I lied.
I’m a puddle of tears right now on the floor of my office bawling my eyes out as I type this.
This fucking team.
I swear if it’s not winning late games and never giving up. If it’s not next-man-up ideology in the starting pitching staff. If it’s not gold glove defense 9-innings a day every single day for the entire year. If it’s not the overwhelmingly sensational gameplay and generational camaraderie and world class venue and everything in between.
Then let yourself love this team for no other reason than they’re just really good solid guys.
I can’t remember the last time the roster was filled with such high character.
And I don’t mean that to disparage former teams. But same time we can disparage some of those former teams because there’s just so many assholes and egos to choose from. They were good no doubt. But man they had some divas to manage around and that’s one of the reasons Rizzo jumps out so much as a good guy. There just weren’t that many if we’re being honest and that’s okay because it’s the nature of the sport to be a selfish diva.
That said – you couldn’t find a more different club.
Dansby. Nico. Jameson. Steele. Shota. Seiya. JUSTIN TURNER. Nicky Lopez. Amaya. PCA. Happ.
These are legendarily good people and it’s so frequently forgotten in the day-to-day.
And if we’re being dead serious. Nico asking what position do you play hit me so hard in the stomach that I barfed up last night’s pregame hot dogs.
Baseball meant and means so much to me.
Being a kid, those are your heroes and they’re not even real people. So much that I still vividly remember catching an autograph from Nancy Faust at Sox Fest ’94 and feeling like king of the world even though she was just the organ player and I was converting into a Cubs fan in real time.
And even that exchange stands out to me like I said: vividly.
So using the transitive property. If A=B and B=C then I can’t even imagine what it feels like to sit there and hangout with Nico Hoerner in between treatments and talk about your own baseball career. That’s just really special stuff and I wanted to share it.
PS – I lied. It definitely made me cry.