The Ecstasy and the Agony

Well, we have the World Series everybody predicted. I mean — ANOTHER Rangers-Diamondbacks World Series? Can’t we give any other teams a chance?

I’ll be in Dallas tomorrow (!), that’s Oct. 26, and I’m sure we’ll have A LOT to say about the Rangers and the World Series and, oh yeah, WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL. Tickets are $10 and it’s going to be such a blast.

And I’ll be in Nashville next Wednesday, Nov. 1. It will be the night of Game 5 (if necessary), and I’ll be with my pal and musical legend Marty Stuart, and we just might get him to improvise a quick song about Corey Seager or Corbin Carroll or maybe even both.

Arizona 4, Philadelphia 2 (Diamondbacks to play Rangers in World Series)

I have been watching this video that MLB Network posted on TwiXter over and over and over again.

That’s a video of Jake Cave — the Phillies were down to Jake Cave — lofting a fly ball that, off-camera, Corbin Carroll pulls in to clinch the pennant for the Diamondbacks.

Now, there’s always going to be a real clash of emotions when a team clinches a pennant or a World Series on the road. But, honestly, I’ve never seen one quite like this. There are some sounds that I guess are boos — it sounds more like Westley’s sound of ultimate suffering from “Princess Bride” — but mostly what you SEE in the crowd is quiet and shell-shocked defeat. A few people begin walking out with the ball in the air, and then the ball is caught, and at that point just about everyone slowly shuffles together into a cold black night.

All while the Arizona players jump around in the foreground like they’re in a House of Pain video, and hero of the week Ketel Marte spikes his glove in triumph, and it’s like an Elizabethan painting you might call Joy and Sorrow.

Here’s the problem with writing about this series: