There Are Not Words . . .

. . . to express the horror, the rage, the crushing disappointment of watching the baseball team that you have given your heart to for over a quarter century get within one strike of winning the World Series twice and then go on to lose the game in the bottom of the 11th inning to a weaker team, a team that but for a series of miracles would not even be in the World Series. I cannot find the words for the feeling that gives you. The best commentary on the game from the Texas Ranger point of view is at BBTIA with the accompanying comments from shattered Ranger fans.

Here is an email exchange I had with one of my very best friends. We jumped through all the doctorate hoops at LSU together. He's a true baseball fan, and a true friend. He understands.

Bro,

Have been out of pocket several days—just back from the Southern [Historical Association convention].  Of course, your name came up on several occasions, especially after the painful loss in the World Series.   If there has ever been a more painful loss in the World Series, I don’t know when it was.  Marius and I were going to turn in at decent hour (we were in Baltimore on Eastern Time) but got hooked about the middle of Game 6.   We ran into a number of stunned Texans at the conference.  I felt for you, bro

George, you are one of the truest of friends to understand the unbelievable hurt. There are not words to describe the crushing disappointment, the devastation. Baseball is the cruelest of sports. Bart Giamatti said the game was designed to break your heart. How utterly right he was. Of course, there are myriad explanations, all in retrospect, as to what might have been done in game 6 to avert disaster, but the ballplayers say they just "didn't get it done." That's as good a place to leave it as any.

Save this one observation: Ranger pitching, except for a few shining exceptions, just went south for most of this Series. As for the loss of the whole thing, I don't think there's a baseball team out there that could have recovered from game 6. Like I told my similarly saddened sons: this is like a wake service that never gets over. I don't think I can recover till next April, and maybe not even then.

Box score and play-by-play are here.