An Existential At Bat

by Ryan


I've been thinking a lot about baseball recently.

I guess it's only fair, seeing as it's the only thing going on. If you are new to the site, we have some pretty conflicting rooting interests here in the Roost. Jon is a New York Yankees fan, while I am a firm believer in the way of the Red Sox. And while I won't wuss out and run for president of Red Sox Nation, I am seriously considering getting one of these beauties.

That being understood, you would think I have something interesting to say about the AL East and the gradual slipping the Sox have been doing over the past month. Yet somehow, I really don't know what there is to say. All year I have believed that it will happen; that the Sox will start to lose a few here and there, and the Yankees will get it together at the All Star Break and make a push.

I'm no psychic, they are simply too good a team not to. There is too much money on the payroll for it to happen otherwise. So while the numbers dwindle, and Michael Kay's erection grows, all I can say is I told you so.

It's a strange thing, living here as a Sox fan. YES Network is on basic cable. Do you know what that's like? It's a Holy Day if I can get a Sox broadcast at all, but Satan and Co. has a constant feed going on channel 71. Every day I have to watch "the other guys" while Papi and friends play on a three digit channel I don't have. (The theory is if I save to buy a better TV, I will upgrade to digital HD. It's a preliminary theory at the moment...)

Still, as I sit praying someone beats the Yankees, I can't help but be calm about it. Yes, things have changed since this whole "rivalry" entered my life. It is overstated, yes. It is repeated relentlessly, in fact. But there is a complete truth to it, and something that will never be proven otherwise.

Dave Roberts happened.

Sure, he's on the west coast now, but he took that base, the Sox took that series; and whether anyone else knows it, my life has never been the same.

Every sporting event I've seen from that point on has been viewed with a different pair of eyes. Dave Roberts made the cliche Aiddas made famous come true: Impossible is nothing. It may not always happen, but when it does you will never forget where you were when you saw it.

Let's face it, being a sports fan sucks. You have no control over any aspect of the game. You can't make roster decisions, call plays, or even suggest what logo to wear. (And even when you do, some fruitcake is going to pick Steely McBeam...) It's expensive, time consuming, and emotionally draining.

Yet all it takes is that one moment to make it all worthwhile. Sometimes it takes 90 feet. Sometimes 90 yards. Others 90 seconds. But when it happens, and when you finally get to celebrate what we've dreamed about since childhood; there is no comparison.

Someday it will happen here, you know. It's bound to eventually. In the meantime, I will celebrate Wake two hitting the D-Rays, praying Dice K pulls it together, and Youk and the boys keep hitting. It's a long way to October, but all you have to be is in the hunt to make it fun.

I trust we'll be there.