I'm Proud to be Who I Am

So AFOMG has been shoving this WBC in my face for the last 3 days. I trust the kid like I do every one not named Sippy Momo Sr. and gave it a shot.

The result... a long search down my family tree.

Having watched the Dominican-Cuba game game last night, I realized that something was wrong. See one thing about Sip is that Sip loves Sip... except of course when he is blasting the sweet sounds of Coldplay and watching a bunch of badass Dominicans play the ball.

So I needed to know that I had some Dominican blood in me. Having seen David Ortiz's blast followed by maybe the coolest post-homerun facial expression I'd ever witnessed, I was completely sold.

Then, when Fernando Rooney trotted out to the mound looking more intimidating than Frank, the 14 year old street tough on the 11-and-under Safe Haven team that me and Big Maciej coach. Frank reached his pinnacle of intimidation the day he pulled me and Maciej aside to show us something:

"Yo Maciej, Sip...check this out." He opens his backpack and shows us his 9 milli: "I crazy right?"

Well Frank sure was, but Fernando Rooney is straight perfect.

So I called Senior and did some digging:

SM: Hey pop

Senior: How's my favorite son? (under his breath) That blogging loser...

SM: What was that pop?

Senior: Oh nothing, had a scratch in my throat

SM: So Pop, it's important for me to know. Who am I?

Senior: What do you mean?

SM: Where does our family really come from? We are too cool to be 100% Jews.

Senior: Wow Sip, I never wanted this day to come. But I guess you're old enough, and you've certainly proven observant enough. The truth is, when I married your mother she promised me that I would never tell you. See, your mom is a big time Jew. I loved her and told her I would never tell you the full truth. But here it is. My great grandfather Siposito Momo was a minor league baseball player who grew up in the Dominican.

SM: No way.

Senior: Way. I hope you understand why I couldn't tell you. Mom LOVES being a jew, but I kind of get the sense that you're not buying into a whole lot of that religious business.

SM: Oh I'm proud dad. But the void we tried filling all those years with religion just couldn't cut it. Dominican blood and El Presidentes though, now that's a different story.

So it turns out that Momo is our Americanized name, and in fact my family's birth name was Momosito, until we made our way to America...A country by the way, that I am not happy to be from.

So we lost to Korea. Korea is to Asia what Oregon is to the west coast... that is, who the fuck is Korea?

While I know any team can win a baseball game on any day, Team USA's result last night was just horrible. But you know what, I don't care. I'm a Dominican now, so vamanos Republica Dominicana!

You see, in the WBC II, the World Blogging Classic, I have decided to blog for my mother country, the Dominican Republic. I'm no traitor like Mr. March himself.

Upon hearing the news of my loyalty, buzz was flying in the D.R. Miguel Tejada called me and offered me some wicked Dominican juice.

Jose Reyes taught me a new handshake, one that is much cooler than the previous 1 by Baron Davis and J Rick/ S Momo and Big Maciej.

Pedro offered to show me that famed mango tree he used to sit under as a youth.

Ugueth Urbina killed a man.

And Fernando Rooney gave me a book about wearing your hat like the coolest person in the world.

So today, SM is proud to be a Dominican.

It never made sense to me why I was so attatched with Johnny Utah's "Vaya con Dios" line. I mean, Point Break has so many perfect one liners.

But today it makes sense. Spanish is in my blood.

Hasta Luego,

SM