Biz Markie; And Other Things That Happen In Eight-Hour Baseball Games

There's a special kind of masochism that comes with staying up to watch a marathon baseball game, like last night's Angels/Red Sox tilt that didn't wrap up until 2:45 am. You know you're going to feel like shit in the morning, and you can only pray your team wins so it wasn't all for naught.

But that's just people at home, with their creature comforts and a full fridge and the opportunity to change channels. The poor folks at Fenway had nowhere to go during a 145-minute rain delay, or 13 innings. That means they were cold, wet, hungry, and that insidious unnamed sensation of getting drunk then sobering up again while the game kept going. And they didn't even win.

Do you think Boston regrets their ninth-inning comeback to send it to extras? Maybe just a little? Without that two-out RBI single by Jacoby Ellsbury, everyone would have been in their warm beds with their loving families a couple of hours sooner, and the standings would look exactly the same this morning.

So while an announced crowd of 37,037 was there for the beginning, it was down to more like a couple hundred people by the end. And they got to witness those odd late game rituals that spring from being the only game without a clock.

Both teams said fuck it, we're riding these pitchers til it's over. (LA with mopup guy Trevor Bell, Boston with starter Dice-K.) Both teams broke out the rally caps in the dugout, though what put the Halos over the top was clearly their TV guys donning Angels luchador masks.

But our favorite has to be the Boston fans serenading Kevin Youkilis in the 12th inning with a Youkified version Biz Markie's "Just A Friend." I'm sure it made sense to the delirious ballpark at the time, and it almost worked too. Youkilis slapped it off the monster, but Marco Scutaro was thrown out at home trying to end it then and there. Bobby Abreu finally sent everyone home the next inning. Oh Bobby you, you got what I need.

[ video via Jimmy Traina]