The Baseball Desert

Friday, May 04, 2007

Officially, completely 100% psyched

Life has been so busy around here recently that - as strange as it may sound - my trip to Boston has snuck up on me somewhat.

Last night, I was stuck in a hotel room in Geneva with no internet access - so no Red Sox baseball - no reading material and only my iPod to keep me company. Thankfully, in addition to lots of quality music, the iPod contains all my photos from last year's trip, plus Faith Rewarded, so I was able to have a Boston baseball evening without ever leaving the comfort of my hotel bed. As I looked at the photos, it suddenly dawned upon me, in head-slapping "How did that happen?" fashion, that I fly out to Boston in exactly one week's time.

Last year's trip was fantastic, but I spent most of the 4 days in Boston just wandering around grinning like a kid in a candy store. I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm willing to bet that this year's trip will be even better, because I'll be able to savour things a little more. There won't be so many 'firsts' - first Fenway pitch (Beckett), first Fenway win (Matt Clement), first home team homer (Youkilis), first Italian sausage (mmmmm...) - but there'll be many other things that I'll enjoy better second time around.

Hopefully I won't be so intent on taking pictures this time around and I'll have more time to sit back and enjoy the games. And 'enjoy' is definitely the operative word. When I watch at home, I get nervous, I pace around, I too worry about magic caps, but at the ballpark, I'm just happy to be there. If the Sox win, that's great; if they don't, well, I'm with Stephen King:
"It's been a good day. There was baseball. So let it stand."
I'll take some of that, thank you very much. Multiplied by five.