Lost!

High school baseball games can be as deeply gutwrenching as any Sox game, I have found out - and as deeply draining and dissapoiting as well. I had no idea what to expect in the Sate final of baseball bewtween St. Rita and New Trier - but I had a good Rita time, saw some old mates, and took in a minor league ballpark for the first time in many yars - and watched St. Rita lose downstate for the thrid time in the last six years, 4-3. Gutwrentching. Draining. Dissapointing.

Drove down to Joliet (not actually a bad ride - 57 to 80 and yr there in less than 30m) and it was an easy find. I'd looked up the maps beforehand, so I knew it would be easy to find - smack jabble i the middle of the downtwn area. I love little downtown areas - or really built up neighbourhoods inth city that have that 'Main Street" feel - and I like Joliets. Gf and I went to et there once on the return from Bald Eagle watching once - funny i missed the girl a lot as I was driving on 80 and walking about joiliet. I also like that Joliet is a river city - so, taking I-80 there involved the inevitable dip into the river valley when nearing the city. Not sure if this is endemic to all river areas - guess not - but it is typical of many. Always love that huge dip down.

Too cheap to pay for parking, - $1 - i parked on the street a block further on. Got in rite on time and sat gen admission for all of $6 - not too cheap for that. Immediately I found a seat behind the Mustang dugout amongst the ita crowd. I remember a Sox-Cubs gaeme maybe 10ya when there was a serios raindelay and most of the fans had split. When the rains stopped the crowds migrated in back of their teams dugut. Similar.

Rita went up 2-0 in the first - but the bad guys responded with one in the bottom half. We went up 3-1 in the second- but then three runs in the next 2 New Trier innings finished the scoring for the game. Rita came close again and again - but was never able to break through. 3-4.

I discovered HS baseball is much like all HS sports - don't expect these kids to make the play. In S basketball, that fouling @ the end of the game really reqally works beause there are no Reggie Miller 90%+ freethrow shhoters here. So, in HS baseball - really run that ball out - you never know when the other team will fuck up.

And guess what - Rita really fucked up - FIVE ERRORS!!!!! FIVE FUCKING ERRORS. Ashamedly, New Trier had none, although their play was sloppy at imes. But it got me thinking - was it a case of the uberrich north shore suburban school being disciplined where the city kids were not? Not really - St. Rita is not actually an 'inner city school', and parents have to pay to get there kids into Rita - abd these parents generally have been in th country for sometime now, are college educated, all that - plus its a Catholic school. So, not that - I've seen their basketball team be ripped apart by City teams again and again.

Methinks it was just that New Trier was the better team this nite. Maybe even the next nite.

But it was a killer - rita has been so close these ast few years, I thought this would have been the year. No errors by Rita - maybe'd've this year. Nope.

And the differences between HS and pro ball. Seven inings, not nine. The catcher gets a 'curtesy' runner to save his legs, I guess. Kids were called out from centerfield to warm up in the bull pen and a replacement put into the outfield. and every other ining, the Rita kids would all come out onto the field to have a team meeting - and the New trier dugout would jog up the foul lines and then back again. Since I'm not all the familier with HS baseball - it occurs @ the same time as girls soccer(though I made sure - to eddiecurryfavour w/ my schols others coaches - to watch a few of my schools games - well, innings)- so i'm not sure how widespread these practices are.

But the deal is is that the team lost. I headed out for a drink or four.