Sorry . . .

. . . for those of you who are not baseball fans. This is a post about baseball. Just back from watching the LSU Tigers tear up the Ducks of Oregon, a much trumpeted offensive power (supposedly), on Saturday, I settled in to watch the final game of the three-game series between my Texas Rangers and the Boston Red Sox, a team with a powerhouse lineup, who barring some kind of miracle, will make the American League playoffs.

It was a highly satisfying win. Not only did the Texas starter Matt Harrison pitch very well, but the Ranger bats continued to pound the ball. With this win, Texas also takes the 10-game season series from the Red Sox, 6 games to 4. You can find the box score and play-by-play here. Texas maintained a slim 2-0 lead going into the 6th inning. At that point the roof fell in on Boston. The Rangers sent hitters to the plate and scored 7 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks. The big blow was a three-run triple by Josh Hamilton.

It's highly likely that the Rangers and Red Sox will meet in the playoffs next month. If this is an indication of how Texas will fare, I'm more than ready. And this year I'll be in town to see all the games. Not like last year when I was out of the country in Europe and missed the division series altogether.

UPDATE I: A friend of mine pointed out this engaging NYT book review of the reissue of the one of the best baseball novels ever written, Robert Coover's The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. I've never run into a true baseball fan who hasn't read this book.