In search of .500

September 1st, 3 home dates and 4 games left. 1 game under .500 and 4 games back of a playoff spot. Inching ever closer to the seasons' end. It was another perfect weather night as I arrived on City Island. Maybe we really could finish this thing off without a tarp pull. The opponent tonight were the Erie Seawolves 3 games and 2 spots ahead of us in the standings. If the Sens could pull off a win tonight, and they got some help from the other teams ahead of them it could put them within shouting distance of the playoffs. (Take it Izzy: "Playoffs! Whose talking about Playoffs?!!) Nothing too out of the ordinary happening tonight as far as I knew. Just pregame prep and onto the game. That's pretty much the way it went down. Of course we did hear a little story about why the Senators supposedly suck. Seems we're not doing our job according to a player who shall remain nameless. Hmmmm. Maybe if we really didn't do our jobs very well, he'd see how bad it really could be. And opposing teams don't seem to be making quite as many errors as we are. So you do the math. Enough said about that. The game got under way, went back and forth for awhile and settled in at 7-7 at stretch time. That brought to what was quickly becoming the highlight of our evening: Are you smarter than the Senators Grounds Crew? The question for this evening: How much of the Earth's surface is covered by ice? Participants for the game tonight: Doug, Alan, and myself. Doug was provided with the correct answer which was 20 percent. We lined up on the field and the question was asked. My answer: 9.5 %, my reason being global warning and the loss of polar ice. (I personally don't believe that, but that's beside the point). Alan's answer: 45%, claiming that global warming was a huge sham perpetrated by the liberal media. Doug stated his answer of 20%, claiming that he went to school long before either me or Alan, and his teachers were right. The contestant picked correctly and we went down this evening. After Alan gave his answer, he received a huge round of applause. I guess it was Conservative Tuesday. OK by me. As for the game, the Sens put up a huge run in the bottom of the 8th and closed it down in the 9th, officially putting them at .500. A huge milestone for this team who was left for dead by the end of May. Its actually fun to watch baseball again and I'm hating to see the season come to an end. So 1 more in the books, 2 more days and 3 games to go. We play a make-up double-header tomorrow night, so I'll check back in then. Later