One strike Away

Heartbroken doesn’t begin to describe the feeling…..one strike away…..twice….sooooooooooo fucking close…..had my apartment covered in plastic had the champagne (of beers) on ice….I was ready to re-enact every post championship locker room celebration as soon as the final out was gathered…….I was ready for my hometown team to join the club…..I was going to find out what it felt like……..but it was a different club the Rangers were joining..it was a different feeling I was about to experience……I’m watching the 30 for 30 documentary called “Catching Hell” about Bill Buckner and Steve Bartman…..and my empathy for Cubs fans runs deeper than before two nights ago……(fuck the Red Sox they’ve got their title–though I do understand what ’86 must have felt like) I watched the Marlins-Cubs game in ’03 with my buddy Kent at my favorite dive bar in Denton….it was surreal to witness something like that(especially in their own stadium–the air went out of that place)………to see it happen to your own team….UNREAL….I was too numb to understand it….until the Rangers lost game 7…..sorry Big Mama (she loved the Rangers–we watched so many games together when I was a child)…no title for our boys just yet……and to make it worse…no hoops to look forward to with this blasted NBA lockout…….that depressed feeling I usually get at the end of the baseball season has been compounded…..so fucking close………..and yes its just a game, and no it should not matter that much and 33 year old men shouldn’t cry about the outcome of such trivial events……but that is where I’m at.I suppose if there is a positive to all this its that the sudden emerging of the Rangers has reignited my passions for the great and beautiful game of baseball…I’d been so apathetic for years…..probably since 2003…..I still believe the Rangers will be back…..and that they will win it….just like I believed last year….and you know what? I was one strike away from being right.

Tags: '03 Cubs-Marlins, '86 Red Sox, 30 for 30, Bill Buckner, Catching Hell, MLB, NBA Lockout, Rangers, Steve Bartman, TWIB