on one of his tears, and John is so giddy and silly that he just teased Suzyn by calling her a "Cub Scout." Then he remembered that Cub Scouts are male and Suzyn isn't, so he corrected himself. Which, you'll remember, is called accountability.

UPDATE! The Yankees are losing again, and in the bottom 8th John is misdirecting his rage right at Suzyn. Ignoring her, talking over her, and finally acknowledging her desperate-for-positive-attention observations just enough to spit something on the order of."Well, duh."

UPDATE! We're in the 9th and Suzyn hasn't said a word.

Game over. I hope she's all right.