Rocktober

The Colorado Rockies have swept the Arizona D'backs, four games to zip, and are headed to the World Series—first time for the franchise. I like both those teams but am happy for the Rockies and especially for Yorvit Torrealba, who once upon a time played for the Giants. Liked him then; like him now. Matt Herges, one of the Rocks' relief pitchers, was also once a Giant. My best memory of him is something he once said about how he focuses when he's on the mound: "I look for a pebble, and I concentrate on it before I begin my windup." When he began faltering and losing games, some of us considered sending him a handful of pebbles to help out.

Meanwhile, east of the Mississippi, the Boston Red Sox are down two games to one against the Cleveland Indians, and I'm rooting for the Tribe, mostly because they haven't won a Series since 1948 or so. Plus, they have Kenny Lofton, also a former Giant, who knocked in the winning run back in '02 (or some such year—I'm not very good at remembering that kind of stuff) to send the Giants to the Series.

What I'm enjoying most about watching these games is how nice it is not to care so bloody much about who wins. When the Giants are playing a game, every pitch is fraught with anxiety. Nevertheless, despite my more-detached attitude, it's my nature (and maybe human nature) to come down on the side of one or the other (which may explain world politics). Anyway, just having baseball for a few more days is happiness . . . soaking it up to try to make it last until spring.