.46 seconds. If you're a true baseball fan that's what you live for. The .46 seconds. In a game where timing is everything - this is it's lowest common denominator. 0.46 seconds - it might not seem like much, but oh how it grips us. 0.46 seconds separates Anxiety and Agony, Hope and Heartbreak, Elation and Enervation. When the timer started, Dodger fans still had hope. Less than a half second later - Bobby Thomson was on his way to immortality. .46 seconds. At the release point, Mariano Rivera was nearly invincible - October's version of Achilles. .46 seconds later Luis Gonzalez found Rivera's mortal heel. .46 seconds - it's approximately how long it takes a ball traveling 90mph to travel 60 feet and 6 inches. And how we hold our breath for those .46 seconds, waiting to see what unfolds. And the beauty is in the wait. That moment - .46 seconds - where victory and defeat are equals, Hope and Despair lie in perfect equlibrium - and then like that the balance favors one side. So 162 games isn't too long. Nor is 7 months or three postseason rounds. In all it's complexity and all it's drawn out drama from spring training through summer's dog days until October, it's all decided - .46 seconds at a time.