02.04.24

5:49 p.m.

there are a few things i have to do in the next week or two. but i'm not going to tell you about them because they're not that interesting.

my intention, when starting this entry, was to put them down here. i was going to make a list of some sort and have you read about them. but now that i've thought about it, i've decided against it. because, really, who cares.

yesterday, i went to a baseball game. the yankees were playing in oakland, against the a's, in the first game of a three game series.

in the bottom of the ninth the yankees were leading by one and oakland had runners at the corners with two outs. the third out popped up to the infield, and the yankees won. it was very exciting.

dug and i were talking during the game, commenting on the fact that we hadn't heard of half of the yankees starting lineup. that they, the yankees, had made alot of change since last season.

before then, nothing had really changed for most of the last five years. the team that won the pennant in two-thousand was basically the same team that won the pennant in ninety-seven.

they've made alot of changes. brosius at third, knoblauch at second, and martinez at first are all gone. o'neill is missing in right field as well. all of them either retired and traded.

he was always my favorite, paul o'neill. his consistent drive was impressive. he was a fan's player. he wanted to win just as much as you wanted him to win. when he was on the field, he played as hard as he could and took nothing for granted.

alot of people that i know (who, by the way, are not yankees fans) like to say that o'neill was a crybaby. they like to say that his throwing of his helmet when an at-bat didn't go his way was childish.

but no, no it was not. no, what it was, was fire. it was passion. it was love for the game.

after the game was over last night, a fight broke-out in the chaotic shuffle that was fifty thousand people trying to get out of the stadium. a fight broke-out because, it seemed, alot of oakland fans were upset that their team had lost, and they decided to take it out on some yankees fans with their fists. and this, really, is not the same sort of passion that i am talking about.

i watched some, trying to get outside. holding malinda's hand a little tighter, and a little disappointed. i had always thought that baseball was the thinking man's sport. that stupid shit like fighting because your team lost was reserved for football. apparently not.

or maybe, maybe it's just oakland. jeremy giambi does look like he's straight out of a trailer park. plus, the a's play in the same stadium that the raiders play in, so maybe you have some cross-pollination going on there. i don't know.

their nachos are pretty good though. at the stadium, the nachos are pretty good. they put shredded beef on them. they're quite tastey.

i'm going back again tonight for game two. my seats are a little better (courtesy of malinda and her friend david) and david wells is starting for the yankees.

i'm pretty excited. i've missed david wells.

tons.