I'm not sure if a simple youtube embedment and a single sentence suffices as a "good" post, so, for those readers who might have been a bit confused by tinman-with-no-heart's latest post (I was, and I am part of this blog -I like to think of myself as forth, and tinman as backwards), here is a short explanation.
While sitting in a dim, skeezy, almost slimy bar - for those who are familiar, Southside Inn - last night watching the yankees on fuzzy standard definition television last night, Julian and I, refreshed by ESPN's bottomline, began talking about the topic of Bobby Thomson, the everlasting New York icon who put the Giants into the World Series over the (now underachieving, pathetic) Dodgers.
We spoke about the Polo grounds, what it must have been like to be a ball fan back when "America's Past time" was actually becoming the past time, and, overall, how much different ball must have been back then. We proceeded to the obligatory "I wish I knew Babe Ruth" conversation, and then returned back to Bobby Thomson and his home run in game 3. The conversation halted, though, when I admitted that I had not actually ever "seen" the old mottled clip of the "the shot heard around the world." I, in all my baseball knowledge, the most vast baseball encyclopedia in the world!, had never seen the clip. So, when I went home, after some violent deprecation from my counterpart, I promptly went to my computer, (like usual, because, honestly, I'm starting to think I don't have much of a life) found the clip, watched it, and read as much on Bobby Thomson as I possibly could before my urge to play video games became unbearable.
sidenote: The Associated Press article on Bobby Thomson on ESPN.com is well researched and very informative
But even after watching the clip, reading the articles, looking at the stats, and hearing what might have been, honestly, the coolest, most emotional home run call in history, I, at age 22, and having been born 37 years after the shot, was still emotionally distant from the biggest moment in "New York baseball history." I'm simply too young to even, honestly, care.
Having realized this, I immediately recalled what is probably the most significant sports moment in my lifetime. This moment, which occurred in the late hours of the night, after a marathon with the intensity of a sprint the whole way, is the moment when Aaron Boone shut the sound on all of Boston and lit up all of New York with his 2003 ALCS homerun off Tim Wakefield to win the pennant.
I remember my dad, with his day old razor sharp (pun intended) beard sliding down the hallway on his pudgy butt in his pudgy grey sweatpants yelling as loud as he could, (which led to my sleeping mom doing the same) the chatter around the school hallways the next day, the derision of the fools bold enough to wear Red Sox hats the day after, and the raspy, exhausted feeling of my throat from celebration.
I also remember (without cheating and watching the video below) the way Boone swung, and how Wakefield missed inside , and the anticipation of whether the ball would land fair or foul.
And I remember the great pride I felt in that home run, as if I had hit it.
(I'm not taking anything away from Bobby Thomson. There are plenty of people who were alive for both home runs who will say that his home run is indeed more memorable. And Boone's home run only ranked at #9 on ESPN's most memorable home runs list ((but they do hate New York, and love Boston))
If you're pregnant or suffer from heart problems, do not watch the following video. Especially if you're from Boston, work for ESPN, or are Joe Morgan or Joe Buck.
yours,
nicktgal
P.S. Tinman, why don't you listen to Lauren and Will? They are right in their comments, don't disagree with them. Where is the signature? Do you want to alienate yourself from your reader(s)? Don't you love them? Even if you don't, I do. I love you (all).
No comments:
Post a Comment