FanPost

Saturday Night in Portland, Maine

Tonight I am in Portland, Maine, on a business trip. I went to downtown Portland looking for a sports bar with the A's game on. No luck. The only thing I could find was Buster Olney on Baseball Tonight. I could have gotten that at my hotel room. The bars were filled with drinking young people talking loud and enjoying saturday night. I am not that young and I know 2 people in the whole state of Maine. i felt absolutely invisible sitting at a bar stool watching baseball tonight. Besides asking the bartender for 2 bombay and tonics, I dont know if I said another word to anyone the whole time.  There were a couple of guys in Yankees garb, and I thought about talking to them, but I got the vibe that they were wearing that stuff for how it looked and not because they were big Yankees fans.  This seems to be Red Sox country.  It is funny that the Red Sox, like the White Sox and the Angels and just playing out the season because that is their jobs.  Those 3 fine teams, which could easily hold their own against anyone in the NL, will not be playing after tomorrow.  The interesting thing for Yankees fans is their lot in life is just like an A's fan right now.  They could win or lose tomorrow and it does nothing to whatever their playoffs will be.  Both teams are waiting to see who wins the central and who becomes the wild card.  Both the Yankees and A's play meaningless games and wait to see if they play the Tigers or the Twins.  I really feel like no matter who either teams plays, the ALCS will be Yankees - A's.  Tuesday stuff starts to matter again.  

On Baseball Tonight between midnight and 1 am Maine time, they kept flashing up A's scores, 7-6 Angels in the 7th it said. Then 7-6 Angels in the 9th, then 7-6 Angels Final. I wanted to start a chant: It just doesnt MATTER! It just doesnt MATTER! I see that Macha has been playing some scrubs every night. I guess that is the smartest move he has made all year. He is proving my point, that it just doesnt matter and if the Angels sweep this series, it doesn't affect who the A's play or who gets the home field advantage or anything. The Angels can have a nice sweep if they win tomorrow and the deal is, they go home and the A's go to the playoffs. And the A's go to the playoffs fairly rested and with their pitching however they want it. The media wants to focus on the meaning of the baseball games played by teams that have either clinched or are out of it, but the truth is, It just doesnt matter.