Are you watching the Colorado Rockies play the San Diego Padres?

When we reach the end of another Major League season, this game will count just as much as the other 161 on the schedule. In that sense we will always have proof that this Monday night affair took place and that it was official.

If not for that documentation, just how few people would actually be aware that this baseball game is happening?

As the aesthetics of this beautiful game of ours have transferred over to technology, I often find these late-night west coast games disquieting. Watching a contest that takes place at Petco Park between two dwindling franchises, and one cannot help but notice that crack of the bat stands out in an almost disturbing way from the relative silence of the game as heard through one’s ear buds.

There is still the possibility of something great happening: a beautiful pitch, an outfielder gliding to make a play, or a mighty display of strength on a home run ball. The great thing about baseball is that it promises those possibilities in even the most lowly showdowns.

Even during a game that mostly serves to draw snarky and snippy comments from jaded fans of the respective franchises, this could still be the night that some fan somewhere sees that one play that makes them fall in love with baseball, or least tune in to watch another game tomorrow.

No matter how driven by that love of baseball, however, to watch these games can be taxing. To go from the noise of a game between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees to tonight’s game between the Rockies and Padres makes it impossible to believe that they are all in the same league and playing for the same goal. You cannot help but feel that you are spending your hard-earned leisure time watching a game that is truly pointless.

If a Rockies fan chooses not to watch this game, does that count as making a statement to the team’s owners that they are tired of supporting a loser? Or does that only count when it comes to buying tickets for home games?

That has never been clear to me: when you are to be praised for your loyalty, and when you are to be derided for continuing to support the team in their awfulness instead of stopping to make some statement to the front office.

These sobering west coast games might be your best chance to add feathers to your cap as a “loyal fan.” The “bandwagon fan” is considered scum in the imaginary fan hierarchy, after all. You have to prove your loyalty when your team is bad in order to have the right to enjoy it when they are good, or so the logic goes.

Not that the Rockies are going to be drawing bandwagon fans anytime soon, but if ever there was a night to earn your stripes as one of the loyal ones, this will be your single best opportunity…until tomorrow night, that is.

Are you watching the Rockies play the Padres? Because if you are, be warned: you might be prone to an oddly depressing, half-baked, somewhat philosophical attempt at trying to understand what it means that you are watching the Rockies play the Padres late on this Monday night.

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