OK, if you're not a baseball junkie, feel free to ignore.
But Johan Santana just pitched the first No-Hitter in the 50-year history of the NY Mets, against the St. Louis Cardinals. (That's 8,019 games!) Excitement reigns here in Brooklyn, as the winds held off their gale-like conditions just long-enough to get the game in.
Very exciting! I was listening to the Yankee game on the radio (amazing coincidence; I begged out of a poetry reading on Long Island; this is the first time I've listened to a ball game on the radio in years, no functioning TV and no cable anyway), when the announcer said that Santana had a No-Hitter through the first half of the game, so I switched over to the Mets game in time to hear Lucas Duda hit a 3-run homer and put the Mets ahead 5-0. (It ended at 8-0).
Great defensive plays by the Mets. As the game went on, Baxter -- the utility Left fielder -- raced to the wall to catch a long drive by Yadir Molina and crashed into it, holding onto the ball to preserve the No Hitter. That seemed to liven up the defense, as the Mets turned one sparkling play after another, and the announcers refused to use the word "no hitter" or "no hits for the Cardinals", instead phrasing it unusually as "In case you're just tuning in, the Mets so far have all the hits in the game." Didn't want to jinx Santana.
Apparently, the only umpiring gaffe was early on, when former Met Carlos Beltran popped a Texas Leaguer down the left field line that replays showed hitting the chalk (according to the announcers), meaning that it should have been called a fair ball and a hit, but the umpire called it a foul ball. (These bad calls happen once or twice every game.) But there were still 4 innings to play, so it wasn't thought at the time to be anything significant.
Anyway, Obama orders his assassination drones (while giving the "Medal of Freedom" to Bob Dylan -- no Eartha Kitt, he, what a shame!), Fukashima Reactor 4 is in crisis, radioactive tuna are now reaching California's waters from Japan, police in NYC have stopped and frisked over a million people these last 2 years, Greece is in rebellion against the bankers and IMF, the student loan debt passes the $1 trillion mark, and we all can now be arrested for "conspiring" to .... breathe (or should that be "aspiring"). But, in this moment, before getting back to the horrors, there's this one great moment. So congratulations to Johan Santana and the NY Mets! (Wise choice to listen to the Mets game on the radio, tonight.)
All's not anywhere near well with the world, but for one moment there is joy in Mudville as mighty Johan struck'm out!
Mitchel
Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in. ~ Leonard Cohen