Orange October (II) – Giants Win NLDS Game 2 In 18 Innings (2 to 1)!!

Well, yesterday – and last night – we had one of the most intense baseball games I’ve ever sat through in my life.  The game started in the afternoon and ended over six hours later.  It was the longest running (6 Hours and 23 Minutes) baseball game in playoff history and tied for the most innings played (18) in playoff history.
The Nationals scored early taking a 1 to 0 lead and holding it through eight and two-thirds innings.  The Giants tied the game in the 9th inning and then played the equivalent of an entire second game (a “normal” game is only nine innings) to get the winning run off of a solo home run (from Brandon Belt) in the top of the 18th inning.  The Giants then held on for the final three outs to leave Washington D.C with a 2 game to 0 lead in a best of five series.
As I mentioned in my prior post – Orange October (I) – the team that wins the first game in a five game series wins the series 70% (historically) of the time
Sixty-eight (68) teams in major league history have lost the first two games of a five-game series.  Only eight have come back to win the next three games.  And, of those eight, just two did so after losing the first two games at home.  The issue(s) the Giants face are:  1)  they are playing the winningest team in the National League this year (96 wins);  2)  this same team has already come in to AT&T and defeated the Giants in three out of four games back in June;  and 3)  the Giants know a team can come back to win the last three in a best of five series because they were the last team to do it – just two years ago!
In any case, 3 out of 69 are pretty long odds and I like the Giants chances to finish the Nat’s in Game 3.  Then it’s wait until the end of the 2nd series – between the St. Louis Cardinals and the L.A. Dodgers.  Hopefully, the Cards take L.A the full five games before beating them and then we get to face the Cards with a rested team.  Still, it’s all in the hands of the baseball gods at this point…
I AM ORANGE INSIDE !!
.
On This Day In:
2021	Looking Up
	Shiny
2020	#45: Or All-Consuming Greed
	You Could Have Told Me Yourself
2019	Not Personal
2018	Preference For Irrationality
2017	All At Once
2016	One Of My Vices
2015	The War Lord
2014	Orange October (II) – Giants Win NLDS Game 2 In 18 Innings (2 to 1)!!
	Acknowledging Doubt
2013	Fulfilled Acceptance
2012	Error Is Tolerated Here (So Far)
2011	In Defense Of Pain

Read Full Post »

Acknowledging Doubt

Faith cannot block out darkness, or doubt.  When on the cross, Jesus did not cry out “Here I come!” but “My God, why have you forsaken me?”  His disciples brimmed with doubts and misgivings.
Just as courage is persisting in the face of fear, so faith is persisting in the presence of doubt.  Faith becomes then a commitment, a practice and a pact that is usually sustained by belief.  But doubt is not just a roiling, or a vulnerability;  it can also be a strength.  Doubt acknowledges our own limitations and confirms — or challenges — fundamental beliefs, and is not a detractor of belief but a crucial part of it.
…
If we don’t accept both the commonality and importance of doubt, we don’t allow for the possibility of mistakes or misjudgments.  While certainty frequently calcifies into rigidity, intolerance and self-righteousness, doubt can deepen, clarify and explain.  This is, of course, a subject far broader than belief in God.
The philosopher Bertrand Russell put it best.  The whole problem with the world, he wrote, is that “the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
Of that at least we can be certain.  I’m pretty sure, anyway.
—    Julia Baird
From her Op/Ed contribution to the New Your Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/opinion/julia-baird-doubt-as-a-sign-of-faith.html
[I originally found this quote at one of the blogs I follow:  http://davidkanigan.com/
The specific post is:  http://davidkanigan.com/2014/09/28/lets-hope-so/    —    kmab]
.
On This Day In:
2021	Looking Up
	Shiny
2020	#45: Or All-Consuming Greed
	You Could Have Told Me Yourself
2019	Not Personal
2018	Preference For Irrationality
2017	All At Once
2016	One Of My Vices
2015	The War Lord
2014	Orange October (II) – Giants Win NLDS Game 2 In 18 Innings (2 to 1)!!
	Acknowledging Doubt
2013	Fulfilled Acceptance
2012	Error Is Tolerated Here (So Far)
2011	In Defense Of Pain

Read Full Post »