A Day off to watch history RA Dickey wins 20 games

I sent an email to my manager that I’d like to take the day off. The reaction from most is, I hope everything is all right. Granted I worked from home on Monday since Ali was fatigued the night before and I felt it was better to work from home. In fact I hope to talk to Karen about working from home more often, but that is not the theme for this entry. I put in for the day since I jotted down in my calendar it was the Mets last home game of the season and they were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. The decision was sealed since it was RA Dickey’s attempt at winning 20 games. Hope everything is all right…even though I took some calls and answered some emails, I took the day off. I even went back to sleep after dropping off the kids around 9 since I could. Ali went in for radiation. When I got up I took a long shower, shaved and dressed and went to the barber. My hair needed a cut as well as my goatee which is staying put for as long as I hear how good it looks. Thank you. John the barber has a new born at home and I was his only patron at that time. He looked tired. We bull shitted for awhile, but in any conversation there comes the time when there should be a lull even silence. I always give him some ideas to promote his business. I repeat the same thing each time I’m there. He likes the ideas. He has hired another barber, but I can hear behind his optimism some dread that business may not improve. Then he catches himself, like a cycle, his revolves from bad to good and spurts something positive. I don’t like when anyone says, maybe God has something against me. Don't be dramatic. He adds,just when I think business is good, it’s not. Onto baseball. Earlier in the baseball season I read RA Dickey’s book. I can’t recall if I reviewed in my blog, but if I did here is how I feel about the man. RA Dickey has taken his share of abuse, both physically and mentally. He was sexually abused by a babysitter as well as an older boy in his neighborhood. My heart went out to him since his depiction is similar to many others, although their lives are deeply traumatized and scarred. Dickey did not let these incidents define him. He didn't seem to dwell in the trauma. As he grew up he was a solid pitching prospect, but after a physical it was determined he was born without an integral ligament in his pitching elbow, this is why his arm can never straighten itself. He almost had a professional contract but after the physical it was taken back and he lived the hard life of minor leaguer trying to raise a family. His faith is strong and this brought him through some tough times…so briefly this is the Cinderella story we all dream about. Good guy who lives though tough times but makes it. So he makes it the Mets and last year was a break-out season for him. The Mets fans love him, but more he is a knuckle-ball pitcher. Their pitches are difficult to hit when their pitch is on, but when it’s not – it could be home run derby. Yesterday he pitched quickly through the first, I noticed he had little patience for the batter, he would set up and then have to take a break and wait and then set up for the pitch. Most of the time when I'm at a game,I like when the fans, who are strangers start to talk to one another, sharing their opinions and memories and even giving one another high fives as if they are on the team. I don’t like when the opinions become conversations. Keep em to yourself. In New York we all have opinions and can talk to anyone within seconds. I came to this game to see a game not to listen to you. I turn around and face the field where the action is. Baseball is all about sequences and position. The perfect competitive match is between a batter and pitcher, trying to figure out what each other has and waiting for the pitch. Dickey was hit fairly hard in the second and it appeared he may lose the game. That was until Ike Davis hit a home-run to right. He is another success story who made an incredible switch from a slumping player about to be called down to the minors to a power hitter with more than thirty homeruns this season. But the Pirates came back and once again it looked like The Mets would lose. The crowd cheered for Dickey, each time he was up at bat or had a strikeout, yesterday he had 13 which tied his highest in a game. After he walked off the field in the seventh, with more than a hundred pitches it was assumed he was out of the game. Not Dickley, he walk out to the field with his heavy bat and hit a slow roll to third which died in the grass as he ran full steam to first and was safe. That's one of the pictures. This meant he was coming out to pitch in the eighth. It was amazing since most pictures are pulled when they reach 100 pitches. By this time I moved down from the heights of jets that were landing at LaGuardia to field level, back among the living crowd who concentrated on history. We stood back as RA struck out the first two Pirate batters but after a 0 and 2 and then a full count he walked the third batter…and Terry Collins the manager took him out. Dickey gave the fans everything he could and so did Collins who moved Dickey up in the rotation to pitch yesterday. He wanted to give his pitcher the opportunity to seal his incredible 20th win in front of the home crowd. So we left the stadium and were jam packed in the parking lot, the smiles faded as cars barely budged. Even as we rolled into rush hour traffic among the obnoxious drivers those twenty to thirty thousand who were at the game enjoyed the day off from their lives and for a few hours shared this New York moment.