N.W. Indiana gave us brief hope of closure
Looked like Lake County might send Hillary packing
For a few brief, shining moments late Tuesday night, there was a glimmer of hope that the whole damn primary ballgame was really over, even if you view the race through Hillary-tinted glasses.
There was CNN's John King, working that big board a la Tom Cruise's John Anderton in "Minority Report," getting more and more excited as he focused on certain blue-shaded pockets of Indiana.
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There was Larry King, getting all worked up talking about new developments.
There was the mayor of Hammond, Ind., live via satellite hookup.
Everybody was talking about Lake County, Ind., as the votes from that region trickled in.
The graphics were telling us:
"INDIANA: STILL TOO CLOSE TO CALL."
Really?
The raw numbers showed Hillary Clinton ahead overall by a couple of percentage points -- but the votes were still coming slowly in from Northwest Indiana, where Obama was posting such an advantage, it seemed at least mathematically possible he could make up the difference.
In terms of delegates, a narrow win by either candidate wasn't going to be that big of a deal. But in terms of momentum and public perception and party support and all that, an Indiana victory for Obama would have been HUGE.
If Obama scores that upset, maybe Hillary stops with all the talk of comebacks and tiebreakers, and Michigan and Florida, and "still too close to call."
Maybe she takes an honest look at the math and a realistic view of what this prolonged battle is doing to the Dems' chances in November, and maybe she calls it quits. Probably not, but at least there's a "maybe."
Alas, the momentary flurry of excitement and uncertainty didn't last long. Clinton captured Indiana, albeit by a margin that made her victory almost seem like a defeat, and she's restating her intention to stay in the race until, I don't know, probably 2009 or 2010.
Just in case.
Twice already this year, Gavin Floyd of the White Sox has gone deep into a game with a no-hitter.
In miserable conditions in April, Floyd held the Tigers hitless 7 1/3 innings. He topped that performance on Tuesday night with 8 1/3 innings of no-hit ball against the Twins.
Not since Floyd the barber have we seen such mowing down.
On both occasions, I found myself texting and calling fellow Sox fans around the seventh inning, just in case they weren't watching the game. Even as I was reaching out to some friends, they were doing the same with me.
That's what you do when somebody's working on a no-hitter. You "wake the kids, phone the neighbors," in the immortal words of David Letterman.
Credit goes to Hawk Harrelson for urging the television audience to call family and friends as the Sox-Twins game headed into the ninth inning. Ever the jock, Harrelson for once wasn't buying into that whole "Don't mention the no-hitter" nonsense.
It's goofy enough when a pitcher's teammates don't say a word about a no-hitter in the belief it's a violation of baseball tradition -- but when the broadcasters don't talk about it, that's beyond silly; it's just plain incompetent. You have a sacred baseball duty to inform those that have just tuned in and haven't seen a graphic yet. NEWS ALERT: THERE'S A NO-HITTER IN PROGRESS. Say it.
Yet we still hear talk of a "jinx" that claims if you so much as mention the no-hitter, you're dooming the no-hitter. As if the Gods of Baseball are watching, and if you violate the superstition, the next guy up is going to hit a triple.
That makes about as much sense as the idea of a Sports Illustrated cover jinx. Are any Cubs fans really worried because Kosuke Fukudome is on SI's cover?
The myth of the SI cover jinx has been around for years. Occasionally some athlete or team will appear on the cover -- and then the athlete will get injured, or the team will suffer a devastating loss.
But anyone who believes in a so-called "jinx" is ignoring the fact that Sports Illustrated's most frequent cover subjects are some of the most successful athletes ever: Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana, Brett Favre, Magic Johnson.
And which teams have been featured most often on SI? The Yankees, the Lakers, the Cowboys, the Bulls, the Dodgers, the Celtics, the 49ers.
Yeah, those players and franchises sure have been jinxed over the years.
