October 2006 Archives

Today’s entry is the fourth in the continuation of describing the saga of the 2001 World Series run of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It started with the Five Short Years Ago entry posted on October 26, 2006. It was a heartbreaking loss but not completely unexpected. The Diamondbacks had outplayed the Yankees but the breaks just did not go their way. Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly decided to gamble a little and shuffle his pitching staff moving game 1 starter Curt Schilling up to pitch game 4 on 3 days rest. This would move Miguel Batista one day to pitch game 5 the next day. It was clear from Brenly’s actions that he felt game 4 was critical for the Diamondbacks.
Besides game 4 of the World Series, today was also Halloween. So while I was just excited to see the next installment of this World Series, the kids had other ideas in mind. Namely, they were excited to dress up and go trick-or-treating. This of course was another dilemma I would have to overcome when juggling family and baseball. And as if that were not enough, the events described in Game 2 Memories would come back to have relevance as well.

This will be the third entry is a continuation of the saga of the 2001 World Series run of the Arizona Diamondbacks that started with the Five Short Years Ago entry. After a travel day the World Series would resume in New York. In their day off, several of the Arizona Diamondbacks players would make a trip to ground zero to see the devastation from the September 11 attacks. It was a somber experience that would impact their lives for ever. Even five years later they speak of that visit and what it meant to them. The people of New York needed a diversion from tragedy they were still dealing with and the World Series would be the perfect thing. Security was already tight for this series but even more so for Game 3 when it was discovered that President George W. Bush would throw out the ceremonial first pitch. During the pre-game, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter met the president in the tunnels and offered a couple of tips. Stand on the pitcher’s rubber to throw. If you stand in front of the mound the fans will boo you. Second, don’t throw the pitch in the dirt or the fans will boo you. It was sound advice that the president obviously took to heart. He confidently stood on the mound and waved to the cheering fans then threw a perfect strike bringing more cheering from the fans. With that game 3 would begin with the Yankees looking for their first win after being dominated the first two games in Arizona.

The landscape was vast and visibility stretched for miles in all directions. I stood and looked in all directions trying to get my bearings to try and figure out exactly where I was. I looked to the sky hoping to find a constellation that would help me at least determine which direction was north. But the sky was completely dark, the type of dark that seems to envelope your very soul. I looked left and right hoping to find some sort of landmark but the darkness from above was settling onto the ground like a dense fog reducing the visibility immediately from miles to mere inches. With the darkness closing in I suddenly felt very cold and quite alone. This loneliness began to seep into my very soul draining me of energy. I felt like the lone survivor of a devastating catastrophe and wondered how long this feeling would last until I was overcome myself.

Today’s entry is a continuation of the saga of the 2001 World Series run of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yesterday I described game 1 of the World Series and what it was like being there. What I failed to mention was some of the strange events that just sort of seem to follow me throughout my life that were magnified during this championship run. As a loyal fan of the Arizona Diamondbacks I had not missed a home game since the team came into existence. Sure there was the close call when Trina’s grandmother died but I talked the family into waiting until after the game before we drove 15 hours to the funeral (a story left for another day). As part of that streak I had gotten an opportunity to meet several of the players and front office personnel. One person in particular was Diamondbacks president Rich Dozer. In 1999 as the Diamondbacks were approaching their first play-off appearance Rich asked if I would be willing to talk to a reporter to give him a fan’s perspective. I agreed and that led to Garin Groff of the East Valley Tribune coming to my house along with photographer N. Scott Trimble to hang out and watch the game. When the news article ran, we became very minor celebrities in our neighborhood. Little did I realize what impact that would have on my life in the 2001 season.

I’m currently in the process of reviewing content on my NowHitting web site as I prepare to upgrade the look and feel for the 2007 season. Before blogs became such a buzz technology, I had an online journal on NowHitting where I talked about baseball called Diary of a Diehard (what a coincidence). My plan is to migrate all of those entries into archive entries here and I should be finished with that effort by early next week. While reviewing the entries, I realized that I had not written about each of the games in the 2001 World Series. Over the course of the next several days I am going to chronicle my thoughts and feelings of that World Series. Having been to all 4 games in Arizona and watching every pitch of the 3 games in New York, I wanted to give my account of that magical time in Diamondbacks history. Today marks the fifth anniversary of game 1 of the 2001 World Series so let’s stroll back in time to relive history.

It has been a strange and unusual World Series this year. From the very beginning of the post season with the heavily favored New York Yankees being taken down by the Detroit Tigers to the end of the National League Championship series that saw the heavily favored New York Mets eliminated. Of course whenever New York or Boston is eliminated from the post season there is an immediate drop in interest and television ratings. This has been the case this season too as media outlets have already hinted that viewer interest is waning. In fact Dancing with the Stars actually outdrew the World Series in several markets. Of course these are not markets where I shop. I don’t want to run into anyone who thinks watching lackluster stars attempting to dance is an entertainment form. But then I don’t really get the whole reality television thing anyway but that is a story for another day. For now we’re talking the World Series.

October 25, 1986 was a day that few baseball fans can forget, especially if you were a Boston Red Sox fan. The scene was set, The National League Champion New York Mets who had won 108 games that season were facing the American League Champion Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox of course were in the midst of a 68 year drought last winning the World Series in 1918; the year before they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. The Red Sox were leading the series 3 games to 2 and they had their ace Roger Clemens on the mound to face the Mets Bobby Ojeda who himself had previously played for the Boston Red Sox. Clemens would after the series be awarded the American League Cy Young award as the most dominating pitcher for 1986. Needless to say, the Red Sox were heavily favored in this game. In the crisp air of Shea Stadium in New York the teams were prepared for an epic game that will be remembered for as long as there will be baseball.

In yet another sign that the apocalypse is upon us, Major League Baseball is announcing that a new labor agreement has completed and will now go to players and owners for ratification. This marks the first time in the history of baseball that the two sides have completed a labor agreement before the current agreement expires. When I first heard the breaking news that a deal had been reached, I immediately ran out of my office and into the streets. I was afraid that at any point now the ground would begin to shake and buildings would begin tumbling to the ground. I looked up at the sky fully expecting to see the moon turn blood red and the stars fall from the heavens. This kind of news is typically reported in the Bible under miracles right before a discussion on the end of the world. I would expect that this news will be a boon to all television evangelists who can use this to call people to repentance and ask for donations to ensure that you are saved when the earth is destroyed.

While the baseball regular season is over and the post season is nearly over, there are still lots of baseball decisions that must be made to be ready for the next season. Many fans think that once a team is eliminated from post season contention that the franchise goes into some sort of hibernation until pitchers and catchers report to spring training in mid-February. That is far from the truth as each team prepares every day to make their team better. I big piece of that puzzle is the minor league system. This is where players hone their skills waiting to be called up to the major leagues. Each franchise has several minor league affiliates where they assign players to help them progress. Most minor league affiliations are contracts between major league baseball clubs and minor league franchises. These contracts can be as short as a couple of years or in some cases they have lasted for decades. For the most part there are very few changes from year to year.

After the first two games of the World Series it is clear why this is called the Fall Classic. The St. Louis Cardinals obviously didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to be the underdogs and roll over to the superior Detroit pitching staff. In game 1 the Cardinals faced Detroit ace Justin Verlander. Verlander has been dominating most of the season going 17-9 with a 3.63 ERA. Instead, the Cardinals took advantage of an off night by the Tigers and jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the series. The Cardinals were led by a strong pitching performance by rookie Anthony Reyes who threw 8 strong innings allowing 2 runs on 4 hits. The Cardinals offense was led by Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, and Scott Rolen who accounted for 5 of the 8 hits and drove in 4 of the 7 runs that were scored.

Well the match-up is finally set. The 2006 World Series will be a sequel to the 1968 series with the Detroit Tigers facing the St. Louis Cardinals. This is an unlikely outcome to a post season that has been filled with strange results. The Detroit Tigers began the year with a fairly uneventful April that led to their manager Jim Leyland raking the players over the coals during a news conference. This obviously intensified the Tigers and for much of the year they played some of the best baseball in the major leagues. But as the season came to an end, the Tigers faltered and lost the American League Central division title reaching the play-offs as the wild card team. The St. Louis Cardinals came into the season as one of the favorites for the National League Central division along with the Houston Astros. The Cardinals had a roller coaster run during the regular season and in September they faltered finally clinching a play-off spot on the last day of the season. Few people gave them much of a chance against the San Diego Padres in the first round and gave them even a lesser chance against the New York Mets in the League Championship series. In each case the Cardinals pitching staff rose to the occasion which brings us to game one of the World Series.

At the beginning of August when the Arizona Diamondbacks were still having delusions of grandeur, I received a letter in the mail providing instructions on how to order post season tickets for when the Diamondbacks made the play-offs. The letter had pricing for my two season tickets for all play-off games and a deadline of when payment had to be received. At the time I was very excited and planned on buying the ticket package. But soon the Diamondbacks began falling away and by the time the deadline arrived Arizona was for the most part eliminated. I kept the letter and the invoice for my tickets just to remind me how close we were at one point in the season. Today I was going through papers on my desk and I came across that envelope and looked through it again. What I didn’t notice was that there was another piece of paper in the envelope as well.

There is nothing quite like a game 7 in a series. One single game in a winner take all contest to see who moves on and who goes home. This is the kind of drama that every American sports fan loves to see. After 162 regular season games (161 in the case of the Cardinals) and the first round divisional play-offs then 6 games of the League Championship Series it will come down to the final 27 outs to decide who will represent the National League in the World Series. This would be equivalent to two runners in a marathon who go stride for stride through the race. The first runner stakes an early lead and cruises through the race while the other struggles and barely reaches the final leg. But when that final leg of the race begins, it is the struggling runner who finds his pace while the seemingly invincible runner struggles with aches, pains and minor injuries.

The thing about play-off baseball is that all kinds of celebrities and wanna be’s come out to be seen at the game. Earlier in the National League Championship series Fox showed Steven Tyler of Aerosmith in the stands. I don’t know Tyler so I can’t really say whether he is a diehard baseball fan and if he is that’s great but I have to say he didn’t look like the most comfortable guy in the stands. Maybe you get used to seeing someone in a certain light and environment and when you see them somewhere else you just can’t get your arms around it. Besides celebrities you also get former players and executives from other teams and the league who attend the games. Most of the time it is a “be seen” factor but sometimes they are there for a reason. At last night’s game commissioner Bud Selig was at the game and when you get the commissioner you obviously have to try and corner him and ask some questions. Most of the questions are ridiculous like whether the commissioner thinks Barry Bonds takes steroids or if he thinks baseball should recognize Barry if he breaks Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record. Seriously, do you really expect the commissioner to upstage the play-offs and give you a quote like, “I think Barry and his big old head needs to get out of the game before my head witch hunter George Mitchell buries him.” Granted that would be awesome if Selig would come out and say that but you probably should not expect it. So instead the interview consisted of asking the commissioner what he thought of the new Busch Stadium.

The Arizona Fall League came into existence in 1992. It was designed as a short season almost all-star atmosphere where each team could send a select few top prospects to compete against each other. This has become a breeding ground for Rookie of the Year candidates and gives clubs an opportunity to see how their prospects respond when matched with other high caliber talent. The Fall League is made up of 6 teams: Grand Canyon Rafters, Peoria Javelinas, Phoenix Desert Dogs, Mesa Solar Sox, Peoria Saguaros, and Scottsdale Scorpions. As in the past, the Arizona Diamondbacks will send players to the Scottsdale Scorpions.

I sat on the couch blankly watching the local Fox affiliate which was playing some sort of infomercial about a miracle plastic tube filled with pasta that would cook the noodles if you added boiling water and sealed the container for 15 minutes. I kept looking back and forth from the television to the clock and back again. My remote finger was just itching to pull the trigger moving from channel to channel saving myself from the possibility that I might actually think this product was useful and reach for the phone to speak with one of the operators who were standing by in the next 90 seconds to save me money and offer me a free gift which seems to consist of some sort of rubber doily or something. I look back at the clock and it is a minute since the last time I looked and a full 45 minutes past when game 5 of the National League Championship series was supposed to start. You know what would be good while I wait? A bowl of pasta cooked slightly al dente. Wait I need to focus, what was I doing? Oh yeah baseball.

The Detroit Tigers began the season with everyone thinking they would be marginally better this year than last. Then Jim Leyland woke up the team and made them think they were winners. Suddenly the Tigers were one of the hottest teams in baseball and had the best record in baseball. Like many, I expected that they would come back to earth and I wondered whether they would even make the play-offs. In September this nearly became a self-fulfilling prophesy as the Tigers stumbled blowing games and having to settle for the American League wild card when they lost to Kansas City on the last day of the season. Surely they would not last more than 4 games in the first round as they were playing the immense line-up of the New York Yankees. It was just a matter of time before they would be sent packing. After the first game of the season I was very confident that my prediction was correct. Instead Detroit came storming back to beat the Yankees 3-1 moving on to the second round of the play-offs.

Earlier this year the Arizona Diamondbacks were recognized as the best franchise in Major League Baseball. Many media outlets have also proclaimed that the Diamondbacks have the deepest and most talent laden minor league system in baseball. This talent began to be showcased during the latter half of the season as Stephen Drew, Carlos Quentin, Chris Young, and Alberto Callespo joined Conor Jackson at the Major League level and contributed to wins by the team. Having this kind of depth in the minor league system provides some salary flexibility since those with little major league experience typically are less expensive than an establish superstar. It also means that the Diamondbacks have alternatives and options to create a package that may land the team a needed pitcher or hitter. On the surface it would seem there are no downsides to a loaded farm system but that is not necessarily the case.

I like to think of myself as an above average intelligent person. I went to college and completed a 4 year degree in 2 years. I maintained a decent grade point average while still having time to keep up with the rigors of playing baseball and soccer. While I don’t put much credence in standardized tests I did extremely well on both the ACT and IQ tests allowing me to be selective in what college I attended. I’m not saying any of this to boast. On the contrary, I am providing this background information to explain just the opposite. That there are times that I am extremely irrational and completely off my rocker and there is no scientific basis by which I can explain neither my thought process nor my behavior.

Since the season is now over for the Arizona Diamondbacks there are many decisions that need to be made. Each player and coach will be assessed to determine whether they fit within the vision that the franchise has for 2007 and beyond. It will not just be talent that will be evaluated, there are also other factors. Every year we hear about chemistry and how important it is not just on the field but in the clubhouse. When a team works closely together over the course of 162 games it becomes paramount that the players and coaches be on the same page and working towards the same team goals instead of 25 players working on individual goals with hopes that the team will benefit. So when general manager Josh Byrnes and manager Bob Melvin meet they will go over each player and see if they are a piece to the puzzle or if they go in the extras box to be used as trading material to find pieces that better fit. When all of the pieces have been laid out and Byrnes and Melvin have a clear picture of what the puzzle will look like, then the hard part begins. Can we afford to put this puzzle together?

Word came out of New York today of a tragic airplane accident that took the life of New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle. Lidle had pitched four days earlier in the American League Divisional series against the Detroit Tigers. After being eliminated from the play-offs he had gone to Yankee Stadium to pack up his things before going to California. He would be a free agent and expected several teams to vie for his services. Given the limited depth of starting pitching, Lidle would probably have been able to get a two or three year contract for around $3 million per year. Before the trade deadline several teams had enquired about trading for Lidle and he ended up being dealt with Bobby Abreu from the Philadelphia Phillies to the New York Yankees where he helped down the stretch pitching his way onto the post season roster. Cory Lidle was piloting the plane through rain and hazy weather. Eye witnesses have said they saw the plane flying erratically as if it was having some type of mechanical trouble. Shortly before impact a distress signal was received from the plane but before a response could be given it struck an apartment building in Manhattan approximately 5 blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. Lidle and a passenger on the plane were both killed. He leaves behind his wife Melanie and their son Christopher.

After a really long weekend where there was limited baseball due to the fact that everyone clinched their series early, it’s finally time to start the League Championship Series. This is of course what traditionalists and baseball purists call the “real play-offs”. They don’t believe in the wild card and there should only really be 2 teams per league in the play-offs. That’s the way it was in the times of Babe Ruth and what is good for the Great Bambino is good enough for us. So their thinking is that the east champion meets the west champion and the winners of these contests would face off in the World Series. That theory is flawed by the fact that until 1969 there were no east and west divisions, each league had a single champion so you went from the end of the regular season immediately to the World Series.

It’s Monday, it’s a holiday and I have to work, and there is no baseball. In life this would be what I would call a strikeout. So while the League Championship Series wait to get started tomorrow, I am left to ponder what life may have been like without baseball when Columbus was around. But first, in order to fulfill the requirements to be listed as an educational resource I’ll provide my one historical fact. Columbus Day was initially designed to be a celebration of Italian American heritage and was first recognized in San Francisco in 1869. The first state celebration of Columbus Day was in Colorado in 1905. Today Columbus Day is celebrated in several countries. Canada isn’t one of them. Today in Canada it is Thanksgiving. I guess the Canadians were worried that there may be a shortage of turkey if they waited until November but that’s probably a theory best left unexplored in this entry. Here we wanted to talk about Columbus and I have a few thoughts and theories on that subject.

Friday marked the official beginning of fall break for the kids. They would be out of school for an entire week returning to class on Monday October 16. During this brief vacation, Trina and the girls planned to leave town to “girls’ camp”. I have no idea what “girls’ camp” is and quite frankly I don’t what to know. I envision it having activities around hair, nails, and shopping tips though I am sure I am completely wrong about that. I’m pretty sure it is not real camping since I never remember packing a curling iron or dress shoes when I went to Boy Scout camp. I don’t remember taking an extra pair of pants or shorts but I’m sure my mother put some in my backpack when I wasn’t looking. Since the first round of the playoffs had started and I was obviously engulfed in an ESPN and Fox Sports induced sports coma I totally spaced off that it was camp time. Looking back I should have realized something was up with all the luggage in the living room but for all I knew that could have been there since Opening Day in April. So as I watched the Athletics and Twins; Trina kissed me on the cheek saying something about not forgetting that I was taking care of the boy and she left. Wait, what was that? Hello? Trina? Anyone?

The American baseball fan base is divided into two distinct camps. The first are Yankee fans who revel in the team’s 26 World Series championships. These are the fans who point to the storied past of the most prestigious franchises every to play the game. They speak in reverent tones at past heroes such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and the countless dignitaries of the game. They wear the white and blue pinstripe jerseys and dark blue hats with pride knowing that their team has no equal when it comes to success in baseball. The second group of fans remembers a fateful day in January 1973 when a shipping tycoon purchased the Yankees for at the time an unheard of price of $8.8 million. That shipping tycoon was none other than George Steinbrenner. From that moment on, they Yankees would differentiate themselves from other teams with a win at all costs attitude. Steinbrenner could at best be classified as a hands-on owner and at worst a meddling disruption. He demands that his employees and players perform their jobs to perfection. He demands success and has shown a tendency to remove any and all roadblocks from in front of the team to give them no excuses. As a fan from the first camp these are the qualities that you love about the Steinbrenner era. To those fans in the second came these are the traits you despise. There does not appear to be any middle ground when it comes to the Yankees. You either love them or hate them, it’s that simple.

It usually begins the first part of March. The weather begins to get warmer and the days just a little bit longer. Spring flowers start to come out of hibernation and the grass begins to get green again. Heated seats and defrosters make way to vents and open sun roofs. Tires are checked and cars are washed all in preparation for what lies ahead. For most people, these preparations are a rite of spring and summer vacations. For me it means getting my car ready for the 8 trips it will make to the various Spring Training venues in Arizona followed by the 83 trips it will make to Chase Field for the final two spring training games and the 81 regular season games. You see the pre-season is not just for the players. Fans and cars need to get into shape too if they hope to handle the grind of a 6 month baseball schedule.

This year and the upcoming off-season will see more changes to the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise than any in the team’s nine year existence. Not since 1998 will we see this much of a difference in the team and that is not even counting the changes to player personnel on the field. It’s been well documented that Luis Gonzalez and Craig Counsell will not be back as players in 2007 and there are strong indications that Miguel Batista will also not be back. With the relatively small pool of quality free agent starting pitchers, Batista will likely be priced out of the Diamondbacks budget. So Josh Byrnes will have his work cut out for him to tweak the roster while staying within a similar budget for next season. No matter how many changes Byrnes makes, he will never be able to catch what is being done in the front office and business side.

Growing up I always remember sneaking home from school for lunch just so I could watch a couple of innings of the baseball playoffs. Even though my mother packed me a lunch, I would find some excuse to come home just to see how the game was going. Afternoon playoff baseball was just a way of life. It just would not be right if someone suggested that the games should be played at night. There were always two games a day; one from the National League and one from the American League. It seemed so simple yet somehow that has become lost. Now we have to account for three divisions per league and of course everyone’s favorite the wild card. There are still some afternoon games but with all of the teams involved, it requires an advanced degree in quantum physics to determine who plays when and which game we are on. Fortunately I used to be a rocket scientist so I feel qualified to complain about how this is playing out.

The days are getting progressively shorter. Temperatures are dropping and in many parts of the country cooler nights give way to frost and a reminder that summer is now behind us. Leaves are starting to change colors bringing a cornucopia of hues to the hillsides. Grass which has long been green during the summer months will soon be going dormant. All of this though goes relatively unnoticed in Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis. In these cities thoughts are still entrenched in the thoughts of summer days and baseball. After 45 days of Spring Training filled with hope and anticipation and 182 days of following hometown favorites battle through the regular season eight teams have emerged to compete for the ultimate prize, a World Series trophy. For fans of the other 22 teams who saw their seasons end on Sunday it is a bitter sweet notion that their players are now gone from sight and mind for five long months until the spring flowers again appear bringing with them new hope that this will be the year that their team will join the ranks of the play-off teams.

The majority of the fan base of the Arizona Diamondbacks will remember that Sunday October 1, 2006 was decreed as Luis Gonzalez day by the governor of Arizona. The day will be replayed in everyone’s mind and it will consist of the cheers for Gonzo and Craig Counsell. Some may even remember that Miguel Batista also carried the line-up card to the umpires before the game and that Bob Melvin brought Batista into the game in the ninth inning to throw to one batter then leave the game to thunderous applause by a grateful stadium of loyal fans. But lost in the midst of all of this was the passing of another torch. One that has been carried for the past 13 years to a time even before baseball had arrived in Arizona. In 1993 Jerry Colangelo approached Rich Dozer to ask for his assistance to bring baseball to the state. Dozer had been a successful accountant and had a very good position within the Phoenix Suns organization. But the challenge to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to the valley of the sun was too much to pass up. So Dozer began working to secure a team for the Phoenix area. The results of his efforts along with countless others were realized on March 9, 1995 when commissioner Bud Selig announced that a franchise had been awarded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Subsequent to that announcement Jerry Colangelo named Rich the president of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He along with the staff that he build began working on the details that would lead to March 31, 1998 when Arizona played the Colorado Rockies in their first game as a big league team. His work ethic and attention to detail were amazing as he guided the team’s business operations to a successful first year and then built upon that to make the Diamondbacks successful.
My first experience with Rich Dozer came during the inaugural season when I would see him interacting with various people around the stadium. I knew who he was from pictures I saw in the media guide and programs. He was always very nice and would always say hello whenever you passed him on the concourse. Regardless of how busy he was, Rich would take the time to talk with the fans and make sure they were enjoying their experiences at the ballpark. This open communication has always been appreciated but on a fateful night in early September 1998, it led to something he could never have imagined.

It’s always tough when this day arrives each year. After spending 83 days at Chase Field watching at a minimum 747 innings of baseball, it is hard to say good bye. I always feel as though I am leaving home go to away to school. Sure you can come back for holidays or to have a home cooked meal (in this case that means Friday’s Front Row grill) but you ultimately have to go back to school and you just can’t wait for the year to be over so you can come home again. When you go to this many games each year you get attached to your seat location and you form a bond with the other fans that sit around you, and you know you are going to miss seeing them for six months. Well you will miss all of them except maybe the syringe guy who sat in front of you during the San Francisco Giants game. To forget him would require a lot of therapy. I started to think back on the 2006 season and all that we’ve seen at Chase Field. From catching the foul ball off the drunken guy’s face to watching Baxter the Bobcat toss a quarter of a sheet cake in the face of a Mets fan, this season has been amazing. Nothing in the first 82 games (counting the two spring training games in March) could have prepared me for the festivities of the day.