Archive for the 'Sports' Category

The most important event in the history of the Western world begins this week. That’s right the playoffs start Tuesday. Mets Game 1 is Wednesday at 4 vs the L.A. Dodgers at Shea. Orlando Hernandez takes the mound against Derrik Lowe. El Duque is like 58 years old. I may be too after watching this series.

Well the plus side about the Mets pitching woes (all predicted by me I might add), is that combined with late season offensive issues, the Mets are no longer a prohibitive favorite to get to the World Series. Alot of prognosticaotrs are calling for the early exit I predicted ages ago. After a season of being the NL’s team de rigeour we’re suddenly persona non grata. The media thinks we’re through.

I likey.

Now that everyone seees I was right and have jumped into my nonconformist viewpoint I as usual feel claustrophobic with all of them and want to jump off. And now they’re trashing my team. I can do it. These clods don’t know squat and wish they could spend an evening cleaning David Wright’s crotch pube by pube after a 16 inning game.

I’m more comfortable in the underdog role anyway. We’re not exactly climbing a mountain here if we win a couple of series against these teams. It’s not a huge obstacle the Mets have to overcome here. But more and more people have come around to believing they’re not made for the playoffs. Combine this with the fact that they are still basically as good as any NL team and I feel a nice sense of fatalistic acceptance combined with the underdogs relish that comes without having to face the quality teams underdogs usually have to overcome.

So in a strange way I’m optimistically pessimistic.

I thought in August the Dodgers or Marlins would go to the Series. The Marlins aren’t in. Nor are the Phils who I thought would be dangerous if they got in. But the Dodgers are. And they’re experienced. They have the evil Jeff Kent, Maddux, Lowe, Lofton, and Garciaparra. A solid lineup, a lefty the Mets can’t touch, and a scary Met staff do have to lead me to believe L.A. wins in say, 4 games.

Meanwhile the Padres and Mike Piazza play the reeling Cardinals. That Dodger pick looks good right now.

But they’re not anything all that special and their bullpen isn’t as good as ours. So there’s more than a bit of hope. Even without Pedro and much of a starting staff the Mets still would beat any of these teams over a longer span. But this is best of 5 in the first round and I’m not sure how some of our inexpereinced guys like Reyes and Wright will handle a playoff atmosphere for the first time.

The Mets haven’t had to play big games much this year and may not be able to rise to the challenge of a team playing big games to get in right down to the last weekend.

But man I’d hate losing to the Dodgers. They beat us in 88. That was the last time the Mets won the East. I don’t like California teams in general. And the evil Jeff Kent is there. Ex Met with an attitude. Watching this guy smirk and carry on at our expense will be hard to take. If the Mets face an elimination game I may not even watch. It’s too much. The agitation and neurosis are growing. I’m afraid. Very afraid.

I mentioned in previous post that I had no choice in becoming a Mets fan. And being one does something to you. It alters the way you look at the world. I should have been a Yankees fan. I was born in the Bronx. Lived on its borders in Yonkers most of my formative years and in my late teeens and 20′s was back in the Bronx. My dad, being somewhat new to America as an Italian emigrant, naturally found more interest in the 70′s doings of the Yankees and took me to many of their games. They were all over the papers. It was the Bronx Zoo. Billy, Reggie, Thurman, Sparky, The Goose. It was a soap opera and a good team that won back to back championships in 77 and 78.

And I liked them.

I confess that sin.

It was the only thing my dad and I have ever had a remote bonding over. I loved Graig Nettles in particular. His defense at 3rd and occasional homeruns were my favorite part of the team along with Ron Guidry’s pitching. The day Munson died in August 79 is still one of the most memorable of my life. It was huge on my block. We mourned. I cried right along with his arch enemy Reggie Jackson.

But through it all I never loved them and was leading a secret forbidden love with the NY Mets. I snuck off to see them with friends and their dads. When my uncle and his new wife were practicing for having a kid and wanted to take me to a game, I made them exchange Yankee tickets for a Mets game. This couldn’t have made them too happy. There was nothing to see at Shea. The team had been horrible, was horrible, and still had many horrible years inevitably in front of them. I brought shame upon them by having them take me to see this. I brought shame upon the whole family. You had all the aforementioned great Yankee characters across town and I made them take me to see Bruce Boisclair, Doug Flynn, Skip Lockwood, Bud Harrelson, Wayne Garret, and John Milner.

They never offered to take me to another game.

I dug Nettles alot but I loved John Stearns. He was the Mets catcher much of that era. His nickname was The Dude. That’s right. Though my inspiration remains more Jeff Lebowski than Stearns, the ex Met is always lurking in my mind when use or read that term. It’s an extra special little reference just for myself.

The Mets were just more relatable to me. I appreciated the Yankees lore but felt more kinship for the bumbling underdog Mets thing. So even now it’s there and after weeks of foreboding I only feel a sense of drama and cause in these playoffs because suddenly we’re not everyone’s favorite anymore. I’m uncomfortable with me or my teams being liked or appreciated too much. And I get pissed when we’re not. They and I can’t win under any circumstances. This is probably not the healthiest emotional framework within which to live a happy life but it’s one Yankees fans don’t seem to suffer from as universally as Mets fans. And it’s one that I think does have its attendant good qualities. Not the least of which is loyalty, devotion, and true love for the things and people who stay true.

Now all kinds of people are fans of all kinds of teams. I know alot of yanks fans I like alot. But your team choice does sometimes say something about you and there is something about the inherent unfairness the Yankees have always won with and their corporate identity that it takes a certain kind of person to ignore and still root for.

And Mets fans are more loyal, smarter, and better looking.

Clinical double blind studies have proven this.

Or will someday I’m sure.

But I do think we’re more loyal and have a certain sensibility that’s largely more likable, warm, and grounded. I sensed that as a young kid. While everything around me seemed to pull naturally at falling for the Yankees I couldn’t muster the natural organic passion and connection to them that I felt for the ignored losers with the colorful blue and orange uniforms dodging planes in Queens. Even with no media attention in that era, with nothing to recommend interest, is just seemed natural to like them. It was too fashionable to be a Yakees fan. It didn’t speak of anything unique in ones character.

Like with my Giants choice it was important to me to be in on theg round floor and not be perceived as jumping on a bandwagon. This was despite becoming a devoted Mets fan long before I was capable of the kind of rational thinking that could consciously express this ideal. It just seemed to be innate. It’s always felt like I had a Met gene somewhere in my DNA. Part of me thinks I’d be a Mets fan even if I’d grown up in Arizona. They were the Mutt that found me and I was drawn to rather than the pedigreed showdog the family shops for. A first love, mans best friend, and a biological imperative all at once.

And I’ve payed the price ever since.

Wednesday I start paying on a whole other level again. So begins the contortions, gesticulations, wall climbing, lip biting, hand wringing, pacing, and general agitation that characterize Mets baseball in October. I’m a hardened shell of who I was the last time we were there 6 years ago. Even then I was oddly disattached from the Subway Series. But I will suffer in the coming days. Many of us will. We may not all know each other but we will be bound as long lost brothers and sisters.

As for the Yanks and an AL prediction, they play the collapsing Tigers tonight. They slipped to WC status with a late season choke. The Yanks will destroy and annhilate them in all probability. This is unfortunate. The yanks may not be able to be stopped. Oakland plays Minnesota in the other AL series.

I lean towards the Twinkies and the Metrodome edge.

Got to figure on Yanks vs Twins in ALCS. If Minny had Liriano healthy I’d go with them. Right now it doesn’t appear anyone has the pitching to stop the Yanks $200 million lineup. So an old fashioned Dodgers Yanks Series seems a good possiblity. Just like 77-78, and 81. I hope not because unlike then I can’t muster any affection for the pinstripes. They’ve become a symbol of all that is wrong with the game the past few years, In the late 90′s I respected them. Rooted them on vs Atlanta in 96′s big 0-2 comeback. Good guys like Brosius, O’Neill, Cone, and Martinez were there. Class acts that weren’t all on mercenery missions. Starting with the Texan whore Clemens the Yankees started to sell their souls as the probable cheater Clemens sold his to get easy access to the World Series he couldn’t win anywhere else.

Now they’re a bunch of mercenaries, many of whom are or were steroid users. The newest whore de juer is Johny Damon who sold his soul and cut his hair and beard in order to suckle at the evil teet of General von Steingrabber.

I said after they beat us in 2000 they wouldn’t win another for a long time. I said they’d lose to Arizona in 01 and Florida in 03. I called the famed Boston choke once the Sox got taht first win. I don’t know if 6 years qualifies as a long enough time if they do win. I’d still like to think it’d be a decade or more no matter how much money they spent. Teams of all stars don’t win championships and they are of course holding the curse of payrod in their deck. So I think they are more than capable of losing. They’re just on such a role and score so many runs. Pitching wins but no one has a great staff. Usually the best one wins though and Minny and Oakland may still rank higher there, as does Detroit. Hopefully that rule holds out and the Yanks get upset here.

Let the nervewracking begin.

[image:192:l] Football season is here. Not many sports fans around here but it’s not stopping my Confessions Of A Mets fan posts, and I’m not letting it stop me making picks and talking about my Giants.

Ok this puppy tomorrow-tonight at the Meadowlands has been built up quite a bit for a while. Giants vs Colts, and mainly Manning vs Manning. Eli vs Peyton. Little bro tries to get out of shadow of big brother.

I’m a Giants fan for those who care and don’t know. The madness and nuerosis this instills is nowhere near the kind instilled by the Mets. I’ve loved Football since I was a kid, been a fan of Big Blue since late 70′s. But Baseball and the Mets exist on a different level for me. It’s sort of like your first love compared to all the rest. Or a lost mutt of a puppy that follows you around and you can’t resist because you relate to him as opposed to a pedigreed dog you pick at with your family touring breeders kennels.

You see I chose the Giants, while the Mets sort of chose me. I’ll get more into the Mets part of that in a October Confessions post. As for the Giants they weren’t my first favorite Football team. The Rams were. Mainly because of a t.v. movie called Something For Joey about the real life story of Penn State RB John Capelletti who went on to play for the Rams after winning the Heisman for his dying little brother. I was a kid and it made me cry. I brought into all the cheesy drama and heartstring tugging that I now consider myself either too jaded or too sophisticated to be moved by. I mean it wasn’t even Brian’s Song quality. But it wasn’t that far off too and B’s Song made a whole generation of sports fans around my age cry.

I dressed as Rams DE Jack Youngblood for Halloween one year. Had a helmet and the #85 jersey. I think it was 85.

But somewhere around 1980 I came to the conclusion that being a fan of a team 3000 miles away in the days before cable and satellite, was not very practical. I was a Mets fan and a Rangers fan so I really felt I had to choose one of the local teams to be my favorite. It is a testimony to my lifelong tendency to overthink things and for calm deliberation, that even at the age of 12 or 13, I consciously set out to make a practical and informed decision about who I would root for for the rest of my life when it came to Football.

The Giants and Jets both stunk but the Giants stunk a bit more. That was a factor. I hated front runners even then. I saw those kids who switched allegiances with the prevailing wind and I was disgusted. I considered myself better and wanted no doubt that who was more likely to win was not a factor. Just the fact that I was switching from a Ram team coming off a Super Bowl appearance against my 2nd favorite team then, the Steelers, to take on either lowly N.Y. team was a badge. But the Jets seemed more hopeful at the time and so I leaned towards the Giants.

The G Men had recently come off the humiliation of the famed Pisarcik fumble against the Eagles. They were a national joke. A local embarrassment.

There would be no confusing my motivations.

And then there was my somewhat anal love of low scoring games. In Baseball I always dug the pitching duels. An 8-7 ball game makes me uncomfortable. All that running around. Crooked numbers all over the scoreboard. Unseemly really. The lack of control is too much. Both from the pitchers and for myself. I feel I have some control over a 2-1 pitchers duel. I like every hit to matter. I want to care about every pitch because it could decide the game. One of the reasons I never liked Basketball much was all the scoring. A defensive game in the NBA is 90-87. That’s 177 points people! That’s alot of meaningless scoring. It’s out of control! And that’s a low scoring game. It only adds to the national superficiality and need for instant gratification.
I like low scoring because it’s not that gratifying that often. So when it is I really feel it.

This philosophy is perhaps responsible for much joyless misery in my life.

But I digress.

Even when they were as bad as they were back then the Giants had a reputation for playing decent defense. The Big Blue Wrecking Crew label existed even then. I liked that. I felt I could grow within that mentality. Ball control and smash mouth defense. There’s alot of control in that kind of philosophy of football and that was always the Giants motus operandi.

I might only get to cheer for my offense once, twice a game.

Beautiful!

And finally there were the uniforms. I loved those Rams uni’s. They made the jump from bad t.v. drama to the NFL an easy one. Neither the Giants or Jets had great uni’s but when it came down to basic color patterns, blue vs green, there was really no choice left to make.

Since then I’ve come to love green. But most of my life blue was my favorite color after an early youth dalliance with purple. And even now as my appreciation for all that green represents-youth, nature, verdancy-innocence etc- has grown, I remain unconvinced that it is an appropriate base color for a sports uniform.

So the Giants it was.

Over the years the bond has grown and they truly became my emotional favorite despite that intellectual/anal retentative beginning. I’ve enjoyed 2 Super Bowl Championships and 1 other trip there. They’ve been up and down. The good years certainly were true to the ball control smash mouth mentality I’d hoped to find a warm and cozy home within.

Now the G Men are a bit different. More flashy than in the past. defense not dominant but it has its moments. Last year we won the NFC East and got blown out in round 1 as I predicted. I thought the team was overrated. This year there’s mixed opinion about them nationally. Locally its very optimistic. I’m not sure where they are getting it from. There’s talk about dominating defense where I see a still weak though overhauled secondary and an iffy linebacking crew besides Antonio Pierce in the middle. Our Ends are good but Strahan is up there in years and Osi could be a bit of a fluke. The new kid Kiawanuka looks sweet but it was just exhibition games.

And the offense, ah well here’s where the hype comes in. Peyton Manning is one of the best ever. Our boy Eli has not been anywhere in his class. Elil has, through 2 years, been rather mediocre. Draft day 04 I didn’t want to make the trade to move up and get him. I wanted to save the picks and take Ben Rothlesberger who just went on to QB the Steelers to a championship. The year before I wanted Phil’s boy Chris Simms. He had a break out year in Tampa Bay last season. I was a Phil Simms guy since before it became fashionable to be after 86. I was there for him when he was booed regularly and people wanted to start guys like, well, like guys whose names I can’t even remember anymore.

Oh yeah, guys like Scott fracking Brunner.

I loved Phil. He’s become a great announcer too. I’ve long held a strong belief that anything that issued from his loins could only be a goodness unto the world.

So I wanted Chris to keep the tradition here. Especially since he grew up in Jersey and my little cousin met him in high school.

But we got the much ballyhooed Eli.

And I like Eli. I really do. He’s sly wit and a guy with a personality I can relate too. He’s not too up not too down. He makes fun of his brothers penchant for overreacting when receivers drop balls or after touchdowns. In a very long and good N.Y. Times article on him over a year ago I really got sold on him. Just a smart dude. I remember one part where he talked about Peyton and other players running down the field wagging their index fingers “number 1, number 1.” Eli said something along the lines of, “Hey its not like they just found the cure for cancer.”

He’s a good QB too. I’m just not sure he’ll ever be great or worthy of this buildup for this Sunday Night Football debut on NBC. [image:193:l]

I hope Eli gets it done. I really like him. I even like his brother. Peyton’s got a great personality. He’s really genuinely funny in all those commercials he does. Lately Eli’s teamed with him on some cute ones like the one I just saw on ESPN where they’re touring the ESPN facilities with their parents and trailing behind while giving each other wet willies, kicks in the arse, etc, as Archie scolds them to behave.

But I worry this game will expose him and become a symbol of a Giant mistake in that draft. I worry Eli will lose the love and confidence of those around him which I suspect has wavered since his decline over the last few weeks and the playoff game of last season. I worry he’ll not only pale in comparison to Peyton, which is almost definite, but that he’ll do so to many others as well and that fans will start to boo the guy. I’d hate to see a guy like him become embroiled in a QB controversy in N.Y. He wasn’t necessarily my choice, but I like the guy and want him to succeed.

I don’t like his receivers. I think Burress and Shockey are overrated prima donnas and dirtbags not fit to be hung out to dry by an errant Eli throw. Tiki’s gold. Gold Jerry gold! But i grudgingly root for our #1 receiver and tight end.

But I think the Giants are looking at a rough season despite alot of hype and picks to the contrary. And though not one person has even come close to suggesting it, probably not even thinking it, I can see Eli getting booed and fans calling for the backup Lorenzen, known as the Hefty Lefty. He’s basically an out of nowhere guy with limited talent, but he’s kind of overweight and lefty. And he knocks guys down and looked ok in preseason after barely getting a # 3 QB job last year.

So he’s kind of likable in that weird eccentric blue collar way New Yorkers love.

I hope it doesn’t come to that. No one thinks it will. I am the first person to suggest it might happen soon. I am quite sure of this.

And I think the Colts win tomorrow-tonight. Big. Just throwing out a score to indicate the type of game were looking at I’ll say 44-10 Indy. On our turf.

Ugly.

But I’m looking forward to the game and hopefully being proven to be worrying too much.

We’re Big Blue and we can’t let them midwestern dome dwellers come into our building and run roughshod all over us. Giants tradition, despite that playoff loss in January, will hopefully not allow such an outcome.

As for the season here’s some other picks:

Leaning towards Dallas as NFC rep in Super Bowl. Hopefully having that dirtbag Owens will cause more and more problems and that Judas Iscariot-Benedict Arnold-Annakin Skywalker-level traitorous bastard Parcells will continue to never win a Super Bowl since leaving the Giants.

But Owens may be containable for a year even though there are already problems. They’re facing my pet Jaguars in Jacksonville week 1. They’re my pets because they can’t score and they play real good defense. Very comfortable with that.

And if I ever move to Florida, as unlikely as that is, I have to adopt a local team as my 1A team to the Giants and I can’t like the Dolphins. Tampa is possible with Chris Simms but they’re in the Giants conference.

But though the NFC East is billed as best in league I think it’s a bit overrated and believe the South may be better. Carolina, Tampa, Atlanta, and New Orleans is a whole lot of football. ALways like the Saints as a pet team and after all that happened to them after Katrina how can you not hope all goes well. That horror season did get them Reggie Bush. If he’s as big as forecast and Drew Brees imports that San Diego magic he had going, that makes them interesting even though they figure 4th best in the division.

If not Dallas I think Super Bowl team comes out of there even though Seattle in West is defending champ. Carolina and Tampa Bay most probably though Atlanta is always dangerous with Vick.

Afc is still better conference though the gap may narrow. Leading contenders there are considered New England, Denver, Pittsburgh and Cincinnatti. I’d throw in Baltimore who could relegate defending champ Steelers to 3rd place. They finally have a QB in McNair and though the Steelers already are 1-0 after Thursday night opener over Miami, and without Big Ben, I got to think the magic carpet ride they had last year gets a bit winded in 06.

Miami, even after that loss to Pitt, could also be back strong. Don’t see a Super Bowl with Culpepper, but I like Saban as coach and think they could dethrone Pats for division.

The Jets? Well let me say i like them. Though they lost the decision for my allegiance a quarter century or so ago, I’ve always rooted for them to do well and can enjoy a Jet game. But they could be real ugly this year. No offense at all. Nothing. Nada. Even Curtis Martin appears done. They could set a record for shutouts. If they’re anywhere near 500 than Mangini really was a great choice for coach and perhaps will be in the class of his mentor Bill Belichek.

Super Bowl?

Panthers-Bengals.

Or Cowboys

OR Buccanneers.

Against Bengals.

I feel most secure about that. Bengals will win it all as long as Palmers knee holds up. He’s the best QB in NFL besides Peyton now.

Go Blue!

[image:159:l] The only sporting event the world really cares about is over and Italy’s the champ.

Ok I’m not a big Soccer fan. I’m an American and Baseball is as slow and subtly complex as I want from a sport. But my dad’s a huge fan. A Soccer hooligan from the old country. Italy to be exact. Naples to be more exact. He watches Soccer regularly even in the 4 years in between the World Cup. Of course he is into the whole thing like a kajillion other people across the globe and that’s mainly why I was watching bits of the tournament and rooting for Italy. I was actually on the edge of my seat, and off it, during today’s final. I had it on at work and was very excited to see Italy pull it out.

Some of this is ingrained since I did grow up watching some Soccer and going to Cosmos games in the NASL days at Giants Stadium. Even got to see Pele play a couple of times and make a bicycle kick goal. The energy was great and the game a bit more wide open here. And of course I’m half Italian too. But mainly I was glad for my dad because it’s one of the few pleasures he has and with emphysema he may not be around for many, or any more of these. I certainly hope he is, but even so it may be unlikley that Italy will get that close again. So since its been since 82 that they last won I was glad he’d get at least one more chance to see them get the big prize that drives all the world so nutty outside of the U.S.

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Even here its big, but mainly through immigrants like my father. There are countries that shut down their electricity for this thing just so they’d have enough to turn on when the game was on. It’s insane really, more so than our sports insainity which is quite insane. And it all means so little. But the way I look at it the drive to compete, to dominate and conquer is innate so why not direct it in something as innocuous as a game rather than warring with another nation or getting all heirarchical at work.

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When you think about how absolutley global this Soccer thing is, how completely it dominates cultures and is a mandated social discourse, though i understand why it’s not so big here, I’m not sure why the rest of the world hasn’t focused this passion and united under their Soccer-rioting impulse and destroy us. Death by layered defense! THink of the damage they could do just with their heads.

Certainly we’d be well served to try and understand the European mentality more by understanding the game and their passion for it. There’s a book out there now about Soccer saving the world. All kinds of tomes have been written about the game. It’s poetic majesty is to them what Baseball’s is to the U.S.

Knowing how big this thing is I hope this Zadon guy doesn’t get persecuted in France. He’s one of the worlds best and today was his final game. But inexplicably he torpedoed an Italian in the chest with his head for no apparent reason and got red carded and thrown out of the game leaving his team short handed in O.T. That may have cost them in the shoot out round when he wasn’t there and they lost by 1 as Italy made all 5 of their shots. It was really an ignominious way for a guy of his stature to go out. To have a career that long and great and to be remembered like that. To do something that stupid at its end and biggest point. It just makes you wonder whether you ever really know a person or how they will react to certain circumstances.

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Will he be the Bill Buckner (all hail!) of France? I don’t know. Probably shouldn’t be. The whole thing really is decided a bit arbitrarily for my taste once it comes down to the shoot-out round. I’d rather they keep playing until someone scores a real goal. It’s kind of like deciding a 16 inning baseball game with a home run derby. It’s not really what the games about. Even I know enough about Soccer to know that. I’m sure the many great authors including Nick Hornsby who have written books about Soccer and its meaning and European context, would agree.

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Italy’s goaltender, Bufon, was the biggest factor in the tournament. [image:163:l] But goalies really have so little chance on those penalty kick things. It’s almost all guesswork. They’d know better, but it still seems to me like they’d be better off not diving with the kick. I know there’s so little reaction time, but unless the kicker puts it into a perfect corner it seems like there’s a better chance. And if he does that you’re probably not stopping it even if you guess right.

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But that’s as far as my analysis on a game I don’t watch much is going to go. Italy won and that’s the best thing next to Engalnd winning. Better actually because of my dad.

And the fact that I’m not English.

I’m half Irish actually. But if I was in Ireland I’d go over to England’s side and probably spy on the IRA for them. It’s not so much a political choice. I certainly don’t sympathize with much of what England has done in that war over the centuries. But English culture is so much funnier and more palatable to me. Monty Python or corrupt cops? Dickens or whiskey? Droll ironic humor or jigs? No contest for me. The Irish do have U2, but they’re no Beatles now are they? So I’d be rooting on Beckham and the lads against anyone but the Italians, even though the Italians were nasty bike riding cheaters in Breaking Away. And their actually embroiled in a national Soccer cheating scandal now. But it has nothing to do with the players on the World Cup teams roster.

And their Azure blue uniforms have always appealed to me over the years. It’s my color. Italians know how to pick a uniform.

They’re going crazy all over the peninsula and in many areas of the U.S. I’m happy they won. My father is happy they won. The Mets won on the same day and are in 1st place which is the closest I’ll come to experiencing winning a championship with any of my teams soon.

Though the Rangers made an interesting deal signing Brendan Shanahan to a 1 year deal today. I’d say they have the best shot of the Mets, Giants, Ranger trifecta. And that’s with the mets 12 or so up at the All Star break and beyond the half way point.

Home run derby tomorrow with David Wright praticipating. First time a Met has been in it I think. Hope it doesn’t ruin his swing and tire him out like it has some players. i don’t see him doing very well since he’s not that natural home run hitter type with the upper cut swing. Which is why trying to do that could hurt. Randolph even joked today that he’s not going to worry about it since Wright will be eliminated in the first round anyway.

But I’ll have fun watching it at work with a fellow Met fan tomorrow night. Not as much as watching Italy win today (or sort of tie with benefits depending on how you read it). Even got an e mail celebrating it from a cousin. Not from the Irish side needless to say. This stuff is big to my people. And my father is feeling peppy. Probably reliving his Soccer playing days. I remember him playing with friends when I was a kid. It’s kind of sad to think about then and now. I can certainly feel that change happening in me as well and its scary on all kinds of levels. But I guess one of the things sports does is offer transference and outlet. And maybe sometimes that’s all we can hope for in this world.

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