Out of touch

When the majority of baseball games are played in the middle of the night, it's very easy to become out of touch with the team you follow. Combine five days away from home, a 4am CET start on the West Coast, a Fox late-nighter and an ESPN midnight start, and you suddenly look up and find you missed the Home Run Derby, the All Star Game and three Sox games in Anaheim.

Given that I don't give a crap about the ASG and that the Sox got swept by the Angels, it's actually probably not a bad time to be away from baseball for a while. However, when these barren periods do occur, I always find myself - whatever the current status of the team - longing to just get back to the game. I love the Red Sox, and I love even more when the Red Sox are doing well, but at times like these, I find myself just longing for the game itself, for the way it reminds us that summer is here and vacation is just around the corner.

Of course, that 'just around the corner' is a problem in itself. Just as I'm getting back into a rhythm which would allow me to devote a little more time to the game, the Sox are on the West Coast and then it's my turn to head out to the West Coast (of France) to charge the batteries. So the Mariners, Yankees, Angels and A's will all have come and gone before I get chance to see another game, but I'm fine with that. All in all, this has been a bit of an off season here in the Desert - dating back to last October - but fortunately the tide is starting to turn. Between now and the end of August, I should be in a position to once again strike the right balance between work and life, and the Sox will be back in their rightful place, somewhere near the top of my day-to-day agenda.