Politics, baseball and not much sleep

If I seem a little sluggish on-air lately, I have an explanation. You see, the last few weeks have been the perfect storm. In this final month of the longest election season ever, my beloved Philadelphia Phillies have been playing in Major League Baseball’s postseason. And last night, they opened play in the World Series with a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. As a baseball fan and WWAY’s political reporter, it has meant some very long days and very short nights. But these are the sacrifices we make for our passions.

Some friends and family think I am crazy. But considering the last (and so far only) time the Phillies won a World Championship I was two years old, there is no way I am going to miss this experience. In fact, so far I’ve only missed a three innings of the Phillies postseason. And in the process, I missed a lot.

It was last Monday, when John McCain held a rally at Cape Fear Community College. I came to work just before 3 a.m. as usual that day and stayed through the 2 p.m. event. I was hoping to head home a short time after that once my stories were done, but my wife and I found out that afternoon that a realtor wanted to show our house, which we are trying to sell (Don’t worry. We’re staying in the area.), between 5:15 and 6:15 p.m. Having stayed up late the night before to watch the Phillies lose Game 3 of the National League Championship to the Los Angeles Dodgers, I was already hurting and planning to catch some Zs before Game 4 started around 8:20 Monday night. I wound up getting home a little after 6 and getting a two-hour nap before the game. When the Phillies were again losing and playing poorly in the 6th inning, I gave in to Mr. Sandman. I woke up a few hours later to find out the Phils had staged a dramatic rally to win and take a 3-1 series lead. Needless to say, I was awake around midnight two nights later when the Phillies clinched the pennant.

In many ways, it is the best of times and the worst of times. I am enjoying watching my team chase a championship, but in the process I anguish and stress with every pitch, especially when the final pitch of the game comes after midnight, as it did this morning. And I’m sure to lose more sleep as I make a more than eight-hour drive to Philadelphia Saturday afternoon to attend Game 3. On the political side, I love the theater the campaigns create, but I am worn out from the rhetoric dished out by all the candidates I’ve spoken with recently, and I’ve spoken to a lot of them.

Given the alternatives, I gladly accept the challenges the campaign and baseball seasons are presenting me right now. There is drama every day it seems, one way or another. The baseball drama will last at most for another week. The political drama should be done in 12 days, though the way presidential elections have done lately, you never know. One thing is for sure: No matter who wins the Series or the elections, it will have made for a memorable October.