Back in the late 1960's there was a wonderful movie that is a great metaphor for the most striking thing about the baseball playoffs.
The movie was "Wait Until Dark" and it starred Audrey Hepburn as a young blind woman who was terrorized by thugs who were in her apartment searching for heroin. The tension in the movie started small and finally grabbed you by the throat and squeezed until all the air was out of you.
That's the baseball playoffs, where the game's biggest weakness turns into its biggest strength.
Everybody says that baseball is too slow. The games take too long. We need to find a way to speed things up.
But that very slow pace is what allows for the incredible drama that infuses the playoff games. Things start small, but you have the time to let the tensions build until they reach the boiling point.
If this were a game that moved along quickly, like football or basketball, you wouldn't be able to have that feeling of having hands around your throat, carefully squeezing tighter and tighter.
Football and basketball have their drama, to be sure. But they don't have those exquisite long lasting minutes that make your heart beat faster and your palms grow moist with sweat.
Maybe that's why smarter people than me have fought against changes to make the game go faster. When it's that tense and dramatic, you want the game to go on forever. Maybe we should just leave it alone.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
