Following Baseball is Not Easy in South America

UPDATED: 9:45 p.m. Local Time...

I forgot! I have AOL Instant Messenger. I logged on and have been getting updates in real time from a couple of friends back home. And, we are discussing the game and other fun topics at the same time. This is not nearly as good as being next to them, but at least I don't have to keep watching the tiny diamond (which is slow) the entire time. The only problem is that it's now 3-1 Tampa Bay. Hopefully this game gets wrapped up before the router is turned off.


Apparently the popularity of baseball only extends to Venezuela, because there is no place in Ecuador to watch, hear, or even talk about it. It's hard enough to think about it, being so removed from the whole process. But it's playoff season, and as a Red Sox fan, it's so hard to not be watching every game, especially now that they are in Game 7 of the ALCS, or American League Championship Series.

I can remember throughout my college days sitting in small, cramped rooms with dozens of other people, all silent while watching the playoffs, except for during the commercials when we would make fun of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver as much as possible. And of course, I'll never forget when the Sox actually won the World Series my freshman year, and those riots that followed.

But now I'm here in South America, and the best I can do is watch ESPN Gamecast, which is hardly a substitute. I've got no one to talk to about the game and it's extremely boring watching an animated ball slowly go to the fake plate on the tiny diamond. But it's the best I can get, and while the connection comes and goes and my laptop battery pushes the limit, I have to hope that I can make it through the game. Because of some strange blockage in signal, I can't pick up the Internet in my room, where I have access to an outlet, but rather have to sit in the hall where there are no electrical outlets, wasting my battery.

But this is the sacrifice a fan makes. I'll sit by and probably get a lot of radiation in the process, but as long as I can keep an eye on my Sox, it's worth it. And now, in the Top of the 3rd inning, it's 1-0 Boston. I'm not even sure how it got this far. The Rays were poised to beat them two games ago, and all of my information comes in slower than a turtle stampede through peanut butter, so all I know is that a game is on.

But enough of writing about this, I'm getting back to the game...sort of.