Savage Words: Heavy eyes and a potty break featured in World Series

Anyone else watch Game 3 of the World Series last Monday night?

It was one for the record books, and one that outlasted me.

Here’s the boring part, if you’re not a sports fan: The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 to go up 2-1 in the Series.

But Monday’s game was more than just a “dumb sporting event,” as my daughter would put it. This season marks the 121st World Series in history. Monday night’s Dodgers win was the second longest game over those 121 years.

The Dodgers won in 18 innings, twice as long as a normal nine-inning game. It lasted six hours and 39 minutes and finally wrapped up on a Freddie Freeman walk-off home run at just before 2 a.m. Central Time. The time of the game nearly doubled the average time of a World Series game played last year at three hours and 19 minutes.

All that being said, it took a real effort – or crazy baseball junky – to last the whole way through. 

During the live television broadcast, there were grown men with gray beards wearing their rally caps in the 12th inning. They looked worse off than I did on my couch, just sort of going through the motions as they clapped. And on top of it, they still had a likely long commute ahead of them when the game finally ended.

But I was determined to watch it all. I was there from the start, and to be honest, I was kind of happy to see it go into extra innings. I was enjoying the game, enjoying the broadcast.

But 18 innings?

No, I wasn’t looking forward to that. In fact, I didn’t make it through.

In the 13th inning, Sandman began to sprinkle sleepy dust in my eyes. But I did all I could to stay awake on my couch. The Dodgers had runners in scoring position in the 13th and 14th, and I was certain this baby would finally end.

It did not, but I did.

After L.A.’s Miguel Rojas grounded out to end the 14th with Matt Muncy on second base, I gave up, went to bed.

I woke up a bit later … to use the restroom. You know, because that’s what guys do in their mid-50s. 

On my way to the bathroom, I checked the score on my phone. It was still knotted at 5-5, heading into the 17th inning.

I thought about doing my best to see it through, but again, heavy eyes won me over, and I went back to bed.

I recall laying there for a few seconds, wondering if the game would still be going when I woke up, in like … the 41st inning. But those thoughts lasted only a few minutes. I rolled over and told the baseball Gods that they were on their own.  

I fell back asleep, only to awake on Tuesday morning and notice that the game ended in the 18th. Damn, a few more minutes the night before and I probably could have made it.

But I watched the highlights on Tuesday morning, watched the haymakers that were thrown back-and-forth between the Dodgers and Blue Jays. There were so many runners in scoring position on both teams in the late innings, but neither could get them across.

Before Freeman’s home run in the bottom of the 18th to end it, the last score in the game came in the seventh inning, more than four hours earlier.

I watched the television interview post-game with Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers home run hitter from Japan. Think about this: Fans in Tokyo saw the first pitch go off at 9 a.m. They were able to watch it through lunch, and an early dinner.

As interviewer Tom Verducci asked Ohtani his question, it was then awkwardly translated in Japanese to the Dodgers power hitter. 

Ohtani’s response was quick.

“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible,” he said through his translator.

Beat you to it, slugger.