More things you don't do in baseball

In 2000 I was fortunate enough to get face-value tickets to see the Red Sox and Braves play in Fenway Park. It was my first game at Fenway since my early teenage years and there are really only two things I remember about it. First, the Braves won. Second was the heckling of that great humanitarian John Rocker, for which my own contribution was "How do you spell relief? R-O-KKK-E-R!".

This past weekend Alexa and I were able to procure two tickets at considerably more than face-value to see the Sawx and Braves play in Atlanta. It was my first time at a regular season MLB game in a venue other than Fenway, though with the number of Red Sox fans in attendance it might as well have been a home game. Every cheer from Red Sox Nation was greeting with a disinterested chorus of boos from the home team fans. I say "disinterested" because of one thing: Interested fans don't leave early when the outcome remains in doubt.

Granted it was 95 degrees for the first pitch at Turner Field, and it certainly felt hotter than that until the 5th inning when clouds rolled in. But for the first six innings it was a 0-0 game. I may be in a minority of sport fans who appreciate and enjoy low-scoring, defensive-minded games, but there's something special about knowing one pitch, one hit, one aggressive baserunner, or one accurately thrown ball can make the difference between a win and a loss.

So color me surprised when after the 6th inning ended, Braves fans started to leave.

Then during the 7th inning stretch, after the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead, more Braves fans started to leave.

After each half-inning ended more Braves fans left! I was incredulous. Did you seriously pay $40 or more per ticket to watch 2/3 of a ballgame? I could understand if the Sox were winning 12-2 or by some similarly ridiculous margin, but not a 1-0 game.

I heard from friends who had their own theories: They are trying to beat the traffic. It's too hot. One run is all you need to beat Atlanta this year. The list went on.

All I needed to know about why leaving a game early is a bad thing happened when I was 11 years old. I'd gone to a game with my uncle and cousin. The Red Sox and Tigers. In the 7th inning the Sox were losing 6-3, and my uncle was ready to leave. Since he was my way home, we left. The Sox tied the game in the bottom of the 9th inning, and if memory serves correctly they won it in the 14th.

In the bottom of the 9th the Braves first batter struck out. The second one lofted a fly ball to deep right field that would have cleared the wall if the wall were 3 feet closer to home plate. The third batter doubled. Fortunately for the Red Sox, the fourth and final batter grounded out.

Two opportunities to win the game, and thousands of Braves fans missed them because leaving early is the "in" thing to do.

In A League Of Their Own, Tom Hanks infamously said "There's no crying in baseball." Had his character been at the game this weekend, Jimmy Dugan would have shed a tear or two, then he'd have yelled to the umpire that he looked like a penis with that little hat on.

Vacationland

There are a few basic rules to follow when you are the BDWIC (Big Dog What's In Charge) of any entity:

1. Unless you die, are fired, resign, are rendered unconscious or comatose, or are overthrown, you are always in charge.
2. As long as rule #1 is still applicable, it's never a good idea to be unreachable for any reason.
3. If you are a public figure, whether a politician, commissioner of a sports league, union head, or Mob boss, word will eventually get out that you can't be found if you violate rule #2.
4. If word gets out that you can't be found, your sycophants will rally around the space you used to occupy to protect your reputation, while your opponents will encircle them trying to breach said space and make you look like a fool.

It can't be said that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford marches to the beat of any other drum but his own. This is probably why he willingly violated the first three rules, and was supposedly surprised to hear that rule #4 went into effect.

Sanford is spoken about with reverence by some in the Libertarian wing of the GOP as a potential 2012 presidential candidate. After all, this is the same governor who with a Republican-dominated Legislature can't seem to get a single bill of his own passed. Of course, they might still be a teensy bit sore about the defecating pigs incident.

Still you have to admire Sanford for sticking to his principles in the face of rising unemployment, shrinking tax revenues, and concerns over same-sex teenage dating violence. He is most definitely his own man.

Someone should probably tell him he is really South Carolina's "man" for another 18 months, even if most of its citizens would prefer next time he takes a break from the world he just stayed away.