Baseball: Long Beach Millikan shocks Long Beach Wilson

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Never bet on baseball. Any degenerate gambler will tell you that. Why? Because pitchers are as capricious as a San Franciscan breeze. A tweak here, a twinge there can turn Randy Johnson into Randy Harvey. (I hope I don’t get fired over that last comment -- I’ll explain later.)

Plus, baseball is part skill and part luck more than any other sport, similar to poker or even Scrabble. How many times have we seen a fluke play determine the outcome of a game? Just ask Bill Buckner.

Guess you can see where I’m going with this. Yep, I’m going to Upset City. Yesterday, there was a colossal upset -- sub-.500 Long Beach Millikan beat defending national champion Long Beach Wilson. The Rams won, 5-4, courtesy of a butchered rundown play, which led to two unearned runs in the top of the sixth inning. Figures. And so, Millikan (4-4-1, 1-0-0) climbed atop the Moore League standings, even above the ballyhooed Bruins (6-2, 0-1).

Now, back to my job status -- Randy Harvey is the top editor of The L.A. Times’ sports section. And, who knows, maybe he has a really good fastball.

-- Anthony Stitt

-- Image from www.science.howstuffworks.com