The semifinal was to be held at Bois-Guillaume today, provided that the rain held off all night. Naturally, it did nothing of the sort, and this morning a few inspired Normandy citizens were seen near the Parc des Cosmonautes making the preliminary preparations for a large, biodiverse cruise ship of some kind. I almost feel […]
The semifinal was to be held at Bois-Guillaume today, provided that the rain held off all night. Naturally, it did nothing of the sort, and this morning a few inspired Normandy citizens were seen near the Parc des Cosmonautes making the preliminary preparations for a large, biodiverse cruise ship of some kind.
I almost feel like I don’t have to tell you what happened. We went out and looked at a torn-up field, and insisted that it be given some time to dry out. The umpires showed up with the Technical Director from the Federation, who declared that the game would go on as planned. Unfortunately, this time, I didn’t have a team I could pull off the field in the name of common sense, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to start handcuffing myself to the mound. Instead, I just sulked off to the side, incredulous, trying hard to resist the inclination to tell the technical director to stick his Challenge de France where the sun don’t shine, which to be fair, is in Normandy. It’s probably the angriest I’ve been at any time during my stay in France.
(Rant deleted here for the purposes of diplomacy)
In any case, Savigny played Toulouse in the semi-final, and it was a tight match throughout. I didn’t watch as I was busy studying in the clubhouse, but I came out in the ninth and watched the new Canadian pitcher for Savigny try to close out a 6-4 victory. Toulouse popped up two bunts in the inning (the French, as always, adore the bunt) and found themselves with men on first and second with two outs. A routine popup then fell in front of Romain, the Savigny left-fielder, as he didn’t get a good jump off the slippery field. (Whodathunkit? Oh, wait- me and everyone else. Never mind.) That made it 6-5, with two outs and men still on first and second. The next hitter drilled a ball into left to tie the game, but the runner on first base inexplicably rounded second and carried on toward third base. Now, if I think hard enough, I’m sure I can remember some sort of rule about making the third out at third base… What is it again? Oh, right-
YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT DO IT, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND IF YOU DO, THE BASEBALL GODS WILL SMITE YOU WITH GREAT VENGEANCE AND FURIOUS ANGER.
It’s just an absolutely unforgivable blunder, a moment of brain death that ended up costing Toulouse the game, because the home plate umpire declared that the runner from second had not yet crossed home plate as the tag was applied at third. It’s only moderately relevant that it was one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen, and that the runner was at the grass having left the home plate circle when the call was made. (A true Joe West special, by the way- apparently, one thing that doesn’t change across continents is that umps love making controversial calls that draw all the attention to them.) The fact is, that baserunner cost his team the game.
In any case, the final is going on now at Rouen. I think you can check it out at the Huskies’ website. Needless to say, these three webcams were never installed at the BG field…
