The last out

The St. Louis Cardinals must have felt drained in more ways than one as the final out in the top of the ninth was recorded in San Francisco last night.

A long season had come to an end. The finality of it all. In the dugout the Cardinals took a collective breath and eyed the scoreboard. It was hard to see past the infield, much less the scoreboard, as a driving rainstorm exploded above the stadium --- sending hard-hitting raindrops onto the faces of the Cardinals -- at least the one's who ventured out of the dugout to catch the finality of it all as 43,000 Giant's fans roared their approval on the outcome of Game 7 in the NLCS -- a 9-0 blanking that sent the Giants into another World Series.

It occurred to me what the final out -- the end of it all, so to speak, really means inside the heart, the gut, of an athlete who watches an opponent's celebration as he, and his team, relive a long season of ups and downs, there attainable goal always looming on the horizon, now coming to a crashing halt.

I felt the same way last Saturday as I sat in the dugout and watched the final out in our elimination game at the Men's Senior Baseball League (MSBL) World Series in Phoenix, Arizona. After months of preparation, once gain, the final out of our Arizona Scorpions-San Diego Mudcats game was recorded, and there I sat, for the fourth year in a row, with out a World Series ring, ousted from the playoffs -- two wins shy of the championship game. It is hard to win it all, whether its the Senior World Series or the "big one, the one the professionals play in every year in late-October. If there's any consolation, chances are the Cardinals will be back soon and find themselves in postseason play once again. And chances are, as I creep closer to the age of 70, I'll be back in 2013 looking for that allusive World Series ring.