Game time later today: 5:15 pm, PDT.
True story:
Someone asked me this insanely insane question the other day: "Have you ever been in love?"
My unblinking answer: "Once."
Here was the insaner part: after admitting they had never been in love,the question-asker looked expectant, awaiting the details.
Sorry. I don't love-and-tell. Names anyway.
Now, here is the inane part. Ready? It wasn't even baseball I was talking about. Because I know the person asking me wanted to know the human side of my life.
BUT, as all things in my life (or most) that feeling I felt once and only once can be paralleled to my sport of choice. Ladies, maybe you can relate.
There are a few lines in the 2005 movie Fever Pitch that come to mind. Ben, the Red Sox fanatic is speaking: "You know what's really great about baseball? You can't fake it. You know, anything else in life, you don't have to be great in. Business, music art- I mean, you can get lucky. Yeah, you can fool everyone for awhile, you know? It's not like baseball. You can either hit a curve ball or you can't. That's the way it works. You can have a lucky day, but you can't have a lucky career. It's a little like math. It's orderly. Win or lose. It's fair. It all adds up. It's like, not as confusing or ambiguous as, uh,... it's... it's safe."
Ladies, go with me on this if you will: isn't love-you know, the sparkly- hopelessly/hopefully-romantic-silly- giddy-all that glitters love the same way? There are no two ways about it. You are either in it. Or you're not.
When there is no question about it- no rhyme or reason WHY it's there and why you are in that ridiculous puddle of mush- and you are quite certain that not only are you never going to stop swimming in it, but that also you never want to want to stop swimming in it... THAT is love.
One more from Fever Pitch; Ben speaks again: "I like being part of something bigger than me. Than I. It's good for your soul to invest in something you can't control."
Ok, so back to baseball. Because it always comes back to that for me. It's safe. It's always there. It's probably the best relationship I ever had. It's there every February (spring training). Perfect! Valentine season! And even though it goes away in the fall, just before the holidays (grr), I know it'll be back. I can count on it.
But is that the kind of love we want?? Just... safe? Predictable? There because it stays on schedule? Sure we want to feel safe and secure- to know he looks at us and melts too. We want to know that part is unambiguous. We want to feel stupidly mushy inside and out.
Oh and trust me, when we do feel that way- we know we do. The fact that we feel that way can't be faked. The feeling itself is organic. (Stop giggling- I said organic.)
BUT, would we want the lasting quality of it to be ... over-safe, as in monotonous.
There is no question mark there intended.
The answer is rhetorical.
Do I love baseball. YES!
Have I ever been in love? YES!
Security: Yes. Over safe: No. You should absolutely be great "in-love." Don't ever reduce yourself to faking it. You've got to rise to the occasion and be better than just faking it.
Just like in baseball- you can't fake it. You shouldn't try, and you shouldn't feel obligated to try. Girls, do not sell yourselves short. Give yourself permission to love and be in love. It's a fine line. Find it. Find the sweet spot... and hit one out of the park. It is an amazing feeling. Trust me.
It's when you can't control the feeling- it's when it hits you from the bottom up and diagonal and in circles that it is real. And when circles all of a sudden have more than 360 degrees in their angles... and there are five bases and 2 or maybe 4 strikes constitute an out- that's when it becomes a game of putting the numbers aside and looking at all other factors.
That is when you know it's real. And bigger than yourself. And out of your control.
Sometimes we go extra innings. Sometimes it's a shut out.
And sometimes, 22 times to be exact, it is a perfect game.
Or just once will do.
I'll be back after the game.
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