Thursday, September 06, 2007

JOEY VOTTO.

It was all well and good to be charitable to the rookie coming up for his first at-bat on Tuesday, especially when he whiffed all three pitches, especially since we were winning (although that 11-7 still makes me wince). But it didn’t mean much to me until I visited Sister Daedalus at The Church of Baseball (“Reds fan by birth. Nats fan by residence. Baseball fan by the grace of God.”) and saw her post reading, ” I sure hope Votto starts tonight…because he’s the only reason worth watching at this point.”

On Wednesday, I had lunch with TBF, and then headed off to a meeting, and couldn’t keep checking the game updates. When I got out later and checked the boxscore on ESPN, and saw that Joey Votto had hit one of those 7 runs, well, I was glad because 1) the freaking Mets phoned it in and 2) the rookie got a HR and 3) someone I kind of sort of know was going to be happy in that way baseball can make you happy unexpectedly, especially someone who is a fan of a team that has pretty much rolled over and played dead in terms of postseason activity. Call me a traitor if you want.

On the note of being a traitor, here’s an amusing anecdote from last night. I am sitting in the running car standing legally on Bedford Ave., while TBF runs into DuMont Burger to pick up dinner. On the way over, we had been listening to the Mariners at Yankee Stadium, hoping for our friends that the Mariners can pull it off. A car pulls up behind me, doesn’t really park, but no one gets out. Another minute goes by, and then someone gets out of the car and comes up to the driver’s side window.
“I’m waiting for you to pull out.”
“This isn’t a legal spot, and I’m waiting for someone inside.”
“Right, but I want the spot.”
“I’m waiting for someone to pick up dinner, and there’s a hydrant here. You can’t park here anyway.”
“Oh. *pause* You listening to the Yankees game?”
“No, I’m listening to the Mariners game.”
“Oh, sorry. Thought you were listening to the Yankees game.”

There is football on the television now, and the only baseball I could watch is the Cyclones. The nights are cool, the baseball tickets dwindling, and I have no idea what I am going to do when the 2007 season ends.