You can't win 'em all

The Yankees lost their third game of the playoffs this afternoon. They are 2 - 1 and do move on to playing in the quarterfinals tomorrow. They played their hearts out and played a great game of ball. Both teams did! The rockies scored that run fair and square. This is the first time this season that I was really upset with umping. Yeah, there were other times during the season that the umps made a bad call or two and their strike zone was the size of a pea, but today the ump had a strike zone the size of the batter. I'm not kidding you! He was calling strikes on our guys when the ball was eye level or higher. Some balls were around the ankles and, sure enough, they were strikes. The ball could go outside the plate by a foot and it was called a strike! I so badly wanted to yell out that we needed a better ump, but what kind of example is that for the kids? I kept my composure until the end of the game. When the ump was within ear shot I said as loudly as I could to my husband, "that was bad umping!" I know he heard me. I was walking behind him to the concession stand, not purposely mind you, but I said loudly "what kind of strike zone was that?!" I was talking to my daughter who agreed. Then there's the boy who was up last for our team. In one respect I feel bad for him, and then again his behavior was a little embarrassing. He struck out and swore, and threw his bat down on the ground and was just about to throw his helmet down when the coach helped calm him down. He did have a lot of pressure on him. First he's been groomed to play ball. His parents put a ton of pressure on him and he doesn't get treats from the concessions if he didn't play well. Second, it was the top of the 6th and we were up to bat. We were down 1-0 and if we didn't score this time we were done. The bases were loaded with 2 outs, and it was a full count. Talk about pressure. I don't think you can get much more pressure than that at this age. He struck out and that was the end. You've got to hand it to both teams. It was 0-0 until the 5th inning. The Rockies really played hard and improved so much from the last time we played them. We beat them that night. The yankees lost one game in the regular season and tied 2. This is the 2nd game they've lost in 19 games. That is pretty darn good! I'm proud of our boys for playing so well. Timmy summed it up very nicely when he said that the game was a lot of fun! It was. I just couldn't help getting upset with how unfair the ump was. Oh well. You win some and you lose some. That is just the way it goes.

There are more games tomorrow. Quarterfinals at 10 am. If we win those we are in the winners bracket of the semis. If we lose, we are in the losers bracket. Then at noon we play the semifinals. The winners of those teams move on to the championship, third place and consolation rounds. I'm looking forward to another great day of baseball! Go Yankees!!!