What is Going On?
Oh wait; I do know what they were waiting for. In the bottom of the ninth inning with the Houston Astros up 6-4 Jose Valverde sprinted in from the visitor’s bullpen before coming to a crawl at the edge of the infield dirt. Fans all around the stadium burst out in cheers and stood and clapped. I sat there incredulously wondering if these people realized that Valverde was being brought in to nail down a victory for the opposing team. When Justin Upton struck out there were loud cheers as Valverde reacted to the out. Jeff Salazar hit a double down the right field line and the fans weren’t sure how to react. They got back into it when Chris Burke struck out for the second out of the inning. Eric Byrnes came up as a pinch hitter which seemed to bring the crowd back to the home team’s side. But after getting a 1-2 count the fans in the stands stood and began cheering on Valverde to get that last strike. Do these people not understand this is Arizona and you don’t stand and cheer the third strike against the home team? Before anyone could explain this Valverde blew a pitch by Byrnes and the game was over. The Astros defeated the Diamondbacks by a score of 6-4 as people clapped at their former closer finishing off the D-backs. Just when you think that Phoenix is starting to turn into a baseball town you witness stuff like last night and you begin to dread this weekend’s three game series against the New York Mets. This could get really embarrassing.
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Glynnjamin:
May 1st, 2008 at 12:47 AM
Well I dont know about you, but I was cheering for Byrnsie to get a hit…and so was everyone else in my section. We were all hoping for the Big Potato-sized meltdown that we are so used to from Valverde under pressure…that didn’t happen.
BTW – the people who only chear during the last strike need to get a clue. Just go get in your damn cars. You aren’t fans just cuz you stayed and clapped during the last strike/pitch. You spent half the game at the wiffleball field, two innings at the team shop, and another one just standing up for no reason and blocking my view. Now you want to stand up and cheer cuz we are doing exactly what we’ve been doing the whole game? No. Go home.