It is more difficult to predict. It is endlessly absorbing and often agonizing. It is a lot like first love, and it is bound to break your heart. It was real hard to watch,'' Hershiser said. If you looked around this locker room and in the dugout, down in the men's room and everywhere in the area that the players could go, everyone went into their cave when the Orioles were hitting, and everyone came out of their cave every time we got a zero and then went out there and hoped for a run.
Baseball is best when runs are dear, and the outcome seems to hang in the balance on each at-bat.
Cleveland pitcher Eric Plunk said of the Baltimore series. Baseball has more tradition than any other American sport, but its strongest selling point is its tension. In a close game with something significant at stake, you can feel the pressure mounting pitch by pitch, until the suspense reaches the Hitchcock range. SportsCenter carries the home runs and the circus catches, but the essence of baseball cannot be communicated by highlights. It is, instead, the anticipation and anxiety before the pitch, when blaspheming fans can be found praying and seasoned players can not be found at all because they can't bear to watch.