Division Series, Day One:
Technology Gooood

Michael Cox

How to deal with that timeless dilemma: How to catch three playoff games, even though I'm spending most of the day in a room with no TV or radio?

Thank heaven I work in the modern age of computers.

Armed with a passel of URLs, I made my mind up to keep up on the day's events via Our Friend the Internet. Pretty simple, really, and if you're reading this, I'm sure you agree. Most teams have RealAudio links to radio feeds of their games, and there are real-time scores aplenty -- even that cute little animated baseball diamond on Sportsline. Easy, right?

Well, sorta.

First off, the Red Sox faced off in Cleveland against the Indians, and several minutes after game time, I went to the BoSox' site to catch their feed. There, I ran into problem #1: something was apparently wrong with their server. They do such a good job spamming, er, publicizing their site that I figured it had been swamped. Plan B: go directly to Broadcast.com.

Sure enough, after navigating a Byzantine maze of links leading back to MLB's page, I had a feed. As I began listening to the Indians announcers (a feed that the Tribe charges for as a premium option), I noticed an utter lack of crowd noise. Navigating to Sportsline (the "Official Postseason Site of MLB," more an admission that MLB's own site leaves much to be desired than anything), I learned that this was due to Mo Vaughn's three-run homer in the first inning. From there, though, Cleveland starter Jaret Wright settled down for a while, then relapsed when Nomar Garciaparra did him in with a three-run blast in the fifth.

From there a 11-3 Boston rout was on, with Pedro Martinez giving up the three runs in 7 IP, while the BoSox sluggers continued to feast on Tribe hurlers Doug Jones and Steve Reed. Vaughn ended up with two homers and seven RBI, matching Edgar Martinez' single-game RBI record on the day when Edgar's 1999 option was picked up by the M's.

Net congestion only sabotaged the audio feed a couple of times, and stopping and restarting in the RealAudio player fixed it both times. Now, it's on to the Astros-Padres link on the MLB site. For this feed, we get the Houston announce team, and a much noisier crowd.

This game matched up to its billing as a pitchers' duel in every way, with the sole exception of the nine hits allowed by Randy Johnson in his eight innings. Those who do not remember (i.e., every mass-media reporter, it seems) call it some sort of "pattern of losing," while those of us who lived the 1995 playoffs know a different story. Perhaps the Unit needs to be overused like he was back then?

Anyway, it was Pads starter Kevin Brown's day, with a very Johnsonesque pitching line of two hits and 16 strikeouts in eight innings. A scoreless tie was broken in the sixth when career journeyman Jim Leyritz drove in an obviously lame (his leg, stupid) Tony Gwynn with a sac fly. Greg Vaughn's solo homer in the eighth was all the scoring the Fightin' Monks would need, despite a ninth-inning Astro rally. After Bill Spiers scored off Ken Caminiti's throwing error, Pads closer Trevor Hoffman completed the deal. 2-1 Padres.

Okay. With one hour standing between me and a TV, it's back to Broadcast.com for the Yankees-Rangers feed.

D'oh.

There's a feed all right, but after the requisite minute of copyright admonition, it's the Yanks-Tampa Bay game from Sunday. As much as I want to relive the heartfelt gesture of the Yank bench scrubs lobbing free baseballs into the stands, I'd rather hear the new game. So I mosey over to the Yankees' web site, click the link, sit through the Lenox ad, and...Homer Bush and Ricky Ledee, tossin' balls to the crowd.

If Broadcast.com didn't threaten to mess up anyone posting a direct link to a good feed, I'd be listening to a ball game right now. I resist the urge to go to Sportsline's "Baseball Live," because I've watched far too many "games" there where one of those weird baseball events (catcher's interference, Irabu throws his glove at a ball in play, etc.) seems to throw the whole program off. You're watching little cartoon men battle to a 6-3 score, while the real world game is 3-1. Nope. I satisfy myself with an ESPNet constantly updating page o' scores until I make it home.

And what a barnburner of a game I was missing. Both David Wells and Todd Stottlemyre pitched fine games, with an NL-like second inning by the Yankees (walk, double, single, fielder's choice) plating Jorge Posada and Chad Curtis for the only runs of the game. A Paul O'Neill double in the first would have scored Chuck Knoblauch, were it not for a dead-on relay to Ivan Rodriguez, who was a goddamn brick wall.

Only once after the second was there more than one baserunner for either team -- the Ranger seventh. A one-two-three inning by Mariano Rivera sealed the 2-0 victory for the Yankees.

Despite all the advances of the Internet, there's still nothing like taking in the analog radio or TV, or at least until 'Net connections are consistent and actually as fast as the cable internet commercials (I have a T-1 line and it isn't that fast). But in a pinch, it'll do.

So, to summarize: The Internet is better than a kick in the pants.

about the author

Michael Cox hopes he won't be writing an article every night this week. He can still read mail while he ices down his tendons, however, so write him at mc@strikethree.com.