Baseball

I woke up yesterday morning to hear Gary Craig's voice shouting about the stupidity of baseball. He was railing over how people spend far too much time talking about baseball instead of important things. The lovely token female in the radio show (every morning radio show has a female put their to laugh and pretend to be offended at the host's sexism) shouted "there's lots more important things to talk about, like the HURRICANE people." Gary went on talking about how dumb it is that guys sit around talking about last night's baseball game and discuss pitches and hits and such. The end result is that I will never listen to Gary Craig's obnoxious self righteous attitude again.

I mean what the fuck?

These idiots must realize that they live in the center of baseball land, where two of the most powerful forces in baseball converge to create a gelatinous current of baseball. Baseball is the life blood in the Greater Hartford region, and while we did spend some time discussing the hurricane, it's back to the Red Sox and Yankees. Everything else can be put on hold. Plus, when does the statue of limitations run out on people giving us shit about talking about anything else but the hurricanes? Yes, they happened and they are upsetting and lots of people died. But we still need to live our lives.

So last night Gerry and I ventured head first into Red Sox town. We went to a bar that was chiefly Sox fans and it reaffirmed my love of baseball. I know now exactly why I enjoy watching a Red Sox/Yankees series. It's because everything inside of me hates the obnoxiousness of Red Sox fans.

Please don't misunderstand me, I am not much of a Yankees fan either. My father would take me to Shea Stadium on those hot August days and I would sit terrified of the 747s barreling by on their way Laguardia. It's easier to be a Mets fan because all you can hope for is that they get over .500. Nothing is riding on their games. When you go see them, you hope they win but don't cry too much if they lose.

But I hate the way every person all of sudden becomes a Red Sox fan during an important series. They know Manny and David, but they couldn't pick Olerud out of a lineup, which is kind of pathetic because he's their star right now. They go to bars and fight with people about stats that they don't know. Last night I got into a fight with a guy about who deserved the MVP, Ortiz or A-Rod. The guy didn't even know that Ortiz was only a DH and has a batting average lower than A-Rod's. He just came to the bar to get drunk and fight it out with some skinny guy who follows the stats the way my dad taught me to. Fortunately for me, Gerry is planning on competing in a Judo tournament today.

He's kind of well conditioned and scary looking.

I hate the way Red Sox fans hate every player on the Yankees. The only player on the Red Sox I dislike is Manny and I'm pretty sure even Sox fans despise him. But they come up with nicknames like Jorgay Posada and constantly pick on Giambi's steroid problem. Any time A-Rod makes a mistake they ironically chant "MVP."

So yes, baseball is exciting to me. I love every pitch, every hit and home run. As much as I claim I despise it, I enjoy getting anxious over games and feeling the tension boil up in a bar around here. Gerry once told me that he was in Rookie's during the series when Don Zimmer got into a fight with Pedro Martinez. He said the bar was one mistaken move away from an all out brawl. That's the kind of importance I will always be attracted to.