It's not a metaphor - It's Just Folks Playing Ball

I see it time and time again: You're rooting for the playground bully.

Then you look, and see a game like tonight's. Evenly matched. Just folks. Just people playing their asses off. Scrapping for runs. Diving for balls. Pitching their hearts out.

And the scrub, the fielder who hasn't hit shit all series, comes up and catches a fat one.

Evil Empire? Fuck, man. It's contingency. Guys playing ball and playing hard. Any givcen Sunday - or, in this case, Thursday.

There's a moment when we give up our pretensions and resentments and just watch the fucking brilliant emergence of the game. I remember one of the first conversations I had with my wife, back in the days. She was amazed that the ground outs at first were always so close: How could it be? It's ninety feet, I said. Goddamn perfect.

Can we watch a goddamn perfect game and put the resentment on hold? Is it possible? Guys playing ball. Eye to eye for over four hours, pressure on, evil tone in the air. And a fucking Greek Tragedy, to boot: Pedro Martinez's utter domination, strength, and hubris has him flying to close to the sun. Keep me in, chief. I can do it. People - human beings - playing ball.

It's not a metaphor. Stop condenscing all your suffering into it. It's pitch by pitch - contingent as all git-out - any given Thursday, any given Thursday, any given Thursday....

If the final score was Boston 14 Yankees 2.
Normally I hate blow-outs, but that is only when I do not care who wins.
Sure, any given Thursday. I would just like to see about ten seasons in a row where the Yankees do not make the play-offs instead of twenty in a row where they do.
Also, I do not think that the ninety feet is perfect. It is too hard to get to first base, and then too easy to score once you do.
Any given Thursday? Sure, when were the Sox last in the series - 1987? And how many series has the Evil Empire been in since then? Ten, or is it twelve? It sure seems like it. It is not just guys playing hard - it is the same team winning over and over and over again ad nauseum. It is like deja vu all over again, a recurring nightmare.

Don't let the pettiness build up and wreck you.