Couldn't Bear It

Usually, on my commute home, I prefer listening to the sounds of nature (or traffic) as I make my way from Bothell back to my neighborhood—technically Leschi, but which real-estate agents call Madrona, and if I’m trying to maximize my street cred, I’d say the Central District—but occasionally, like when the Steelers are on Monday night football, I like to listen to this little radio I bought at Radio Shack something like 10 years ago and which, amazingly, still works.

I typically plug just one ear bud as I pedal so I can still hear if somebody comes up behind me, and more importantly, can still feel smug when I see some Spandex-coated wannabe cruising past with his iPod cranked up, which was my strategy this evening for catching two radio events I wanted to catch: first, the 5th game of the National League Championship Series featuring the hated Phillies versus my onetime favorite baseball team, the Los Angeles Dodgers (on the 20th anniversary of Kirk Gibson’s unforgettable game-winning homerun against the Oakland Athletics in the 1988 World Series), and second, the final Presidential debate between McCain and Obama in this year’s campaign season.

As it turned out, though, I couldn’t stomach (or is that “ear?”) either one; the very first batter that Dodgers pitcher, Chad Billingsley faced, Jimmy Rollins, hit a home run, putting Los Angeles in a hole from which they showed no signs of recovering, so I switched over the debate, but couldn’t make it past the part where McCain started talking about “Joe the Plumber.”

So I flipped back to the game, only to hear Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal make two errors on one play and then a third on another in the same inning, leading to two unearned runs and a 5-0 deficit for the home team.

At that point, there was no question that the sounds of nature (or traffic) offered much better listening, so away went the radio.