Charge!

For years now, I've been going to Boston the first weekend of August to play golf with my friend Tom at his club's Member-Guest Tournament. And every year, that's about the time the Yankees catch and/or pass the Red Sox in the American League East standings. It's a source of endless amusement for me and the club's transplanted Yankee fans. A couple years ago one guy said something along the lines of "Hey, Angelos is here, the Yanks must be in first place!" Too funny.

This year, of course, the Sox started too hot, and the Yanks outright sucked for 3 months, so we missed the target date because there was too much ground to make up. But thanks to an easy schedule the last month, the Yanks are within 5 games of the Sox in the East, and are right in the Wild Card mix. Predictably, the Boston sports pages are going into their traditional Fetal Position of Doom™. I even saw the question "Is this 1978 all over again?" in the Globe. I love them. Hell, I read the Boston sports media more than the New York media, because they're so amusingly pathetic. As are Sox fans, of course. I love the smell of panic in the morning. Smells like... well, its smells like any other baseball season. It's good to have things in life you can count on.

My point in all of this? Oh, I don't know, I just felt like writing something before I got back to work on the floor. But this is so much fun. Sports provide the best drama one can get. No movie, no TV series can entertain me so. One hundred and sixty-two times a year, I flip on the game and get a brand-new drama, totally unscripted, each an individual episode in a six-month season. I get heroes, villains, and plot-twists. I experience spontaneous explosions of joy, or heart-breaking and soul-crushing agony that just might kill me. But then I realize there's always 7:05PM tomorrow, when we start all over again. What's not to like?

As far as I'm concerned, the season starts Friday, when the Yanks have to start playing actual teams again. But if they win tonight, they'll have taken care of the patsies to the tune of a 21-7 record since the All-Star break. I was targeting 22-6. Not too shabby, and the definition of taking care of business.

Whatever happens, I'll be there. The best entertainment in the world.

UPDATE: Well, that was ugly. 20-8 will have to do.