Walk Hard

This weekend I watched the faux biopic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story which is a very funny movie, but not what this post is all about. This is about walking, and the fact that walking in New Jersey is hard. I don’t mean hard like up a steep grade (although that is indeed hard) I mean hard like no sidewalks, no bathrooms, and no cross walks when you need them.

Of course no one walks anywhere anymore so it’s understandable. Oh – people walk for their health. Lots of people do that. But tell someone that you walked to get from point “A” to point “B” and they will almost certainly ask if your car is broken down, especially if “A” and “B” are further than a couple of blocks.

This morning I walked a mile and a half to get from the College Avenue Campus to the Busch Campus rather than take the bus (which is another subject entirely!) My horoscope this morning told me to start walking which was pretty spooky since I had already walked most of the way to work the day before. Needless to say I complied! For the first time I used a newly installed bike/walking path to cross the Raritan River. It was very nice, but sure enough to get to it I had to cross a busy street (one lane only – but hey!) without a cross walk to get on the bridge. I survived. (I guess it would be even harder for the bike riders who would have to jump the curb and climb a flight of steps.)

Just as the hoproscope had suggested, the time I spent walking really gave me a chance to get my thoughts together. The day has been better as a result. Wait up Dewey! You don’t have to walk alone.

The Morning After

So, women’s basketball season officially started this weekend, and as of today I’m ready to apply my full attention to the Scarlet Knights. Of course that’s because my beloved Red Sox lost last night to the Devil Rays (yes I know they prefer the new sanitized name… so sue me.) I thought all along that the series would go seven games – these two teams played each other tough all season long. I had hoped for an alternate ending however. Worse yet, it might be my fault they lost.

I went to an open practice yesterday for the women’s basketball program. (Looks like a hugely talented team – watch for future posts!) After the program they were giving away photo sheets of the team. I went down to get a couple from one of the students passing them out. I grabbed the one he handed me, and then as I was getting ready ask for a second one for my wife he looks at me and says “Go Rays!” I realized I was wearing my Red Sox ball cap. His taunt peeved me so I just grabbed the second poster and said “I’ll just grab two if you’re going to be a smart ass” to which he replied “Go Rays! Go Rays! Go Rays!” I told him to “shut-up” and I walked away. That’s right, I yelled at a kid, and in doing so might have generated enough bad karma to create a reality in which the Red Sox could not win game seven.

When did it become OK in America to harass complete strangers about their sports affiliation? In the office we get on each other about our teams. I work with some some pretty rabid Yankee fans and we just can’t help ourselves. But we KNOW each other. The kid at the game had no idea who I was – and what’s more I doubt he was even a Rays fan. He wasn’t wearing any team paraphernalia. He just wanted to give a Red Sox fan (who he didn’t know from Adam) a hard time. As a Red Sox fan living in New Jersey I can tell you this happens all the time, and it gets tiresome.

I apologize to the kid, not for snapping at him, but for the low level of my retort. Maybe if I had come up with something a better zinger I’d be getting ready for baseball on Wednesday, instead of basketball on November 4th!

Oh Me of Little Faith

Last night, with the Sox down by seven runs, I did the unthinkable. I went to bed. It wasn’t that I had given up on the idea of a comeback (although I did think it unlikely) it was just that a comeback that huge would take so long that I’d be a wreck at work on Friday.

What is it with baseball these days anyway? I realize it is important to make money, and that television needs as large an audience as possible to do that, but do the games really have to start so late? Seven o’clock games work fine all during the season. A entire generation of kids is being locked out of enjoying great moments like last night’s improbable Red Sox comeback. Kids, and sleepy old men like me.

See you Saturday night!

Thank God for the Yankees

With the Rays recent hammerings of the Red Sox, who now stand at the brink of oblivion (for this season at least), you might think this would be a sad day. However, thanks to the 2004 ALCS true fans know that anything is possible. So, on Thursday night (why is Wednesday an OFF day?) Red Sox Nation will strap on their gear, cozy up with their beverage of choice and cheer to the final out. As of now I’m not making plans for Thursday, Saturday or Sunday. Go Sox!