You gotta believe!

Being a Met fan means summer is the most painful time of the year.

Warning: This is a TMI post.

Anyone familiar with the Mets, is familiar with this phrase.  I often think it was cruel to raise me a Met fan when New York has a winning team but I am convinced the designated hitter rule is a crime against everything I hold holy.

Digression:  Baseball is special for a number of reasons.  There is no clock.  The season is like a pressure cooker — starts slow and leisurely and ends in a race that can be a nail biter.  One of my favorite things about the sport is that every player plays both offense and defense.  When you allow such a pivotal player — as the pitcher is — to not hit you change the batter/pitcher dynamic.  This produces pricks like Roger Clemens, whom I will love to hate until I die.  It’s just not how the game should be played and once again, love you Crash Davis, I believe there ought to be a Constitutional amendment outlawing astroturf and the designated hitter.

Anyway, back to my point.  Every year I practically live and die by the Mets. I even believed after what is regarded as one of the most historic collapses in sports.  You can read about that here.  I feel the need to elaborate on how seriously I take this.  I only wear Met blue nail polish.  When I watch a game I alternate between really watching and only having it on in the background.  Depending on how they are doing when I do either.  My Met clothing — Jose Reyes jersey, 1986 t-shirt, old school, blue satin jacket, hat, necklace — gets switched up  — are they doing better when I have the hat on?  Should I take the jacket off?  Now, I know I sound crazy — and I am — but any Met fan will tell you, we are a superstitious lot.  I know intellectually that nothing I do will impact the game — and I also know they can’r hear me when I yell at the TV.  My sports related Tourettes kicks in big time when I watch the Mets (and 4ers, tennis, etc.).

But despite all the loss and all the heartbreak, I believe in the Mets.  So why can’t I have the same belief in myself?  Because I have way more successes than the Mets (at least since 1986).  My successes & failures are not as public as a major baseball franchise will ever be but every day I succeed at my job, my writing and my other endeavors.  On occasion I succeed at doing stand-up comedy.  That rocks my world.

Yet, I still don’t give myself the faith I give the Mets.  Something is wrong with this picture.  You might be wondering why I am telling you this.  One goal I have for this year is to change that.  Because: I’m good enough, I am smart enough and doggone it, people like me. (Thank you Stewart Smalley.)  I have read that telling people about a goal makes it easier to achieve — or maybe you are more likely to succeed — and I want to make this happen.

It may be late for New Year’s resolutions but mine now are:

1. Focus on doing ONE thing at a time.
2. Remember that lesson I learned when trekking to Everest.  We would come to a hill that was super steep (going down was harder than up) and I would think there is no way I can make it all the way down that.  Then I would tell myself ok, maybe you cannot make it all the way but you can take the next step.  I made it base camp.
3. Make at least five people I don’t know smile every day.  Work up to 10.
4. Start to believe that I am more than my weight. And no, I am not the fattest person on earth like I like to think.  Plus this body got me up Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft) and made it to Everest Base Camp (18,192 ft) and that’s pretty awesome.
5. Celebrate accomplishments and learn from setbacks.
6. Be better to myself and the people I care about. (I have been a total asshat lately, to the people who have had to deal with me, and you know who you are, I am sorry.)

So there you have it.  My belated resolutions.  Back to your regular scheduled programming… political thoughts will be back tomorrow. Or later today.

No, John McCain is not Joe Montana

John McCain is looking for a serious Hail Mary here.  Last month he was in a similar spot.  His campaign was at 4^th and long and he threw one, we now just call her Governor Palin, or Sarah to her closest friends (aka all of Alaska or 670,053 people in 2006).  That play got him a first down but he‘s back at 4^th and long and with only a few weeks left and one debate to go he needs to do something.  Something amazing.  When has that happened before?  Being football season, I’ll go with a story from the 49ers.

In 1982 the San Francisco 49ers played the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football Conference championships.  The Cowboys had kept the Niners out of the playoffs three times before and things were not looking good.  Then with only 51 seconds left in the game and with the Cowboys leading by six  Joe Montana, a late third round draft pick (no touch, average arm) and seventh string QB pick at Notre Dame (almost took a basketball scholarship to play elsewhere), did the unthinkable.  He threw what’s now known only as ‘the catch’ to Dwight Clarke.  Montana had three Cowboys when he veered to the right and threw the ball high.  He said later he did not know Clark would be open just hoped his receiver would get to the ball.  Clark thought it was too high for him to catch but catch it he did.  In the end zone.  For the touchdown.  The Niners win and the crowd goes wild! (They went on to win the Superbowl that year, too.)  Joe Montana, the guy who almost didn’t play football at all turned out to  be the greatest quarterback ever.  (Don’t agree?  Don’t bother arguing with me on it.  Nothing will change my mind.  Nothing.  Ever.)

The problem Mr. McCain faces is he is no Joe Montana. That doesn’t mean McCain doesn’t have options.  He had options last month when he picked Sarah Palin.  He would have picked Joe Lieberman if his party didn’t threaten to basically implode.  He could have picked anyone who added substance to his ticket.  He should have gone with his gut, which has served him very well in the past.  Could have.  Should have.  Would have.  Didn’t.  Rather than pick someone he really liked and respected, Mr. Lieberman I am looking at you, he went with the political choice.  Was it because she was a woman and would appeal to bitter (and brain dead) Hillary supporters?  Was it because she was the quick shift to the right – like ‘the catch?’ Was it because she is a pit bull with lipstick?  Who cares?  He did it to please the base and energize his campaign.  The good news is it did both of course he got that much needed first down by doing the very thing he promised not to do months ago and swore during the convention he was not doing: He put his campaign before his country.

But enough with the negativity.  John McCain has a real change to set the ‘reset’ button on his campaign.  He can do this without putting out a new economic plan or changing his stump speech, though I know he has not done the latter.  He can do it tonight at the debate.  I propose he start the debate with the tone he claimed he wanted to be the hallmark of the campaign.  Now because I  think this is a good idea, I will win the lottery while being hit by lightening before this happens but this would make a great opening statement (or closing statement, I think he should start with it but that’s just me).

“First of all, thank you to the great people at Hofstra for hosting this important event.  Before we begin I would like to say something to the country.   Thank you to the audience here and at home, thank you for watching and giving us your time.  During the next hour and a half you will hear Senator Obama and I tell you why we think each of us would make the better president.  I should tell you that before we get to that I want you to know how much I respect the man who shares the stage with me tonight.  Senator Obama is a decent, patriotic American.  I have been proud to serve in the United States Senate with him and it is an honor to have him as my opponent.  A lot of things have been said about both of us over the course of this campaign and there is nothing I can do to stop that but I can tell you that you when you vote next month, I hope you vote for me because you think I am the best qualified candidate and have both the experience and best plans to lead our country.  This election is about a difference in opinion.  This campaign is about ideas and judgment, let’s keep it that way.”

My heart tells me he should also say something about how many new voters Obama has brought into the system and how that is a good thing – the upside for McCain is that it will make more right wingers go out and vote but it may be a bit much.  I know I get carried away with the rhetoric.  It’s kind of like a drug.  In any case that’s how he should open the debate.

For the record, Barack Obama is no Joe Montana either.  He’s more a Steve Young to Bill Clinton’s Montana.  Without the Mormon lineage and affiliation or concussions. 

 

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