The Pool

Tonight's game/telecast was completely different from the first two game/telecasts of the series.
Tonight was fun.
This was a better pitched, (by the Cardinals anyway) better played, and had a good pace.
The most fun had by the TV crew was in the top of the ninth inning.
The Cardinals led 4-0 after one inning and 7-0 after two.
The score was 8-2 going into the top of the ninth and the game was basically over.
Why was this time of the game the most fun for the TV crew you ask?
Because of our pool.
The pool costs $1.00 to enter and you pick the exact time the final out of the game will be made.
If there are no winners, the pool carries over to the next game until there is a winner.
Tonight's game was game #7 in the pool (7 carry overs) and the total amount of the pool was $180.00.
Because of the pace of the game, we knew in the bottom of the eighth inning that there would be a winner tonight.
The beginning of the top of the ninth began at 9:41 and every time was taken until 10:00.
Our tape crew always buys 4 consecutive minutes and labels it the "Tape Block". So, naturally we all root against them. Tonight however, they made a mistake when they entered the pool and only blocked out only 3 minutes. They chose 9:47 - 9:49. Because of this, their leader Brian was forced to pick 9:53.
Wouldn't you know it, the tape block was on the clock for all three minutes with 2 outs!
The Houston Astros mixed in some hits and scored some runs thus eliminating the "Tape Block" much to the cheers from the production side of the truck.
All of a sudden the "Tape Block" leader was on the clock. The cheers were loud after every foul ball and after every pitch because the "Tape Block" looked like they would not win the pool.
The final pitch of the night was thrown at 9:53:57 and the fly ball was caught at 9:54:05.
The dreaded "Tape Block" was foiled by 5 seconds and the loudest cheers of the night exploded from the truck. (Our TD (technical director) was the winner.)
The Houston Astros visiting feed on the dual side were wondering just what was going on and when they were told of the situation they got a kick out of it as well.
The quality of the telecast does not suffer as everyone is into the game at that time as most of the crew is involved in the pool.
Great telecast and great fun.
Finally.