I’ve mentioned, I trust, in passing that I’m a baseball
fan. Technically, I’m a Yankees fan which, now living in South Eastern
Connecticut, still has me among the majority of “four out of five dentists who
expressed a preference for gum” in relation to the loyal subjects of Red Sox
Nation though in recent years, the numbers have tightened considerably.
I grew up a San Francisco Giants fan because my father
was one and he was one because he’d been a NY Giants until Walter O’Malley who
owned the Brooklyn Dodgers, not content to break my Mom’s heart, talked Horace
Stoneham who owned the National League team playing at the Polo Grounds, into
also moving his ball club across the
country to the city by the bay.
When the Lords of Baseball added the Houston Colt 45’s and the New
York Mets to the National League, my dad and by extension, his first
two sons (#3 wasn’t even rumored yet), went right out to Meet the Mets.
Speaking, perhaps only for me, the pilgrimages to Shea (when it was built), far
more numerous than the jaunts to the House that Ruth Built, never really took
and I find myself in the summer of my 62nd year not being able to
list a single starting pitcher or even position player for The Amazin’s. They
deserve better; shame on me.
I can’t do it for the pitching staff of the Yankees
either, but that has a lot to do with injuries and bad luck (all Yankees, btw;
I’ve been hale and healthy) and to be honest, it’s not been much of a season,
looking at the first half of Derek Jeter’s final bow. Much like the ending for
Mariano Rivera, the denouement for his remarkable career would seem to be in
danger of ‘falling short.’
Jeter will appear in his final All-Star Game tonight
primarily because I voted for him about two hundred and forty seven kajillion
times on-line. Please note my absence of an apologetic tone. If anything, I’m
sorry I couldn’t vote for him more than I did-things like work, family and
sleep got in the way-because I’ve been huge fan of his work throughout his
career.
I am well-aware that while we call baseball a game, it’s
a serious business (with an anti-trust exemption bestowed upon it by the
Congress of the United States) and being an aged man who roots for younger but
still aging men who make a handsome living engaged in pursuit of a game
children on sandlots enjoy, I don’t really care that the irony of all of this
is as obscene as it frequently is.
I will still root for my Yankees (don’t tell the
Steinbrenners about my possessiveness) when Jeter no longer takes up his
position after the season concludes but for tonight especially and for all the
days of this season that remain, I’d wish him nothing less than an MVP
year as I join with other fans, whose teams are not lucky enough to be the Yankees,
in celebrating an athlete who always did what he loved while giving those of us
who loved watching him do it reasons
to cheer for two decades.
-bill kenny
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