This isn’t Olympia Sports related, but I was extremely entertained by the Twitter feed of News-Tribune writer Ryan Divish during the Tacoma Rainiers’ game against the Sacramento River Cats last night.
Divish’s nigh started out normal, just a guy covering a Danny Hultzen start at Cheney Stadium…
Nice 123 inning for Hultzen. 13 pitches, 8 strikes—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Hultzen gave up just one run…
Hultzen works out of a one out, bases loaded jam. Allows just the one run.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
But Sacramento’s Dan Straily did him one better through eight innings…
Sacramento's Dan Straily gets a five pitch inning, has gone eight shutout innings allowing just one hit.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Then comes the bottom of the ninth…
Rainiers jumbotron is playing a scene from "We are Marshall." Oddly, Dan Straily pitched at Marshall University, he'll pitch the 9th—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Darren Ford leads off the ninth inning with a double. The tying run is on second base … of course it is.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Nick Franklin lays down a sac bunt and the tying run is now 90 feet from home with one out in the ninth … of course it is.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Mike Carp's line-out to right scores Darren Ford from third. We are tied at 1-1 …. of course we are.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Big Sloppy with an awful swing for strike three, and he spikes his bat at home plate. We have extra innings at Cheney — of course we do.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
So we went to extra innings…
The Rainiers will send Mike Wilson, Trayvon Robinson and Vinnie Catricala to the plate in the 10th – they are 0-9 with four Ks thus far.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
The Rainiers have now played nine extra innings of baseball over the last six games … best deal in baseball—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
And we head to 11th inning … of course we do.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Nick Franklin strikes out looking with a runner on third to end the bottom of the 11th. We go to the 12th …. of course we do.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
I think this where things start to break down…
And now the chicken polka is being played in between innings … haven't seen that since my days in North Dakota. #PCLforLife—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Mike Carp leads off the bottom of the 12th with a single … Can Big Sloppy bunt him to second? Can Big Sloppy bunt?—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
No bunting for him. If he can hit one out, I will call him Big Slapi instead—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Fontina De Los Santos called for the "It's the 12th inning and this is taking forever balk" to move the runner into scoring position.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Vinnie Catricala swings at 55 foot pitch for strike three. And we head to the 13th …. OF COURSE WE FREAKING DO!!!!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Finally, “Call Me Maybe” gets burned…
Well, at least the Cheney Stadium DJ played "Call Me Maybe" so we won't have to endure that again.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
And now it is getting late…
And Rhubarb the Reindeer is wearing a snuggie as he does the "Jump On It" dance here at Cheney—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Now in the bottom of the 13th, Luis Rodriguez will lead off with Brandon Bantz and Darren Ford to follow. …. Deadline is blown—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
I’m not sure what inning this is at this point, but desperation starts to set in…
Luis Rodriguez draws a walk off of … some pitcher. There is life!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Brandon Bantz sac bunts Rodriguez to second. It brings up Darren Ford….. dare to dream?—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Two outs, and my hopes now rest on Nick Franklin.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Cheney Stadium went quiet enough to hear screaming baby. It's 11 p.m.! These are the same parents who sit in front of me on every flight—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Nick Franklin strikes out. And we head to the 14th — YEP! WEAR IT! WEAR IT!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Awww…it was just the 13th.
It's now the longest game of the season for the Rainiers. OF COURSE IT IS! WHY ME!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
All I know is that position pitcher better be pitching soon dammit!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Remember, we are just going into the 14th at this point.
The remaining crowd at Cheney Stadium http://t.co/WItFPBk8—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Wait. I drove home had a 30 min conversation with the wife and @RyanDivish is still stuck at Cheney Stadium??—
Tim Booth (@ByTimBooth) July 19, 2012
They are going to run out of funny movie clips to play in between innings, probably have to use the last scene in Old Yeller next.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
My whole timeline is @RyanDivish expressing existential angst and other seattle writers mocking him—
Clint Hulsey (@clinthulsey) July 19, 2012
WE GO TO THE 15TH!!! LOVE IT! WEAR IT! DREAM BIG! BELIEVE BIG!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
I'm starting to feel a little like Old Yeller—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
It's quiet enough to hear a kid scream, "Mom, I just wanna go home!" Me too, kid. Me too, kid.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
And it was some very entertaining baseball to boot…
There's a combined 30 strikeouts between the two teams.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
I'm going to pull a Mean Joe Greene and just hand my press credential and laptop to that kid after this game.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
In the bottom of the 15th, Catricala, Rodriguez and Bantz will try to end this madness—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
@Kevin_Martinez — World Series extra innings? Great. Six extra innings of bad PCL baseball …. like a root canal without novacaine—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Here come the new Rainiers baseball slogans…
Rainiers baseball: The Endless Summer #NewSlogan—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Rainiers baseball: Let's play two in one game #NewSlogan—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
You know if you are a fan at this game and you don't leave with a foul ball, there is something wrong with you.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Rainiers baseball: Because you just can never get enough of @CurtoWorld's broadcasts #NewSlogan—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Even the Rainiers employees are losing it…
Rainiers' media relations guru Ben Spradling: "We are all doomed here. This ship is going down."—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
More awesome baseball…
A strike out-throw out double play ends the inning. We are going to the 16th …. BONUS FREAKIN' PANELS BABY!!!!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
And more fun with music…
The Who blasts through out the stadium "Who are you?" I think its directed at the fans still here.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Again, it is getting LATE…
I'm going to the West End pub for a drink after this game and I'm eating Taco Bell at 2:30 a.m. And I won't feel guilty—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Apparently Cheney Stadium security was radioed because they thought third base batboy had fallen asleep … i'm not making this up.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
And then I weigh in and get a retweet…
Took 2 hours and 45 minutes to get from parking garage in Seattle to home in Olympia. Or for @RyanDivish, the 10th through 15th innings.—
Brandon Sparks (@OlySportsBlog) July 19, 2012
He wasn’t even supposed to be there…
The best part in all of this was that I wasn't supposed to cover this game. I switched with our intern this afternoon.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Dear god, i'm acting as whiny as Dante!! RT @msea1: @RyanDivish youtu.be/HWJpZad8zU8—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Hope once again in the 16th…
Darren Ford steals second base! Runner in scoring position with one out!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
At this point, Divish has captured the minds of pretty much anybody that is awake on Twitter..
@RyanDivish
Took a beer induced nap, woke up and Divish is still tweeting from the Rainiers game…? #GroundhogDay—
Gordy Armstrong (@pfkurd3) July 19, 2012
This game is so long that Carlos Triunfel's absurd walk-up music is actually growing on me—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
And with that, @RyanDivish went quiet. Including retweets, he had sent a grand total of 165 tweets. What the hell happened to Divish? What the hell is happening in this game?
Apparently, @RyanDivish is still able to DM. But he reached his limit of 1,000 tweets in a day. Which is awesome.—
Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) July 19, 2012
He didn’t have 1,000 tweets, but he did go over an hourly limit. So Larry Stone takes over, relaying Divish’s DMs..
This is like the old Western Union days, recreating the game in the studio. Divish can DM me his snarky tweets, and I'll post them.—
Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) July 19, 2012
Rainiers baseball: we can make you break your twitter account (via @RyanDivish)—
Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) July 19, 2012
Oh Dear God, they are playing the Macarena on the video board (via @RyanDivish)—
Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) July 19, 2012
Finally, in the 18th inning, we have position players pitching. Scott Savastano comes on for the Rainiers…
Savastano just went 1-2-3 in that inning (via @RyanDivish)—
Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) July 19, 2012
And Shane Peterson for the River Cats…
Sacramento outfielder Shane Peterson to pitch bottom of the 18th #weirdbaseball—
Mike Curto (@CurtoWorld) July 19, 2012
An outfielder — Shane Peterson — just struck Nick Franklin out on three pitches — all swing and misses (via @RyanDIvish)—
Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) July 19, 2012
And finally, in the bottom of the 18th…
It's over. Scott Savastano gets the win and GW homer. Thanks to all for following. Twitter and I are officially fighting. (via @RyanDIvish)—
Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) July 19, 2012
So the Tacoma Rainiers finally beat the Sacramento River Cats 2-1 after 18 innings. Scott Savastano hit the game winning home run and got the win on the mound. And this morning, Twitter finally let Ryan Divish out of jail…
I can finally tweet now after exceeding my limit. Thanks to all who followed and had fun last night. I had a blast before it came to a halt.—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
Twitter and I are still fighting. Limits? You can't limit my fury and snark at extra innings! You can't limit my ability to be a smart ass!—
Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 19, 2012
@RyanDivish Twitter = Manager, You = the pitcher who thinks he's got another inning in him.—
Kyle Sheppard (@Kyle_K_Sheppard) July 19, 2012
Thanks to Ryan Divish and Larry Stone and everybody that was following along and tweeting last night. It was an extremely entertaining way to end the evening.
We followed all night and even started listening online to the live streaming audio! Divish entertained the hell out of us as we sat in the garage looking for something on TV to watch. Apparently all we needed was extra inning PCL baseball, the Div and Twitter!