Pheelin' Good

Fun weekend for the Glass Man. Saturday night was one of my old school friends' engagement party, so I got to see about 10 of my oldest friends, and the parents of those who were in the wedding party.

After the party a group of us bounded downtown for a nightcap. We were just leaving the first lousy bar we'd gone into when I heard someone say my name in that well-what-do-you-know kind of tone that people reserve for those they haven't seen in some time. It was an old college friend, Andy.

I got to know Andy the summer before my senior year of college, the summer of 2004. We were both on campus that summer, and his girlfriend then lived in the house next door to me. I was working at the North Adams Transcript along with Cheddar Ben and Andy was doing research of some sort.

Every Wednesday that summer there was a group of people who would get together for a game of softball. Students, professors, townies, whoever. Being New England, Red Sox-Yankees was everywhere, but the real debates Andy and I had were about the Mets and the Phillies.

Andy was the first honest to goodness Phillies fan I'd ever known.

* * * * *

2004 was a much different time. The Phillies were still perpetual also rans then, the kind of team that always won just enough to finish one or two games out of the playoffs. The Mets meanwhile were running on fumes and relying on the generous nature of fans like you and me, people who could see the charm in their vast ineptitude.

After graduation things started to change. Andy and I both moved to New York; we ran in different circles but saw each other from time to time. The Phillies were still also-rans, but the Mets had changed too. In 2005 they were respectable again, and in 2006 they finally turned the page.

I remember going out with Andy to see the Mets play the Phillies at Shea. What I remember most about those games was the frustration Andy had with the Phillies. Why weren't they better he'd ask. (And really, when you look at the names on that 2006 team, you have to wonder. They had Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Pat Burrell, Aaron Rowand, Bobby Abreu.)

He'd talk about how every year it was the same old story, how every year they were just good enough to make you believe and ultimately not good enough to make themselves winners. Frustrating, that's all.

* * * * *

Andy and I fell out of touch some time in 2007. No real reason, just the way it goes sometimes.

He wasn't there to razz me when the Phillies pulled off the upset in the race for the division. I wasn't there to razz him when the Phillies got their clocks cleaned by the New Rox in the NLDS.

Until Saturday night, I hadn't seen him at all in 2008. Among other things we'd missed a season of baseball, and a notable one for him. S when I saw him, I found I had to ask. What was it like?

It was unreal he said. Every night you'd turn on the television and just feel good, because every night it always worked out. He said it was unlike any experience he'd ever had as a fan.

As he spoke aboout it I found myself overcoming my loathing of the Phillies; I found that my disdain for Philadelphia sports fans in general had dissipated. I remembered his frustration, and I appreciated that if nothing else, he as a fan had earned it. For that moment I let myself be happy for him; I told him it pained me to say it, but congratulations.

* * * * *

The conversation shifted, and the bottles of wine took away the last of our sobriety. Eventually the time came for Andy and his friends to leave. We all shook hands, and to his friend wearing the crisp Phillies hat I said, "2009 -- New Mets! Team to beat!" The friend gave a knowing look.

Maybe it will be our year. Maybe the 2008 Mets were the 2006 Phillies. Maybe we just needed a couple seasons as also-rans before we could ever turn the page. Here's hoping.

Anyway, it's always nice to see old friends. Even the ones who are Phillies fans.

- A.F.O.M.G.