So Close...

We are so close I can smell it.

Six days and counting until we kick off the 2007 campaign. We will travel to the home of the birdies that snatched away our 2006 and crushed a few bloggers' dreams of covering a Mets World Series.

I have such vivid memories of Game 5 in St. Louis, sitting four rows behind our boys with my second big bro. There is no worse feeling than rooting for a team on the road and losing. You have no support system. All you can do is grow angry internally.

With the final 4 field set, and 92% of our readers having the final 4 correct -- a hardy 2 out of 4 for the Sip, not too shabby -- all we must do now is get through the week.

For me, I am shaking at the thought at returning to the city where I was born and raised, hitting up Shea with the fellas and returning to my happy place.

Watching Thru The Fire, the Sebastian Telfair documentary, this past weekend, for what is probably the 13th time this month -- it's that unbelievable -- I realized maybe the greatest quote that I have ever heard. It may seem irrelevant now, but you'll see.

On the bus to the McDonald's All-American game, Telfair sat in a seat, flat brim hat cocked to the side yelling at all his teammates.

"If you ain't from New York, you a country boy."

The one response he got was from now Celtics center Al Jefferson, from rural Mississippi:

"I got people's in Jersey so I ain't no country boy."

As I have embarked on my many travels during my swinging 20's I have experienced a lot of different places. San Francisco, maybe the country's most peaceful city. Los Angeles, where everyone has really nice cars and cares way too much about the entertainment business. And then there were my ventures through the South that got me here.

Through all my adventures I have come up with one incontrovertible fact. There is no place like New York City.

My love/hate relationship with the city that I grew up in is undeniable, but my pride to call New York City my hometown is tremendous. As New Yorkers, we are a step sharper. We think more about things and are constantly on our toes. We walk to delis and live off the convenience of having everything we want at the drop of coin. We live in a city where on every block you can see people of all different races from all over the world.

There really is nothing like it.

I grew up in the same city as Sebastain Telfair. There aren't too many people like me that can say they grew up in a city so diverse and so rich with so many different cultures as New York City. And so I love her.

And as much as I love her,I love even more people from New York who are Mets fans.

If New York is my city, the Mets are one of a very few small group that really help define my place in that city.

I watch Mets games, wear the clothing, read about the team, write (rant) about the team, and talk to my friends and family about the team.

The Mets are as much Sippy Momo as the deli on my block, the chicken wing place by my house or the people of my neighborhood.

For almost 25 years they have defined my existence as a New Yorker.

Which is why I am smiling right now. For 6 months of every year I have an activity that I get to share with my best friends for three hours a day. To me, there aren't too many things better in life.

Can't wait to get home. For those headed to Shea two weeks from today, give me or AFOMG a shout. Would love to meet you all.

Vaya con dios,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of prosportpictures.com, boston.com, tripod.com)