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October 11, 1999 |
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what curse? |
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October 11, 1999 American League Division Series Today's Starting Pitcher: Bret Saberhagen, followed by Derek Lowe, followed by Pedro Martinez!!!!! Pedro Rocks!!!!!!! Today's Reading: Danube by Claudio Magris
Copyright © 1999, Janet I. Egan |
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Last night's Red Sox score says it all:
R H E LOB
Cleveland 110 040 001-- 7 8 0 9
Boston 253 530 32x-- 23 24 0 9
Can you say surreal, boys and girls? I knew you could. What was all this about a curse? Even when the Red Sox led 18 to 6, I couldn't tear myself away from the game for a second. I had to stay up and concentrate on every pitch. That game was so wild, anything could happen.
There are three kids dressed like M&M's standing in front of the old town hall on Main Street. A red one, a blue one, and a green one. I have no idea what they're doing there. It was overcast when I went to the Honda Barn and now, forty five minutes later, the sky is that unreal blue that makes you want to see a cloud just to relieve the brightness. The M&M's sit down on the sidewalk next to the newspaper vending boxes. I walk into Starbucks, find none of the usual coffee buddies, down my coffee over about 50 pages of Danube, and return to my car. One of the M&M's is gone. Only the blue one and the green one remain. I know M&M's eat their own kind, but c'mon... Every day life is just so surreal sometimes. The birds at the refuge are not surreal however. And they are ever so much more visible when it is not raining and the new binoculars are in my hands. Some of the people, however, are surreal. A guy is sound asleep in a van at the North Pool overlook with alternative music blasting from the stereo. I mean blasting. I can hear it with the car windows closed. Further on, an SUV stops and the people (1 male, 1 female) get out and stare intently through their binoculars at the empty osprey nest over by the Pines Trail. It takes me awhile to realize that's what they're looking at. Another SUV stops and the driver gets out to stare at the empty osprey nest. I encounter all three of them later on top of the observation tower at Lot 6, still staring at the empty osprey nest. There are no ospreys in it, really. One of the guys starts talking about 2 bucks he sees. Nobody else sees them with or without binoculars. Every day life is just so surreal sometimes. Later I do see two deer crossing the road, a doe and a nearly grown fawn. I make sure I get home in plenty of time to cook dinner before Game 5, which I still can't believe is really happening. Much later this same night (almost into tomorrow): Pedro Martinez rules! Troy O'Leary for president! R H E LOB Boston 205 100 301-- 12 10 0 4 Cleveland 323 000 000-- 8 7 1 3 Pinch me, I must be dreaming. The Red Sox just beat the Cleveland Indians to take the Division Series. They're going to meet the Yankees in the ALCS. How great is that? Boy am I glad I canceled that trip to Italy. |
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So
I'm sort of zombie-like this morning when the insurance
adjuster calls to tell me my car is indeed totaled and I
should get over to the Honda Barn to take the license plate
off and get anything of mine out of the car. I drive over
there in a daze, replaying John Valentin's home runs in my
imagination until I get coffee and a bagel at Sunrise Bagels
across the street. It took me awhile to realize that this is
the last time I'll see the Auntmobile. I'd already retrieved
most everything from the car but I make one last pass and
come up with a sand dollar, a rock, a tire gauge and a list
of no-kill animal shelters in Massachusetts. Everything else
is trash or clippings from Tom that I'd already read. That
was it. It took like 7 minutes. Coffee and bagel took longer
than that.