What we do is essentially meaningless.

I mean, between Sully, Mullet and I, I would guess we watch something like 150 baseball games a year each, at an average time of 3 hours. That’s 1350 hours. 56 days. Just watching baseball. Then, due to our obsessive collective natures, we discuss it, read about it, poke and prod it. We write on message board or blogs (heh). Basically, this form of entertainment consumes huge portions of our lives. I think baseball causes the most amount of obsession this side of Fall Out Boy. Beisbol turns us into 14-year-old brooding girls that think that Peter Wentz “gets us”.

Anyway, once in a while, you get a game like this. The trade deadline came and went with more innuendo and cock-blocks than you and your buddies seeing the hot girl with ugly friends. The tenor of fans on the internet and in the media tended to be a bit dour…no re-enforcements were coming.

David Wells laid a stinker and was pulled in the fifth after allowing two home runs to Casey Blake (different at bats). With Peralta at first, and the Sox down two, tomorrow’s scheduled starter Kyle Snyder came in to pretty much keep the Indians in the double digits. Snyder answered with 4.3 innings of one hit, six strike out ball.

But this game can be boiled down to one singular act by a man that is bordering on super human at this point.

Before David Ortiz hit his 1oth career walk off home run (including playoffs), I was talking to Sully online, lamenting the home town team. He was a little bit more pessimistic than I was (which is generally a reversal), but we agreed that things didn’t look great for the Red Sox through the scheduling buzz-saw that’s coming in August.

So, as the game started going into the late innings, the maligned Indians bullpen shut down an offense that had scored 6 runs in the first 4 innings. Sully and I were talking about the quality of the Red Sox offense against contenders like the Twins and the Angels…basically, we were just settled into a malaise about Boston’s chances. The Indians closer Fausto Carmona comes in and surrenders a single to Alex Cora. Then Kevin Youkilis drew a walk in a 7-pitch at bat. After the obligatory Mark Loretta pop up (by the way, not bunting is the absolute right call there…they would just walk Ortiz with one out, and Manny is as prone to GIDP as he is to hit a slam), David Ortiz stalked the plate.

There is not one person I know that didn’t expect the home run that followed. Which brings me to what I was talking about at the beginning. From mid-2003 until now, we’ve been watching the most exciting hitter in Boston since probably Ted Williams. He’s never been the best hitter on the team (usually reserved for Manny Ramirez) and he’s not the best DH in baseball (Travis Hafner), but there aren’t many people out there that don’t have a feeling about David Ortiz at bats. He inspires joy/terror that is almost unheard of for watching a forum of entertainment.

Players like David Ortiz (and David Wright/Ichiro and guys like that) are what makes the 18 days I spent of my year watching baseball seem too short.