Play Ball

I figured that I would blog late so that Christine may have a shot of being the first person to comment. After all, she missed the chance to be first at a different blog today. Actually, I spent most of the day watching baseball that I just didn't have the chance to do it. I have watched baseball since early afternoon. I am on game four for the day. I watched parts of a fifth game. I was bouncing back and forth between the ESPN afternoon game and the Mets game. I watched the Phillies game unfortuantely in whole. I thought they had come back and stood a shot to win it, but apparently Tom Gordon forgot how to pitch, so they lost it in the ninth. I definitely yell at my television more during a baseball game than during football. This is the first time I got the chance to watch all of the Opening Day games. I was either in school or working. The beginning of the season tends not to define things, so I wasn't worried about anything that happened today. I just don't want it to be too much of a regular thing. There are also many teams right now that aren't at full strength so we will see what happens once everyone gets healthy. Doesn't matter in my family as the war has already started. You see, I am a Phillies fan. My brother, in one of his moments of being an idiot, routes for the Mets. The phone calls and text messages has already started on day one. It is never good to have people in the same family route for division rivals. My brother is really odd man out as most of my family are Phillies fans. My cousin, Eric, is a season ticket holder for the Phillies. Well, one year he gave Jason tickets to a Mets game he couldn't attend. Well, the Phillies scored 14 against the Mets and Eric managed to call Jason for every run scored. It drove Jason nuts and added salt to the wound. Jason and I went to a Mets game at Shea Stadium last year. It was the only time I remembered us doing something just the two of us. I can see why they are replacing Shea. It has definitely outlived its purpose. Well, Jason and I managed not to get out of hand. We were civil to each other. It was easy for me as the Phillies won. Jason's friend did all the taunting by calling him constantly. The other thing that I remember is that there were West Point cadets sitting behind us. Most of them were going to be graduating this coming May. I think about those guys often. They knew that once they were graduated that they were heading off to Iraq. Not one of them regretted the decision they made. They just all felt that it was something that they were called to do. They just want to make sure the whole unit got home safe. The sad part of that statement is that they were also referring to any that may be dead. Many of us take what we have for granted, and no matter what your opinion of the war, young men and women like them who were sitting behind me need to be held in a high regard.