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The date: July 15th, Wednesday 2003.
The place: My house
The game: The Phillies (My team) vs The Houston Astros (Gary's team)
So Gary comes over to play some baseball, and basically have a nice relaxing
day of watching the baseball all-star game and playing the updated World Series
Baseball game (He only has a Dreamcast, and is therefor stuck in the year 2002
for every game. Ask him how a sports player did in 2003 and he just gets a
blank look in his eyes and doesn't comprehend what you are saying). So we start
our first game, the Jays (me) vs the Mariners (him), our favorite teams. My
team is rated 10 points worse overall, but I have played 2K3 and Gary hadn't,
so it evened it out a bit. Still, Gary's rookie hands at 2K3 showed through
as I won the first game in a tight affair, 3-1. Go Halladay! The next game,
I believe I won around 8-2, or 6-1, another win for me and the Jays. I was
pretty confident, and believed I was unstoppable at this point. Then we go
to Seattle for the 3rd game of the series, and the score is at 5-5 in like
the 8th inning, and here I am still thinking I am the god of World Series 2K3.
Then BAM! Gary gets 4 runs, via a grand slam or a bunch of annoying hits, I
don't remember, as I was too shocked at what had happened. I started panicking,
and swinging at shitty shitty pitches that were painted to the corners by that
asshole Moyer, and I ended up losing. Just a little flaw I think, I just got
too lazy. That's all. Game four starts, and I switched teams, believing the
10 points in OV to be my downfall, and believing that Gary had a good enough
hold of the game for us to try new teams. So I go to the Red Sox, having told
G how unstoppable I would be one Pedro and Nomar were on my team, and how he
was going down. He picks the DiamonBacks to counter Pedro, but I laugh to myself
as I think he won't have enough hitting to take me on. Here's where my first
rant comes in. In World Series 2K3, a batter has a square that shows how good
he cant hit the ball in certain areas. 9 small squares divided this big square
up, and a square can either be red (good at hitting the ball there), blue (bad
at hitting ball there) or clear (neutral). Add to this, the batting icon you
use, can be range from pathetically small, to Ichiro large. What do I find
out when I start playing? All the Red Sox have NO red areas, many many blue
areas, and the DiamnondBacks are pumped full of red areas, and have large batting
icons. Then Pedro starts throwing around shitty pitches, and Randy Johnson
decides to make me his personal bitch, and BAM I lose like 12-0, or 18-0, with
me only getting 3 pathetic hits. Die Nomar, Die Pedro! So, with the anger still
running through me, I run to the Giants, and pray that Bonds will come through
for me, while Gary runs to the Dodgers, laughing as he now has the 2-0 winning
streak. But BAM! I start the 1st inning and run the score to 8-0, finalized
by Barry Bonds hitting a 3 run homerun to make my point, as I jump up and down
pumping my fist at the TV. (Me and Gary would often pump our fists and yell
at the TV during this night of baseball, it seemed to help us). Gary's team
starts choking like the Dodgers usually do, and he quits in the third giving
me the win. I don't know if we played another game before THE GAME, but
if we did, I will assume I won. (On a sidenote, World Series Basbeball, otherwise
known as crack, was played during the commercial breaks of the Baseball All-Star
game. Imagine heroin addicts clutching at free handouts of drugs, and that's
what we were like holding our controllers waiting for the innings to tend so
we could rush through a 3 minutes inning). Finally, G decides he must go, but
not before one game is played. THE GAME. So I decide to pick
the Phillies and G decides to pick the Astros. (Another sidenote, I almost
didn't pick the Phillies, which would have made THE GAME never
happen, as I saw all the right handed hitters in my lineup, and was scared
of Gary destroying them all with his right handed pitchers, but luckily the
Astros were full of righties as well, so I picked them anyways, in their 1970
retro pajama uniforms to boot.) So we start the game, and I get lazy, and start
swinging at the shitty sliders and curves G is prone to use, and all of a sudden
the bases are loaded. Millwood, otherwise known as GOD, gets
me out this situation, and I am relieved. Once again, I am pretty sure I went
down 3 straight in the second inning as I once agian was not patient and got
beat up by G's controlled pitching. Then in the second the bases get loaded
again, I think, either way, the end result being Gary gets a 5-0 lead, and
I am having bad visions of having to leave the night on this horrible loss.
My team is still playing like crap, when Kevin Millwood comes to the plate,
and I get this idea. If I can just hit a homerun with my pitcher, then I won't
care if I lose, because I will have the demoralizing fact my pitcher got a
homerun off of Gary. So I step up to the plate, and powerswing one, and I foul
it. I powerswing again, and I foul it again. I now give up on my homerun idea
and just go for the backup demoralizing plan of just getting a hit off of Gary
with my pitcher when THE HOMERUN happens. Millwood hits a
blooper to right field, and Gary, lauging at me, dives out to make an awesome
catch and rub it in my face.....but NO! the ball goes over his right fielder
and bounces into the corner! Millwood sees this and chugs to second base! G's
rightfielder runs to the corner, but he is slow, and Millwood not so slow!
Millwood runs to third, and now the rightfielder has the ball and he throws
it at home with Gary screaming "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo" and Millwood
chugs to home and slides across the plate for the inside the park homerun!
I once again institute the pumping of the fist and screaming at the TV and
laugh at my coup. G shakes his head, but remains calm as he dreams of shutting
me down with his 100 OV closer. But something's changed. My team wakes up.
They begin to rally around Millwood. After a couple innings I make it 5-2.
Then Millwood has a chance to be a hero again, with 2 men on base....but he
chokes and pops up into the outfield. But I don't give up, I know Millwood
has more in him. The game continues, and it gets to 5-3, me slowly chipping
away at the lead. My memory of this is hazy, as I was too pumped on adrenaline
to remember it all correctly, though I am sure G knows it all and will correct
me, but Millwood once again comes to the plate....I try the homerun play again,
but it doesn't work....but he does get a hit. Yet another blooper to the outfield
just out of the reach of his fielders lands in, and Millwood gets on base.
Then, in the 8th inning, it's 5-4, and I am freaking out, as I want this win.
By this time, Millwood has done all one man can do, having gotten 11 strikeouts
through 7 innings, and THE HOMERUN, but yet once more, a pitcher
comes through for me. I don't know his name, because it isn't Millwood, but
again my pitcher gets on base. Then, Jeff Kent, a man who had homered earlier
in the game, starts two of his errors in the game. I hit a shot into the outfield
with 2 outs, and it looks like an easy out to end the inning, but when the
field sends the ball into second for the easy tag out.....Kent doesn't tag.
He stands up and stares at the man running to home. With visions of getting
the guy at the plate out and looking like a hero, Kent stares down home....but
with all his visions of sending the ball home, he doesn't throw in until after
my guy runs past homeplate, tying the game. Gary because then screaming about
the stupid controls and wondering what the hell Kent is smoking, as Kent just
allowed the game to be tied up. The 9th inning rolls along, and it's still
all tied up. Then, in the 10th, I get a run up, and I don't remember how, but
I believe I hit a shot to the outfield and my guy ran in from second, nothing
dramatic, but enough to get me once again pumping my fist and screaming, as
I got the hit off the 100 OV reliever. But now it comes down to the bottom
of the 10th, with Gary set up to bat with his big batters coming to the plate,
Kent amongst them. The first batter gets to first, and I start sweating. Obviously
my pitcher sucks, so I send in another one. Then once again Kent makes another
fatal error. Kent hits a grounder up the left side, but my shortstop grabs
it and sends it to second, and my 2nd baseman sends it to first for the double
play, but it's too late.......until Kent keeps running. Jeff Kent runs past
first base, and walks right into my firstbaseman, tagging himself out. Kent
once again comes through for me, and once again leaves Gary wondering if it
is possible to shoot Kent in the videogame. I am screaming with delight, and
with the last batter, Gary sends a grounder to my shortstop, whom I throw the
ball to first for the easy out, thus ending the best damn baseball game I have
ever played. Millwood, you rule. Kent, you the man. If I had recorded this
game, I would keep it forever. But since I didn't, I will have to keep it alive
through my badly remembered written version. :)
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