Rant #1,254: Rainout Copout

Just to give you an update, yes, my crown was put in yesterday after work.

Yes, my mouth is still sore. My face was still actually numb some four hours after the procedure was done.

However, to my dismay, about three-quarters through the procedure, the dentist told me that it was a temporary crown he was putting in, and that I had to come back in two weeks to put in the permanent crown.

My question--why go through the procedure twice? Why couldn't I have waited two weeks and had the permanent crown put in, and thus, be done and over with it one time, not twice?

I am sure there is a dental reason for this, but without that reason at hand, common sense tells me I am going through this procedure twice, and I don't think it is warranted.

Anyway, my mouth still feels sore, and I have yet to try to eat on the right side to see if what he did works.

What's the point? It's just a temporary crown.

Anyway, I got home, couldn't really eat or drink much--I did eat around 8:30 p.m. or so--and I sat down to watch Yankees baseball.

This season has thus far been a disaster for my beloved Yankees.

Their starting pitching staff has been depleted by injury, their big guns have not hit at all, they haven't played well at home, and their station-to-station offense is boring.

But because of the ineptitude of the rest of their division, the American League East, they are right in the thick of things for a division title, just a few games out--as is everyone else in the division.

It is literally a five-team horse race to the playoffs, with just sixty-odd games to play for each team.

One team that goes on a hot streak will pretty much back into the playoffs, and then probably get eliminated by a team from either the stronger Central or West divisions.

But as they say, "you gotta be in it to win it," so the Yankees will take what they can get.

And they have been hot lately. Since the All-Star break, even though they haven't played particularly well, they have won five of six games.

Last night, they won 2-1, in a game shortened to just the minimum because of the rain that kept pounding the field. They barely got in the minimum amount of 4 1/2 innings, and since the home team--the Yankees--were winning, the home team got the victory.

It is something of turn about fair play, because the Yankees' last game before the All-Star break, the Bronx Bombers lost to the Orioles in similar fashion, in a game shortened by rain.

These shortened by rain games have been a bugaboo with me for a long time.

I never understood why games like this--where one team is leading after the minimum amount of innings and is granted the victory because the umpires have decided that the game cannot be continued due to potentially hazardous conditions--aren't completed another day.

If last night's game was, let's say, tied at 2-2 yet it was an official game, would they continue the game another time? The game's records go into the book--the at bats, the hits, the earned runs, etc.--so shouldn't they continue such a game, pick it up where they left off when it is safer to play?

I am not talking about games that go an inning or two and then are canceled due to rain. I am talking about games that play out over at least half the normal nine innings.

I always thought that these types of games were baseball's equivalent to ties in other sports, where the players play but the conclusion is a standoff.

And what about the fans at the game? Heck, watching on TV, I could simply go to another channel while the rain hit the field, but the fans in attendance are often asked to wait several hours before a determination is made.

I went to bed at 10 p.m. yesterday, so I have no idea when the umpires actually called the game, but I bet they gave it several hours.

For games like this, many teams will give fans a "rain check" for another game, which is a nice way of them telling those in attendance that they appreciate their business.

That is a nice gesture,and I hope it was used last night.

But not playing games to conclusion is something I hate about the game I love--all games should go nine innings, even if to reach that point, teams might have play on another day.

And yesterday's rain shortened game, by the way, followed a 14-inning contest the night before that went on and on and on and on some more.

Today's game is an afternoon affair, and hopefully, it will go on without a hitch.