Sunday, May 13, 2007
AHORA, TRES CARLOS.
When we were down at Spring Training this year, one morning, there was an animated conversation going on between one practice field and the other, between Jose Reyes and one of the minor leaguers. I had left my pocket Spanish dictionary in the car, but there was a lot of laughing and joking and even with zero knowledge of Spanish, it was clear that two friends were giving each other a hard time.
“I think that’s Carlos Gomez,” TBF said. “Jose says he’s even faster than he is.”
“How is that even possible?”
Saturday’s debacle involved me getting in the car to drive home around 3pm, turning on Howie and Ed, and sending TBF a text message at 3:46pm (while I was sitting in traffic on the Hutch) that read ‘OH THE HUMANITY’.
We kind of completely ignored baseball last night as a result, got home very very late, and slept in very very late. By the time we came home from a very very late breakfast, the game was well under way, and we both studiously avoided the internet so the game didn’t get spoiled. I was going to do some cleaning first, and then TBF said, “I think we need to watch the game. Carlos Gomez got called up.”
“But yesterday, they said that Pelfrey--”
“Yeah, I guess not.”
Wasn’t that outfield a pleasure to watch? Wasn’t Perez dynamite? What a fantastic, fantastic game. I like Gomez, and TBF is showing the kind of affection for OP that he previously reserved for Duaner. Reyes in the dugout, finally getting with the program (telling Ben Shpigel that he waited because he was filming a reggaeton video - WHICH ONE? inquiring minds beg to ask), rubbing heads with a newly-shorn Gomez in the dugout. Loving OP’s leaps, his unbridled enthusiasm, his tip of the cap in response to the well-deserved standing O as he left the field in the 9th. (I don’t know which I liked better, that applause or the one he got as he came up to bat in the 8th.) It was the kind of game that made me sorry we weren’t there after all, despite the chock full week o’ baseball we have ahead of us. It’s starting to be the kind of year that will make me say, ‘Yeah, we should go,’ when the impulse arises to see that extra game.
On that note, I have a day off on Thursday and Friday. Although I have my day planned and am totally happy with it, and will get to Shea early on Friday in time for BP, there is something that makes me want to find a really, really good ticket for Thursday afternoon and spend the day in the sun at Shea.