Friday, June 15, 2007

ARE YOU READY TO TESTIFY?

I’ve started three articles so far about tonight’s game and the weekend’s series and have tossed out all of them. I wrote an open letter to TBF that essentially said, please try to assume some kind of zen warrior mode when you go to the House of Evil this evening because I do not want to have to go bail you out in the Bronx in the middle of the night, I started a list of reasons I hate the Yankees, I considered writing about how a gentleman’s baseball affiliation can basically tell them everything you need to know about them.

But nothing came close to accurately describing why my stomach hurts when I think about tonight, why I wanted to wear my Jose Reyes jersey on the subway this morning, why I understand how fights happen in a sports context when some Yankees fan starts with “26!” and won’t stop to consider the question, “Right, but what about last year? Or this year?” or when they actually try to pretend that Roger Clemens actually gives a crap about anything except money, or any of the truly horrible things that that team represents.

All of which is not news to any of you reading this right now. But it’s still as new to me as it was to you when you were 13 years old.

• I hate that every newspaper in this goddamn town acts like it’s the second coming of the Messiah when the Yankees beat the PIRATES (for example)
• I hate that tourists come to New York and buy Yankees hats and then wear them everywhere because they think that’s what real New Yorkers do.
• I hate that none of the Canal St. vendors sell fake Mets hats.
• I hate that non-sports fans root for the Yankees because of the myth.
• I hate that non-baseball fans root for the Yankees because they can’t be bothered to learn about any other team.
• And finally: I hate that Steve Earle, Bruce Springsteen and Bono are Yankees fans.

I am going to Hoboken tonight to watch the game with Coop, because I would go insane if I had to watch it at home alone. We need to win this game big time. The Mets know this better than we do. No one even has to say it. we need D.Wright to be D. Wright, Lo Duca to be Lo Duca, OP to be OP, Delgado to be Delgado, Beltran to be Beltran. Ee have everything we need already.

I leave you with this exhortation (which would have been more appropriate for Detroit, I fully realize, but):

“Brothers and sisters, the time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem or whether you are going to be the solution! You must choose, brothers, you must choose. It takes five seconds, five seconds of decision, five seconds to realize your purpose here on this planet. It takes five seconds to realize that it’s time to move, it’s time to get down with it. Brothers, it’s time to testify. And I want to know—are you ready to testify?”

Kick out the jams, indeed.

And LET’S GO METS.