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visited *loading* times
sliding into home
winners and losers. good games and bad.
and then you know there’s that thing.
you know that thing?
the one about how you play?
yeah. that. how you play.
oh yes i love october. the smell of the leaves. the bright waning sun. the long shadows. the first snow. the damp earth. the chill in the morning. time for thicker sweaters and socks and jackets and caps and sweatshirts.
had the best crop of tomatoes and peppers this year. some hot tiny little vermillion numbers and some of those tasty great long green chiles and quite a lot of little plump sweet cherry peppers and of course oh yes of course the luscious fat juicy red round tomatoes. what a magnificent harvest this year. the best ever really. just the right combination of plants and weather and tender loving care.
but now they stand still and droopy, shadows of their former glory. flash frozen by the first snow. rigid, brittle and green.
smothered by a cold wet white blanket of snow on a weekend without baseball during the long eight day layoff.
and so the rockies have gone the way of my tomatoes.
yeah it must have been that snow that did it. that’s what it was.
so it’s over and it’s not nearly as devastating as i feared it would be. yep there is a certain level of disappointment, but honestly it’s been almost impossible to believe that they actually made it to the world series in the first place. and in such a grand and exciting cinderella sort of way. what a run.
and of course it had a certain dr. seussian quality to the whole thing too. rox and sox on fox on the box. eating noodles in a bottle on a poodle sort of deal.
we were all cheering for the red sox here in 2004 you know. lots of red sox fans here. ortiz has that smile. reminds us all of the big cat a bit maybe. oh there was never any real possibility of thinking of them as our enemies.
oh how things here have sparkled in such magic possibility. all these people who hadn’t seen a game in years much less bothered to check box scores were spontaneously involved. suddenly everyone was a baseball fan. for a while there, it seemed the whole world went purple.
and it was a glorious and magical ride to the top. it ran on skill and precision and attitude. and a generous fairydust sprinkling of happy amazing miracles. it all ran like charmed clockwork. it was almost too good to believe for none of us had really allowed the possibility or the expectations to enter our consciousness.
the baseball gods had finally smiled on colorado.
and there was that sense of opportunity. possibility. and yes, almost inevitability.
and then it snowed. and then there was the build-up and the hype and the great ticket debacle and the celebrations and the festivities and the long too long so very long cold and snowy eight day rest.
and those baseball gods. they are a fickle bunch.
oh sure there was a first great blowout pounding. whazzat? then the nail-biter with that pickoff of holliday in the eighth. and eventually then the gradual return to the sort of team we’ve always known and loved. yes, loved. they are still the team we always wanted. and the team we almost had.
for baseball is the great ego buster. it’s that win some lose some deal. there are good games that are lost and bad games that are won.
and it just takes time. so many games a year. almost everyday. inning by inning. play by play by play. pitch by pitch. one piece one throw one good at-bat one moment away.
the more you pay attention to it, the greater the energy investment. the more you care, the more you want to care.
the focus sharpens.
and really it’s the same for the players. the more they’re into it, the more they enjoy it. the more they enjoy it, the better they play. the better they play, the more they win.
oh but it is an emotional roller coaster, no question. the highs the lows the bouncing rollers in the dirt and the looping curveballs and the swings and misses and the crack of the bat and the cheers and the groans and the sighs and the sighs and the sighs.
you’ve just got be able to roll with it. take the good with the not-so-good. maintain. be cool. hang in. wait a few minutes and the whole thing could change. anything could happen. it’s baseball, baby.
for there’s always something to be salvaged from each game. that one play. that great at bat. the breakout inning or the consecutive strikeouts. the double play or the stand-up double. the diving catch and the over the wall out of the park ball that just keeps going.
truth be told, i have always felt sad for the world series losers of this great yearly build-up event. even when the team i wanted to win did, it’s always hard to watch the grief and loss on the faces of the disappointed. to watch their dreams of glory brutally extinguished. but even so, i always watched the drama unfold from a distance. these sorts of emotional extremes were for other teams to experience, not my regular guys. the world series, well that was something completely removed from reality. an important thing, but a vicarious thrill only.
and then all of sudden we were there.
the big time. the pennant. the national league champions.
and then, just like that, there we were. among the grieving.
oh the attachment to outcome. the great heart-breaker. the gut-wrencher. the what could have happened what could be what went wrong where did that go . . . ?
and yet.
and yet it’s as if the party is still on. isn’t there supposed to be more suffering?
but there really isn’t.
and there isn’t a lot of criticism or armchair management going on. not that i’ve seen anyway. i haven’t heard the sour whining disappointment of sports fans feeling gypped or experts pointing out the errors.
oh there’s some speculation. will we still have kaz next year? will the nucleus remain in tact? will they mess with the mojo?
no there is no devastation here.
instead it’s simply another beautiful chilly october sunset behind the mountains kind of bittersweet baseball acceptance.
in fact, i might go so far as to say there is great joy here in mudville. and we are still wearing our purple.
and yes there is a tremendous sense of pure gratitude.
maybe everyone is still savoring the experience. the winning 21 out of 22 games. the sweeps of the post season games. the amazing performances. the pitching. the relief. the energy still reverberates from the purple tornado that hit this town this october.
a purple tornado that chilled too long in the snow, perhaps.
but what a storm. what a wild ride. what a great team. what a run. what a wonderful experience.
and so.
so next year i’m planting as early as possible. i’ve discovered just the right kind of tomatoes to grow in this dry sandy desert soil. and i’m putting in the same super hot chiles. maybe a little cilantro. going to use some good mulch this time. and i’m going to be quicker on the covers and stave off the frost. yeah i’m going to be making some fresh salsa in november next year.
yeah just wait until next year.
just wait.
posted by: limine at 07:53 |
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