Remember Me As a Time of Day

What I try to convey in my writing is that being a Mets fan, for me, is about something much larger than sports.

I love the game of baseball of course, but for me, the Mets are about going out to games with my dad when I was kid. They're about going out to Shea with my friends. They're about watching games with random people and sharing in the elation and, more often than not, the heartache.

Being a Mets fan is about players and statistics and wins and losses, but it's also about the people in my life. It's about moments in time that fit in to a broader story which is my life.

Some horrible news entered my life Saturday. I learned that a young woman I knew had been killed in a car accident outside her art gallery in Brooklyn. This young woman, Emily, was 24 years old (maybe 25?).

Emily and I weren't great friends, we were more like old friends. I met Emily my first week of college. Back then my old dorm mate Dicken had the hots for her. Dicken was a football/lacrosse player, a jock on a floor with very few other jock-y types. I didn't play sports in college, but as all of you know, I'm a huge sports fan. Me and Dicken hit it off right from the get go.

Anyway, Emily would come around and hang out, and seeing as how I was Dicken's only real friend on the floor, Emily would always stop in and say hello.

Just like memories of Mets games plant me in very specific times of life, so too do my memories of Emily. They bring me back to my freshman year of college, one of the best times of my life, made all the better by people like Emily, people who were so warm and friendly and fun to be around.

In the years since freshman year I saw less and less of Emily, but no matter how long it had been it was never awkward or strained when we saw one another. It was always just really nice to see her and catch up.

The last time I saw her was this summer. I can't quite keep the dates straight, but it would have either been at a house party in Williamsburg or a going away party in Norwalk, Connecticut.

I'm still wrapping my mind around the fact that that's the last time I'll ever see her. When I tell you this girl had such a warm and inviting personality... I just can't do justice to it.

If, somehow, there'd have been a way to tell her that I'd feel moved to write this post about her after the news of her death, I think she'd have been surprised. Again, we weren't great friends -- we didn't know each other well enough for that.

She was just one of those people -- even a loose acquaintance like me, the news came and it felt like someone had just knocked the wind out of me.

And so I haven't really thought much about baseball lately. There will be time to examine the Mets' options at catcher and second base; time to weigh the merits of David Eckstein's grit versus the demerit which is his general annoyingness.

For me though, today just isn't the day.

Today I just wanted to pay my respects.

- A.F.O.M.G.