If anyone asks me who my first love was, I respond with not “who” but “what” and that would be the glorious sport of Baseball. I will probably sit down and watch any sport but none hold a special place in my heart like baseball does. I played softball for a number of years and was taught to throw, catch, hit, bunt, and pitch by my dad. I wasn’t very good but I had fun while doing it. My family enjoys watching the sport together when we’re all at home and any given evening between the months of April to October, if you’re in my parents’ house, you’ll most likely either hear baseball on the TV or Frank Sinatra Pandora Radio on the speakers. My sister and I grew up Yankees fans and after somehow hiding the fact that he was a Yankee fan from my mom throughout dating and the first few years of marriage, my parents are both Yankee fans - Mom is a Mets convert, because well, they’re the Mets.
I grew up in Southern California, deep in Dodger territory. The first game in my memory is a Dodger game. I’m not quite sure the exact age I was when I myself became interested in baseball but I do remember the 2000 World Series being the deciding factor on which team would be *my* team. It came down to the Mets vs. the Yankees in what is now known as the Subway Series. I think I initially sided with my mom for the Mets but by the end, we were a Yankee family. Call me what you want, a band-waggoner, a follower, whatever. There was no one greater than the boys in Pinstripes and I was in love with the cutie who wore #2 and played shortstop. I had no need to like or really pay any attention to any other team, which is hard to do in Dodgers territory. I got shit for it at school but hey, it’s sports talk, so it’s all in good fun.
In January 2009, I moved up to the Bay Area to attend SJSU and I started my first internship in March. For an intern day out, they sent the six interns to a San Francisco Giants game. It was my first time in San Francisco and the sight of the all brick ballpark took my breath away. They beat the Cardinals that day and the atmosphere made me fall a bit in love with them. They didn’t make the playoffs that year but they had drawn me in. By 2010, I was full on rooting for them. I still loved my Yankees but the way I justified it in my head was that they were in different leagues, and on opposite coasts. The 2010 Giants were something else. They had magic in them. Everyone could feel it. When the postseason got closer, the refrain began “Don’t Stop Believing”. They made it to the World Series and during Game 2, AT&T Park played that song during a break in action and the cameras zoomed in on an over-excited Steve Perry unintentionally leading the swaying stadium during the chorus. The stadium literally swayed - I think it’s because it’s on rollers for earthquake prevention. I was with one of my best friends at her apartment in Sacramento and we were getting ready to go out for some Halloween fun. I’m pretty sure we ended up sitting there in our costumes and screaming at the TV. They won that year and again in 2012 and in 2014. It was the Even Year Magic.
Flash forward to 2016. I am now living in Las Vegas and will fully admit that baseball has been on the back burner this year. I would still watch any time I caught them on TV but I wasn’t tracking wins and losses for the Yankees or the Giants. Which is why I was surprised to find myself frantically refreshing my MLB At Bat app at 11:30 at night when I should have been sleeping because dammit, the Giants were playing the Cubs and it was extra innings for Game 3 of a 5 game series that was do or die for the Giants, and all that fiery passion to WIN came flooding back. I fell asleep with bleary eyes about ten minutes before the Giants won in the bottom of the 13th inning. The next night, I was planted in front of the TV, completely tense, clasped hands holding onto the back of my head when the Even Year Magic streak broke. The Cubs beat the Giants and will move on to the NLCS. But I’m invested again. I will watch, root, and yell for the rest of the playoffs for the Cubs because it’s been 108 years of torturous love for their fans and everyone needs some Even Year Magic. And because there’s nothing like the postseason.
