Reds Lose Thriller to Padres in Shadows

by Tom Krasovic

Filed under: Braves, Dodgers, Giants, Reds, Yankees, NL West

SAN DIEGO -- Autumn baseball in San Diego seldom will match the spectacle that is Saturday in America.

College football, bursting with colors and passion, gave us another platter of fun on Saturday.

There was UCLA messin' with Texas, while Stanford routed Notre Dame in South Bend -- further proof, says West Coast Bias, that the Pacific 10, which is rich in deft quaterbacking, reigns as the most entertaining conference in the college game.

The SECessionists spiced up the afternoon, too, Arkansas pressed mighty Alabama.

How, then, would a baseball matinee between the Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres stack up?

Actually, pretty well, if eerily so.

Beyond the bubbling of a heated playoff race, there was the spooky drama of ballplayers and umpires alike being unable to see batted baseballs -- the Padres winning 4-3 when a two-out groundball scooted past Reds third baseman Scott Rolen, a seven-time Gold Glover who moved like he was blindfolded.

Reds manager Dusty Baker, baseball's coolest historian, hearkened back to a stark World Series afternoon in Los Angeles 29 years ago.

"Afternoon here in the fall, reminded me of when Goose Gossage hit Ron Cey in the head," Baker told West Coast Bias, and I felt a chill. "That's how it can get here in California in October. Five o'clock in the afternoon here, it can be really hard to see the baseball."

 

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