Cubs versus Dodgers: Game Two [by Peter Ferry]

There are six of us (four Democrats, two Republicans, all Cubs fans) in a cottage on the beach near South Haven, Michigan, and the waves are breaking hard on the sand outside. We’ve come together to cook and eat Paella Valenciana, watch the vice-presidential debate, and root for the Cubs. The pundits are saying that this is a must win for both Sarah Palin and the Cubs.

“May I call you Joe?” Palin asks Biden as they shake hands. Palin is aggressive just like Alfonso Soriano who singles to lead off the game and Carlos Zambrano who comes out firing like his old self. She’s all “hecks” and “darn rights.” She invokes the name “John McCain” in virtually every sentence and the word “fight” or “fightin” in most. But out at Wrigley Field the fans are on their feet screaming with two outs and Soriano on second in the very first inning. They already sound a little desperate.

Oops. The Cubs make two errors in the second including a blown double play that would have ended the inning, and the Dodgers are suddenly up by five runs. Biden makes no errors, but he can’t get a hit either. It’s all Palin so far. Did she just wink at me? Cubs fans and Democrats alike have an all too familiar sinking feeling.

Now it’s six nothing, then seven. The Cubs make another error. Griffin calls from college in total despair. Ron Santo is on the radio wailing, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”  Dick Stockton says the Cubs need a big inning. So does Biden, but unlike the Cubs, he gets his. He hits, if not a home run, a double off the wall when he recites a litany of ways in which McCain’s policies are no different that George Bush’s, who’s about as popular in the debate as a billy goat in a box seat; Biden can’t say his name enough and Palin never does.

Beating Palin to the sympathy punch, Biden knocks one over the wall when he says, “I know what it means to have a son who may not make it” with a catch in his voice. Late inning rally, and in the end the talking heads say that Biden probably won the debate, but that Palin didn’t lose it. Both kept their cool and played errorless ball.

Not so the Cubs. Out at Wrigley Field it’s ten to one when I go to bed. The best team in the league looks like the worst and its “insurmountable lead” at home has turned into a landslide for the Dodgers.

Say it ain’t so, Joe. Or Lou.

Now their only chance is to go to LA and win three in a row.

Course they did do that once before this year.

Stay tuned.

-- Peter Ferry