Saturday, September 29, 2007
GONNA BE A LONG WALK HOME.
In the end, it was the right thing to do, not being there tonight. The front row of a Bruce Springsteen concert (and yes, we had our elbows on the stage) is the one place we are guaranteed to not think about anything except the Bruce Springsteen concert. It was good to see the band, it was good to hear the new and the old songs, it was good to see the people we only see in the parking lot of an arena before a Bruce show, it was good for TBF and I to be together at a Bruce show. All of that.
And, it was the right thing to not put both of us through the heartbreak, although we were getting text messages from Shea, and you know we were watching the MLB scoreboard on ESPN up until the second before the lights went down at 9pm, and as soon as the band took their last bows around 11:10, the first thing I did with the phone was check the scoreboard again for the final - and THEN text the friends we were meeting up with.
Post-concert, we had dinner with friends at a tapas place on 9th Avenue, where, despite the television tuned to SNY in the corner, we were able to avoid baseball talk entirely as we dissected the weeks’ setlist within an inch of their lives. And then, around 1, we headed home.
As we drove down 34th Street towards the Midtown Tunnel, TBF said, “Well, at least I have the Bruce tour to keep my mind off of things. Otherwise, I’d be fuckin’ unbearable.”
“It’s really over?”
“We’re toast.”
This, from TBF. Not from me. From TBF. Who not long after that was asking me, “So do you have any interest in going to that game...?” when we were talking about whether there would be a need for the one-game playoff in Philadelphia. He is going to take this harder than me. I’m not even going to pretend to have any claim on that. It would be stupid and foolish to try.
And he’s right. it will be good that we can cover more of the Springsteen tour than we thought. And it will be good that we will have our 2008 seats partially paid for. But that’s not how it was supposed to end, and I’ll never forget that.
But I’m not ready to let go of the Mets, or let go of baseball for this year. I’m just not. But I realize that I have no choice in the matter.
Need some sleep. Need some rest. Need to not think about this for a while. I thought about it all day. And we’ll be thinking about it all weekend.
Alright...I’ve never posted before(although I read your blog all the time) but you can’t start saying we’re toast. There are two games left! We have to have a little faith, I know it’s hard...but we have to!