October: A Time for Teammates

In October, baseball gets serious.

A season is a long haul -- each game is a small tile in a mosaic too large and complex to take in from up close. A languid game on a balmy night in July… well, you can’t quite remember who won, but you remember it was a good time.

In October, though, it’s easy to see how this game, this inning, this pitch brings your team closer to the end of the season. Closer to a World Series title or, more likely, to ‘wait ‘til next year.’

And under the magnifying glass of October, the human dramas of winning and losing come into focus. October 2010 has already provided several memorable stories; here are two.

The Atlanta Braves had a season to remember. Strong until midsummer, they endured a string of crippling injuries and sank in the standings. Yet they rallied at the end, making the playoffs on the last day of the season, extending the career of their remarkable manager.  Bobby Cox led the team to an amazing 14 straight division titles, while garnering respect as one of the game’s greatest gentlemen. Retiring reliever and sure Hall of Famer Billy Wagner commented, “The highlight of my career was being a Brave and playing for Bobby Cox.”

One symbol of the team’s resilience was utilityman Brooks Conrad. Conrad toiled in the minors for over a decade, playing 1,103 games at almost every position. He finally made the big club, and at age 30, the team’s injuries suddenly made him a contributor. He was an unheralded secret weapon off the bench, hitting a pinch grand slam to cap a 7-run rally in the 9^th inning of a game.

His fielding… well, it wasn’t good. Toward the end of the season he committed repeated errors, though also getting key hits. But he was the Braves’ best available option, not to mention a ‘gamer’ and a fan favorite. A heartwarming story.

In Game 3 of a tense playoff series against the favored San Francisco Giants, the story changed. Pick your cliché:  things went south, the wheels came off, he crashed and burned. Or (d), ‘all of the above.’

Conrad committed 3 errors, leading to 2 of San Francisco’s runs – including the winning run in the 9^th inning on a knee-high bouncer that somehow went between his legs.

TV captured him standing at his position, visibly berating himself as the boos rained down from the Atlanta crowd. His wife fled the park in tears with their two toddlers. Conrad sat in the dugout with his head bowed. In the postgame interviews: “I feel absolutely terrible right now. I wish I could just dig a hole and go sleep in there.”

Ready for a Cinderella ending? So was Conrad, but it was not to be. Cox benched him for the following game. He did get a chance to pinch-hit with the game on the line in the 9^th inning. But he wasn’t able to come through, and the series – and Cox’s career – was through. It was the first playoff series ever with all games decided by one run, and there was no way to hide the impact of the 3-error performance.

There was a public moment of grace. In the last game, the one after the errors, the home crowd dropped the boos and greeted him warmly, recognizing his work throughout the year and the kind of player he is.

But it was the way the team rallied around Conrad that was most powerful. His teammates offered heartfelt words of support – even the veterans who may never get another shot at a championship. Chipper Jones, whose injury forced Conrad into the lineup, said “There’s not a guy in here that wouldn’t take Brooks Conrad in their foxhole any day. We love the guy to death.” Tim Hudson, the pitcher whose effort Conrad had ruined, agreed: “We love him. We love him now more than we ever have.”

The sad truth is this. In sports as in life, too many heartwarming stories end sadly. When it happens, it helps to have a team alongside you. Rallying around one of their own in adversity, the Braves showed what it means to be a team.

The Texas Rangers demonstrated this too, but under much different circumstances.

The Rangers have been in the Dallas area since 1972; in that time, they’ve made the playoffs only three times, and never won a series. Thirty-eight years is a long time to wait to celebrate.

2010 was a special season for the Rangers, and they won the American League West in a runaway. A key to their season was their star center fielder, Josh Hamilton.

Hamilton was a can’t-miss prospect, drafted in 1999 in the first round and ticketed for stardom. But by 2004, he was out of the game – not for lack of ability, but his inability to resist alcohol and other drugs.

After three years away from baseball, he found teams willing to give him another chance, and in Texas he established himself as a star. His 2010 season was a masterpiece, marred only by missing September after breaking his ribs colliding with the outfield wall.

When the Rangers won the division crown in Oakland in late September, Hamilton avoided the locker room celebration, choosing not to be near the traditional spray of champagne and to keep a “Faith Day” speaking engagement elsewhere. (For a glimpse into the Hamilton's daily struggle as a "hair-trigger" addict, and his elaborate team/family/church system of checks and balances to keep him clean and sober, see this article.)

This week, at last, Texas won its first-ever playoff series, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays behind an incredible performance by pitcher Cliff Lee. Though Hamilton struggled in the series, his teammates didn’t want to celebrate without him. Over his protests, they pulled goggles onto his face and dragged him into the locker room, where they let loose with… Canada Dry.

"Everybody yelled 'Ginger ale!' and I just jumped in the middle of the pile and they doused me with it," Hamilton said. “It was the coolest thing for my teammates to understand why I can't be a part of the celebration, and for them to adapt it for me to be a part of it says a lot about my teammates.”

Anticipating a likely question, Hamilton noted, “This stuff burns your eyes just like the alcohol does.”

In victory, the Rangers came through to pick up one of their own, and gave us a lesson in what it means to be a team -- just as the Braves did in defeat.

Will the Rangers have another chance (or two) to break out the ginger ale for Josh Hamilton? Is another unknown player going to need his team to pick him up… or will he lead them to the happy ending that eluded Brooks Conrad?

We’ll know soon enough. It’s October.