A little introspection

I had a similar epiphany yesterday when I was giving a softball teammate a ride home from our game and I was prattling on about how today was going to suck because I was likely looking at a 15-hour day.

As I looked at him, I realized I was saying all this to a guy who has been at various times in his life homeless, addicted to crack, an alcoholic and jobless. He now works with some construction company and still makes some bad choices, but I could only imagine what a dick he must have thought I was.

I followed it up by saying, "Hey, my worst day is still pretty damn good. I get paid to watch baseball." He then went into a five-minute monologue about how he loves baseball -- at any level -- and how he doesn't think about drugs, alcohol or the bad stuff he's done in his life when he watches it.

Made me appreciate my long day today.

 

Were you driving Dwight Gooden?

 

Funny ... the guy is our pitcher.

 

Best part of the job -- meeting people and seeing places and attending events that we would otherwise never get near.

I ran with the bulls once in Pamplona for a story, and when I looked over my shoulder, I swear to God I was thinking, I'm the only dude here getting paid to take that bull's horn up my ass.

 

hb


glad to see you're getting it, my friend. i feel like i've beaten the system. haven't really worked a day in my life. what a blessing.

i've never taken it for granted. 8)

 

HB is right, we don't look around enough.

I've been doing that at the last few big events I've been at. Because you don't know if you'll ever be back, so enjoy it.

 

If HB starts telling us the Yankees are October then we'll start to worry.

HB some writers have told me that when they take a leak in the Yankee Stadium press room they feel like Mel Allen is looking over their shoulder. Have you had this vision yet?

 

I've covered NFL camps and games before and a bunch of other stuff, but I didn't get that same feeling (the one HB) is talking about until this year at Spring Training.

I had to go back to Podunk and the minors, but I felt like the guy who got a cup of coffee in the bigs. It's something I'll hopefully be able to tell the kids and grandkids someday.

 

I'll never forget covering the Falcons-Packers playoff game at Lambeau Field in '02.

After the (night) game, after waiting long past deadline for a Favre press conference that never happened (the first he ever skipped apparently), the security guards had left and the tunnel to the field was open. I figured I'd better go out there while I had the chance.

I went out on the famed frozen tundra, which was actually frozen, and looked at the snowflakes backlit by the Lambeau Field lights. These were those huge snowflakes you get once in a blue moon, it was really beautiful. I stood near the south end zone, the Ice Bowl end zone, the replay game end zone, etc. I had that kind of moment Hockeybeat had. It was mystical. Whatever the reason, I was on the field for a Packer playoff game. Granted, the first one they ever lost at Lambeau, but a playoff game nonetheless.

And little did I know, thanks to the dickhead management of the paper I was working for back then, that it was my second-last trip to Lambeau. I did a one-off playoff game (the Al Harris interception game) a year later and that was it. Turns out I really only covered the team for a year after being promised otherwise when I took the job. But at least I had that moment.

There's a much, much stupider story that goes along with that, but I don't want to sully the thread with my dumbassery.

 

they say they do not hear Mel's voice but others have spook of hearing Scooter shout "Holy Cow"