I have watched just one baseball game live. We were late. And we ran out of beer. It wasn’t a good afternoon. I was in San Francisco with a South African friend, Matthew, near the end of a road trip that took us from Redding in northern California, south down the coast, through San Francisco, a lot of towns with the name “San” in them, Los Angeles. We had survived five days of Las Vegas, a crash with two cattle in Nevada and back to San Francisco.
We’d planned to hit Candlestick Park for the Giants against the Rockies, but the wind picked up on the bay and we went sailing around Alcatraz Island. We arrived three innings into the game, bought tickets from a dodgy-looking man outside, bought beer and sat down with some 40 000 others. Barry Bonds was playing. Ten years later he would be indicted for perjury and instruction of justice over the Balco drug scandal.
We ran out of beer and could not find the “beer guy” in the stands. I went down the concessions to buy more. The kind lady behind the counter poured them for me. The unkind lady behind her, poured them away down the drain, saying they were not allowed to sell any more beer after the seventh innings.
Bill Murray was buying beer for the Chicago Cubs fans when they finally won the World Series early on Thursday morning. The actor was in the stands with the masses. One fan tweeted that his group were on their fourth beer bought by Murray. I’ve been on the good side of Murray organising drinks before, in a closed hotel bar in Shanghai at the Laureus Awards. There were a few Springboks, the Superman actor, an adventurer and others in tow. The manager gave Murray the run of the honesty bar, and we honestly cleared it out.
The Cubs celebrated their first championship in 108 years. That’s a long time. ESPN explained just how long it was with some statistics and history. “In 1908, the U.S. was comprised of just 46 states, (New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska & Hawaii not yet admitted to the Union). The electric traffic light had not yet been invented, nor had the zipper, neon light, stainless steel or sliced bread! Six months after the Cubs won, Harland & Wolff begin construction on RMS Titanic in Belfast. Halley’s Comet, which passes by Earth every 75 years, has passed us TWICE between the Cubs two World Series wins.”
Murray’s face at the moment the Cubs won in the extra innings forced after his team’s management had overthought their gameplan and let the Indians back into the game, will be replayed over and over again. He got into the lockerroom later to interview the team owner, who sprayed him with Champers. The party may never end in Chicago.
The Star