Life without access to Dodger baseball...Guess I should stay away

I have traveled  around the world numerous times.  I've gone as far as 12 time zones away, even into war zones.  To the extreme south near the tip of South America and as far North as the Arctic circle.    There have been trips that have put me in remote villages and far from the modern conveniences that we now enjoy.  But in this era of high technology, I've always been able to access the internet and check out the status of the Dodgers.  That was until this weekend, when I boarded a cruise ship for a luxurious  three day cruise out of Miami to the Bahamas and back.  I had no idea what I was in for.

Have you ever had to follow the progress of the Dodgers via ESPN lower screen banners of updated game conditions?  It's not an easy thing to do.  It requires patience and a lot of time and imagination.

ESPN Line: Dodgers 3 Mets 1, bottom of 6th inning, Scott Elbert pitching, Lucas Duda at bat for New York.

"Great!" I'm thinking, "a possible sweep is in the making."

It takes a while for the ESPN feed scrolling at the bottom of the screen to return to the Dodger game update.  There is a ton of information on this Sunday afternoon.  The British Open, some formula 1 race and news about Penn  State University taking the Joe Paterno statue down.  It seems like if takes forever for the next game update.  

ESPN Line: Dodgers 3 Mets 2, bottom of 7th inning, Daniel Murphy drives home a run with a single off of  Shawn Tolleson.

"I sure hope that they can pull this thing off.  Certainly they'Il not use Belisario and Jansen for three days straight,"  I think.  I only know about the previous two games because I shelled out about 10 bucks to get a satellite link up to the internet the previous evening.

Luxurious?  Yes, and WIFI - over $400 per day.

I didn’t even bother mentioning this trip I was making to blog readers.  I figured I'd just keep on posting.  I left to attend my niece’s wedding and I knew it would be a weekend excursion and back.  Heck the Bahamas are only 150 miles off the coast of Miami.  Surely I would be able to maintain contact with what the Dodgers were doing.  Certainly I would have internet access.  I had no idea how wrong I would be.

ESPN Line: Dodgers 3, Mets 2, Bottom of the 9th, Guerra pitching, man on second, one out, David Wright at the plate.

I suppose if I was a millionaire, I could have kept up and continued the internet postings.  Costs to maintain internet connectivity on this ship is $39.00 an hour.  Yes, an hour.  I love the Dodgers, but there s a limit.  My wallet stretches only so far.  For that price I could have bought tickets to the game and flown back and forth via private jet.

So as I was tied to periodic ESPN 2 scrolling line updates.  I was finding them to not be frequent enough for my patience.  I'd memorize the order that the sequence of events would follow.  The British open, Formula 1, Tour de France, a bunch of Paterno news, AL scores and then NL scores.  If a commercial would pop up, the scrolling line would cease, and as the action on ESPN 2 continued, it wouldn't continue from the point if left off at.  It seemed like to took forever to find out if Guerra held the lead.  He didn't.

ESPN Line: Dodgers 3, Mets 3, Middle of 10th. Javy Guerra pitching, Nuewenhuis batting.

I had no idea how they did it, but the Mets tied it up.   "Come on Javy, hold on. We've just gotta get Matt or Ethier up again to pull this out."

I came to find out why they call this section of the world the Bermuda triangle.  It's because it is the place in the world where updates from the sporting disappear into thin air.  Happily the Dodgers embarked on a 10 game road trip starting off in New York to take the first two in CitiField.  Who would have figured?

I need to stay away more often I guess.

ESPN Line: Dodgers 3, Mets 3, Top of the 12th, Pinch hitter Matt Treanor hitting, bases loaded, two outs, Ramon Ramirez pitching.


This was it.  Now or never for the blue.  What followed for me was what seemed to be an eternity of agony as I waited for the next update.  I followed the bottom line scroll realizing exactly when the the NL scores would appear, just as the Dodger Mets update was about to pop up, a commercial break hit. "Drat!!"  Waiting, more waiting and even more waiting.  "What'd Treanor do?!?!"


30 minutes later:


ESPN Line: Final Score, Dogers 8, Mets 3


Nothing else posted.  No winning pitcher, Losing pitcher, nothing.  I blink twice.  Double checking that I see things right.  I did.  "How'd they score five runs?  Who cares?  Dodgers win again... I've gotta extend this vacation."

Matt Treanor with the game winning 2-run single in the 12th inning (photo by Associated Press)