Take Me Out To The Ballgame
If you haven't noticed, as far as my SOL writings go, I sort of tend to keep most of my personal life to myself. I don't talk about my finances, my love life, etc etc, mostly because I basically feel that it's NOYB :-) but I think, that just this once.....
For reasons that I won't go into, my Dad and I didn't have a close relationship, from my pre-teen years, into adulthood. Then I joined the Marines, and moved away from NYC, blah blah blah blah blah, long and boring story, that you don't want to hear, trust me.
Happily for me, all that mostly changed in the late 90's, after I moved to PHX from CA, and Dad retired and moved here too, (across town.....Whew). I guess Dad came to the conclusion that Sun was better then snow, go figure.
Anyway, one of the things that we both shared was a love of sports, particularly, baseball. We had partial season tickets to the Diamondbacks, as well as the basketball Suns, and the Football Cardinals, but our favorite was baseball. Through that interaction, I got the chance to know my Dad in a way that I never had the opportunity to in my youth.
The thing is, unfortunately, Dad passed away late last year, and after the initial shock and grief, I realized that I was left with one more set of Diamondbacks tickets. The last game of the season. Of course, I was in no frame of mind to attend, so they went to waste, and I haven't been back to the ballpark since. Until this week.
This week, was May 26. FYI, May 26 was Dad's birthday. He would have been 73. The Diamondbacks were playing the Padres, so I got a ticket. Of course, the seat didn't matter, because the crowd was light, and I had no intention of sitting there anyway. So, I go over to section 306, row 14, seat 16 & 17, and..... there's somebody sitting there :-(
Can you believe it? The damn stadium is 3/4 empty, and somebody is freekin sitting in OUR seats. A nice middle aged couple though, and although I usually don't share personal info with strangers, after I sat down next to them, and told them my story, the wife hugged me, and they both immediately moved down the row. When I sat down, It was kind of eerie. My entire body "goose bumped", and I swear, I could feel every hair stand on end. Another thing, although I know that I was physically sitting there by myself, there were a few times during the game, that I could have sworn that I felt.....something. Crazy huh?
Everyone deals with pain and grief in their own way. I think that psychologically, this trip to the ballbark, may have brought me some closure, and I think that now I even feel a little better. I'm very sure, that I won't be sitting in those particular seats ever again, but I have to say, that even though it was initially a tough thing for me to do, and the Diamondbacks got slaughtered by the Padres 10-0, I think that for me, it turned out to be a very good game :-)
For reasons that I won't go into, my Dad and I didn't have a close relationship, from my pre-teen years, into adulthood. Then I joined the Marines, and moved away from NYC, blah blah blah blah blah, long and boring story, that you don't want to hear, trust me.
Happily for me, all that mostly changed in the late 90's, after I moved to PHX from CA, and Dad retired and moved here too, (across town.....Whew). I guess Dad came to the conclusion that Sun was better then snow, go figure.
Anyway, one of the things that we both shared was a love of sports, particularly, baseball. We had partial season tickets to the Diamondbacks, as well as the basketball Suns, and the Football Cardinals, but our favorite was baseball. Through that interaction, I got the chance to know my Dad in a way that I never had the opportunity to in my youth.
The thing is, unfortunately, Dad passed away late last year, and after the initial shock and grief, I realized that I was left with one more set of Diamondbacks tickets. The last game of the season. Of course, I was in no frame of mind to attend, so they went to waste, and I haven't been back to the ballpark since. Until this week.
This week, was May 26. FYI, May 26 was Dad's birthday. He would have been 73. The Diamondbacks were playing the Padres, so I got a ticket. Of course, the seat didn't matter, because the crowd was light, and I had no intention of sitting there anyway. So, I go over to section 306, row 14, seat 16 & 17, and..... there's somebody sitting there :-(
Can you believe it? The damn stadium is 3/4 empty, and somebody is freekin sitting in OUR seats. A nice middle aged couple though, and although I usually don't share personal info with strangers, after I sat down next to them, and told them my story, the wife hugged me, and they both immediately moved down the row. When I sat down, It was kind of eerie. My entire body "goose bumped", and I swear, I could feel every hair stand on end. Another thing, although I know that I was physically sitting there by myself, there were a few times during the game, that I could have sworn that I felt.....something. Crazy huh?
Everyone deals with pain and grief in their own way. I think that psychologically, this trip to the ballbark, may have brought me some closure, and I think that now I even feel a little better. I'm very sure, that I won't be sitting in those particular seats ever again, but I have to say, that even though it was initially a tough thing for me to do, and the Diamondbacks got slaughtered by the Padres 10-0, I think that for me, it turned out to be a very good game :-)
posted by TomH | 10:01 AM
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