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.

Why Congress should care about baseball & steroids

Because they are the only organization that can make the changes Bud Selig refuses to make.  And if anyone could be more useless in that role, well I think it would be impossible.

Anyone who has ever met me knows I am a Met fan.  As such, I love to hate Roger Clemens.  When he went to pitch for the Astros I felt like he was the gift that keeps on giving.  Finally the Rocket would have to face pitchers.  I am not sure I can say this here but he is a jackass, in my opinion.  It's funny, feelings about him today seems to break along party lines; Democrats didn't like him and Republicans did.  I never saw my own party affiliation as being part of my opinion.  He bothers me because he is the kind of player who imports violence into a non-violent sport and that bothers me.  A lot.  Plus he is a bully, does anyone like a bully?  I could also go on and on about how is a selfish, non team player (he asked to be taken out of game six of the 1986 World Series, which most people think cost the Sox the Championship that year and one of his recent contracts kept him off the road, nice way to support your team.)

Ok, it's gross that the trainer kept the syringes and gauze, what's up with that?  There is also something to the criticism that Congress may have better things to do like get us health care and out of Iraq but I go back to the point a: if they don't force the issue no one will.  Love it or hate it, baseball is the American pasttime and the use of steroids hurts the sport.  Roger Clemens, despite being a symbol for all that is unholy and evil such as hummer and nastiness, is also an amazing athlete.  Or maybe not so much.  I don't think he needed them, unless it was to extend what most can agree has been a long and outstanding career.  I hate him and can see that.  Ty Cobb was a jerk, too but that doesn't mean he couldn't pitch.

So Roger — ps.  I can die a happy woman after seeing Shawn Estes hit a home rum off you at Shea stadium (really, Roger's ERA at Shea is like 7.8 and he has all sorts of demands about how he has to walk out a special walkway to protect him from fans who are still angry that he threw a bat at Mike Piazza) but seriously, come clean.  It will be good for you and the sport.  And really, it's not all about you. 

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