Hope Dies Last, or Keep the Faith, Baby
Seattle Mariners spank the Bronx Bombers with 4-run comeback in the ninth.
Incomparable oral historian, Studs Terkel, once wrote, “Hope has never trickled down, It has always sprung up.”
And tonight it sprung up with a vengeance, in the top of the ninth near the House that Ruth built, when my Seattle Mariners pulled off an improbable 4-run, against all odds, come from behind victory over the New York Yankees.
As if escalations in Eastern Europe and the Middle East - propelling the world closer to the brink of a nuclear conflagration somewhere - were not enough, the wholesale slaughter of conscripts in Ukraine and the interminable body count in Gaza from US bombs push antiwar, pro-Palestinian stress coping techniques to unanticipated limits. Still, hope always dies last. Even tonight in Yankee Stadium.
Now, just let me savor this one, with a REM sleep chaser. David and Goliath comebacks like this are at a premium, but always therapeutic. Post game headlines and comments are still trending.
Mariners refuse to quit in 'crazy' comeback win over Yanks
Colossal comeback – Mariners rally in 9th to stun Yankees 5-4!
In his classic 2003 compilation, Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times, Studs Terkel points out:
As we enter the new millenium, hope appears to be an American attribute that has vanished for many, no matter what their class or condition in life. The official word has never been so arrogantly imposed.
But not tonight, not in the Bronx. And the Chicago baseball fan version of Studs would have surely agreed. Hope not only showed up in the clutch, but with a better closer, armed with an filthy slider and an unhittable 101 mph fast ball.