A Day of Joy and Reflection

I fell asleep on Sunday night watching the Departed. I loved that movie when I saw it the first time and I loved it again when I watched it again. But I knew that I needed a good night's sleep, that I needed to rest by baby brown's. Because Monday was a big day for the Sip.

I woke up at 10 a.m. to watch our beloved Bankees take on baseball's equivalent to an awesome frat house, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. I was happy to read that the Yankees had the three highest paid players in baseball on ESPN and I was equally happy to watch Alex Rodriguez get the game going with a big fat error.

While hating the Yankees is always a pleasure for me, I was consumed by the happiness of the moment. It was baseball time. I love baseball. I'm one of those guys that can watch any team play at any time. That the Mets weren't playing on Monday was almost a relief. I could just focus on the game.

I watched the DRays AAA bullpen blow a lead to the Yankees. But in the meanwhile I watched a team that ran and defended and played the game like kids. It was just really nice to watch. There is more young talent on the Devil Rays than in the rest of the American League East combined. If you love baseball and you love the game, watch those guys play.

The Yankees won, salt. But I got to watch my beloved Tribe stomp on the White Sox and the scariest team in the NL, the Marlins, walk all over the Nationals. What is so awesome about Opening Day is that every 23 year old rookie from a year ago is now a 24 year old second year player. That jump is so huge. We saw it for Jose Reyes and David Wright. Yesterday we saw Hanley Ramirez start the season 4-for-4 with 2 sb's. We watched Grady Sizemore lead off the season with a home run. We watched Billy Hall make the switch to CF and go dong.

We were seeing an improved baseball product.

It was actually pretty nice to watch Gil Meche mow through the Red Sox. It was so easy for us all to trash this guy and it would have been so easy for him to collapse against the best offense in baseball. But after a rough first inning he looked like a dominant pitcher.

I watched Danny Haren and Felix Hernandez absolutely dominate their opposition. Two kids in their early 20's emerging as aces. Ben Sheets, often injured but otherwise dominant throwing Opening Day's lone complete game.

Then there were the personal pleasures of Opening Day. I watched my old pal and favorite player Eric Byrnes go 3 for 5 and hit a game winner.

I named my fantasy team after him and a cocaine reference from Boogie Nights (don't ask) and I picked him about three rounds too early in my bottom half payroll fantasy league, just cause I couldn't not have him on my team.

Then, I asked the question to my pal Sachsy as we clicked to the Braves/Phils game: "Is it too early to start scoreboard watching?"

"Of course not," he responded.

Then there was a truly beautiful moment. Josh Hamilton made it into his first game in 5 years. After spending years chasing demons that only Dylan Mckay and few others have seen, Hamilton made what was one of the most amazing comebacks in the history of baseball.

He made an out, but it was ok. Ken Griffey Jr., probably the greatest player he saw during his childhood, took Hamilton into his arms and gave him a big hug. His teammates mobbed him and he smiled like a little leaguer. It was human and it was nice and it almost brought a gritty Sip to man tears.

But I stayed strong.

It was an exceptional day. The game of baseball has so many great young players. With each new year we get to watch them become stars. Eight hours on the couch later and I was finally ready to leave my buddy's apartment.

I went for a run on the water by Fisherman's Wharf. It's pretty much my favorite place that I have been in America. It's just really nice and beautiful and kind of like with baseball, I just escape when I am there. iPod-less, thanks to my 4th broken iPod, I have developed an ability to just kind of sing songs to myself to help pass the time.

You'd be amazed the weird songs that go through my head, but then again, you'd be amazed the weird thoughts that run through my head.

I got home in time for the NCAA finals. Say what you want about the tournament, that it was too predictable or that there weren't enough upsets, I still had a good time.

The game was pretty ok. A couple of thoughts. After watching him about 10 times this season I think we all finally saw the real Greg Oden on Monday night.

The stat sheet said he had 4 blocks, but I counted about 13. Florida players seemed as scared to take it inside as Florida defenders were to stop him on their defensive end. This guy was a total force.

And good for the Gators. The kids came back for the right reasons. Joakim Noah turned down the top pick in the draft to win again and he did. I got no problems with Florida. This was just a dominating college basketball team. One great shooter. A solid point guard. An awesome swing man and two great bigs. They hit threes and they defended and were clearly the best team in this tournament.

The game ended and I was the most excited that I had been for any part of the tournament.

It was time for "One Shining Moment."

I'll be the first to admit that I am a cheesy sports fan. I love pretty much any cheesy sports movie, the half time speeches, the winning shots. I get the chills and I smile. It's when I am my happiest. For me it doesn't ge better than Luther Vandross' sweet old ballad.

You watch the great moments of the tournament and you see the entire story told to the sweet sounds of 70's/80's cheesey music.

To me it is everything that is great in sports. It was great plays, team work, fans, passion. It was the moment in Jerry Maguire where he tells the girl "she completes him." ( I said that to a girl when I was 16).

I sat in a room with 4 of my buddies and we all just smiled. It was a great 4 minutes and I can't wait for next year.

That is where the day ended. Or so I thought.

Turns out one of my buddies went out on a few dates with one of the girls on the new season of the Bachelor. She told him that she was going on a 2-6 week research experiment in South America with her professor when she instead went off to go shoot the Bachelor.

The girl's named Tessa, for all you fans of the show out there. She made the first cut and with every cut she makes, another inch of the knife is stabbed into my buddy's heart. Sadly, this is about the nicest kid I know, too.

Before I exit on that note, let me just say that the Bachelor gives you 25 reasons to want to kill yourself. 26, if you are counting the dude who volunteers to be on the show. On that note, looking forward to next Monday.

Anyway, it was a very complete day. When I went to bed on Monday night, my eyes were ready to be closed. They did a lot of work for me and I had an awesome day.

Now lets make it 2-0.

Vaya con dios,

Sip

(Pics courtesy of blogspot.com, jsonline.com, evtrib.com, usatoday.com, gregoden.com, moviejungle.com)