Thursday, October 28, 2004

My brother sent me this link to the Team America lyrics. Not safe for work, ya know.

Here is my latest review. I wish I could have done better; I was somewhat rushed. I'm doing some Kiera Knightley movie next.

I bow to Nancy's superior pregnancy wisdom and I have invested in lemon. It is mighty tasty in the Twining's English Breakfast decaffinated tea I bought for work. The flax sounds like a splendid idea, too; especially since I'm afraid to take fish oil for omega3 fatty acids and flax has some.

Speaking of pregnancy wisdom, I have become morbidly aware of just how little I know about babies, children, pregnancy, etc. It was just something I never cared about. I grouped that into the same category as weddings and marriage; many young girls and women tend to fantasize and plan out their weddings; I never gave it any thought until it was about to happen and then I would have been more than happy to go elope just to get it over with. The damn ceremony didn't mean much to me. It did to Jon, so we got married skydiving. Which was cool but I was still damn nervous.

Now I might be a parent and I have no idea what that truly entails. The nice thing is being a parent is an almost universal experience therefore plenty of information exists. Way too much, in fact. Now I have to try to sort through it all and figure out what makes sense and what sounds like bullshit.

Congrats to the Red Sox for winning the World Series. The team did a great job of settling down, whupping up on the Yankees, and just playing good, solid baseball. I watched game 7 of the NLCS and remembered how much I had liked baseball back in the day.

Way back in 1990, the Braves sucked. Dale Murphy still played for them, but he was at the end of his career. I went and saw a ballgame at Fulton County and fell in love with live baseball. I knew the game sort-of; I used to watch the tape delays of the Braves in the early 80's on WTGS late night because that was the only thing that was on and I was a chronic night owl. My favorite player was Phil Niekro, a sleepy looking knuckleball pitcher. He was long gone from the game by the time I got interested in baseball again, so I had to pick a new favorite so I settled on John Smoltz. Don't ask me why, I just did. Tom Glavine was a close 2nd.

Anyway, the Braves didn't lose 100 games in 1990 but they came close. Boy they sucked. September of that year I got called up to active duty so I missed the rest of that lousy season at Fort Riley, Kansas. My sister, who had become a fan during that period as well, called me up one day and asked me if I wanted to buy weekend season tickets. I said sure, why not; they were not that expensive at the time, plus I knew I would be spending that much time at the ballpark anyway.

I felt like I had jumped on a bandwagon 40 minutes before everyone else! I recall driving home in my tired little Pinto from Kansas in early April 1991; I remember hearing a game pitched by Steve Avery on WSB as I neared Atlanta. I really enjoyed the 91 season, except that for the 1st half Smoltz couldn't pitch. he went something like 2 -11. Fortunately he turned around in the 2nd half and ended up something like 14 -12 and was a huge reason for what success they had during the post-season games.

The Braves went to the World Series that year, losing in Game 7 to the Minnesota Twins. I recall watching that game then going into my room and crying for a couple of hours. I had a lot of emotional investment in that season and I think I was crying as much because it was over than because they had lost. The Braves have been in the hunt every season since; and I'm always disappointed when they lose, but I'm not going to whine about it. Braves fans are spoiled and they don't remember what it's like to be total losers (that's because most of them weren't fans before 1991). They have won 1 World Series in that time span, and that's better than many teams in recent history.

So I tip my imaginary cap to the long suffering Boston fans - patience is indeed a virtue. Now maybe in my lifetime I'll get to see the Cubs win a World Series (preferably by beating the Yankees).

1 comment:

Anonymous Me said...

I felt the same when I got pregnant, that I didn't know nothing about birthing no babies, or taking care of them either. As long as you learn enough not to do anything really stupid, like huff paint fumes, or take up a three-pack-a-day habit, all the advice in the world probably won't be that helpful. I got tons of advice from my students, and I never minded, but the experience is individual. Once you have the child, you figure it out. Don't worry.