Field of Dreams

Why we love baseball:

OK, so here's the situation: The Washington Nationals played the Houston Astros on May 5 in Washington. It was a high-scoring but otherwise unremarkable game. Anyway, with the game tied in the bottom of the 11th inning, and with Elijah Dukes (of Washington) on first, the rains came. The teams were unable to resume play that night. So what happens?

(Above, Joel Hanrahan; below, Nyjer Morgan)

In baseball, a game is "official" after five innings (or four and a half if the home team is ahead). So, if a game is rained out before five innings are completed, it's as if the game never started, never happened. Back when Cal Ripken, Jr., of the Baltimore Orioles broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played, the celebrations didn't occur until after the 5th inning. Pity the player who does something remarkable--say, hits a couple of home runs in one inning--before the bottom of the 5th on a cloudy day; those stats disappear if the game does not reach official status. Of course, if a game is rained out after the 5th inning, then the game is official and the results stand. Frustrating for the team down by a run in the 7th, but that's the way it goes.

What happens, though, when it starts to rain after the 5th inning of a tie game? In that situation, the game is suspended. At some later date, the teams will pick up exactly where they leave off. This is what happened in the otherwise unremarkable Washington-Houston game, and this is where things get weird.

Last night, the teams resumed their delayed game. They were in Houston, though, where the Nationals were the visiting team. Well, OK, no big deal. The game still "began" in the bottom of the 11th, with the Nationals batting and a runner on first. If Washington scored, the game would end--the "home team" having gotten "last licks." Indeed, within seven minutes, the Nationals DID score, ending the game.

The winning pitcher for the Washington Nationals was Joel Hanrahan. . . of the Pittsburgh Pirates. See, between May 5 and yesterday, Hanrahan had been traded to Pittsburgh. Still, he was the "pitcher of record" for Washington (i.e., the last pitcher who was in the game for the team before they scored the winning run). Here's an even odder statistic: Remember Elijah Dukes? He was the guy on first for Washington when it started to rain. He's no longer with the team either. So Washington put Nyjer Morgan into the game as a pinch-runner for Dukes, and he scored the winning run.

By the way, you know who the Nationals got from the Pirates for Joel Hanrahan? You guessed it: Nyjer Morgan!

In other words, the Nationals won the game behind a pitcher who is no longer with the team, and the winning run was scored by someone who isn't on the official game-day roster.

If you followed all that, children, you're ready to unravel the mysteries of the infield-fly rule.

**************************************

Cultural Illiteracy Check

Here are the Top Ten Yahoo! searches as of this moment:

10. MLB Scores: Quite possibly due to the situation described above.

9. BBQ Recipes: Umm. . . .4th of July reminiscences already?

8. Pedro Martinez: Future Hall of Fame pitcher, last played for the Mets. No idea why he's in the news now.

7. Eureka TV Show: New season starts tonight. Good show, by the way. Fluffy, but fun.

6. Pamplona Bull Run: Is it time for that again already? Our stitches have just healed from last year!

5. Bruno Movie: Now playing.

4. Jason Priestley: "Beverly Hills 90210" heartthrob not named Luke Perry. No idea. Maybe he and Joyce DeWitt were discovered in flagrante delicto.

3. Angelina Jolie: Always nice to look at, but we don't know of any particular reason she's in the news today.

2. Robert Plant: Led Zeppelin lead singer. Is he dead?

1. David Arquette: Now we know Yahoo! is just making stuff up. There is NO reason ANYONE would be searching David Arquette! Not even Courtney!

We're giving ourselves a cultural literacy score of 40% for today, for an overall weekly rating of 45%. Three days to go!

(Images from foxsports.com)