Lets Play Two

On vacation, I ran an experiment. Before I went away something made me do this. I was walking into a store and I was wearing a New Jersey Devils jersey, when all of a sudden some guy asked me what time the game was and what the hell was up with the Devs. I decided to wear nothing but jerseys on the boat through out the day. And I had all these people coming up to and asking about the teams I represented or gave me a look of hate. Sports have a way of allowing strangers to talk. Go to a local bar, and notice this. Perfect strangers will be arm and arm acting like they have been friends for life because the Mets have a two out rally going. There is a certain spell that sports can cast upon someone. There is something about sports that make people realize that life can be fun. Take for example, September 21, 2001 New York is in shambles. The Mets are on their way to a 3rd place finish in the NL East. Then enter the hero, a strapping catcher who had no intentions on being a talk of folklore. The city on his back. The Mets were allowed to wear FDNY and PDNY hats for this occasion. Trailing, the team that the whole city had followed all night. Steve Karsay was on the mound. Man, I swear it was something out of a fairy tale. The hit goes down forever. Everybody was standing, Christ I think the dead walked that night. Sports. They can do that. Reading a Sports Illustrated article two weeks ago can explain it all. Ching-Ming Wang is the savior of Taiwan. He is king, they said that once when he arrived it took forty police officers to get the people away from him and his wife. Now, to understand sports and how they can bind people is in this article. In the article they explain how the delegates in the nation have been at war for years about what ever it is they fight about. When he is on the mound they come together to root with each other. It has been written before by the great Tom Callahan, "It's a fabulous game". They make us young again. I mean Christ, when was the last time you stopped someone on the subway because they had a nice suit on and you started talking to them about the suit?!?! The word primadonna is thrown around a lot, but honestly, do you really think they would put themselves out there for the world to see them just fail?!?! They want it just as much. When Dan Reeves was benching John Elway, do you honestly think he wasn't trying?!?!? There is no script. They want it, look at them next time with a third eye. The eye of innocences, and I think you may see A-Rod in a different light. It's sports, It's a fabulous game.