I'll not be posting for a while plus my memory of my favorite Giants fan
I will not be able to post much over the next month or so as I am on a jury (or expect to be, I'm already in the 18 person grouping and just have to go through attorney questioning on Thursday); that's what I've been doing days this week while working nights but thought I should drop a note here since it looks like I'll be doing my civic duty. Because, while at least I'm getting paid while on jury duty, my work won't get done so I'll be doing double time spending time at court and then going to do my regular work afterward - the double edged sword of a flexible job.
I also wanted to give my props to my favorite Giants fan, my father-in-law. My family spent the weekend honoring his memory on the anniversary of his death as people of our culture are wont to do, and it was nice and sad, all at once. I was really looking forward to going to games with him and my children but unfortunately he passed just months before my first child was born. At least he knew he was going to be a granddad.
He was a devoted fan, even more so than I, listening to games on his transitor radio or car radio wherever he went. He was never bitter about how the team might be doing, he always rooted them on, no matter how disappointing they might be playing, and they did not play well at all the year he passed. In fact, baseball gave up on him that year, going on strike while he laid on what eventually became his death bed, denying him the team and the game that he loved before he moved on.
I guess that probably added fuel to my anger towards baseball after it returned the next year. I never realized that till now, I always felt that my anger was towards players attitudes, like that exhibited by Mark McGwire. The players forgot that they were fans too, before they became stars, and don't realize how much the money and fame warped reality for them, made them blind to the inequities in the game. But I guess I was just as mad that baseball wasn't there to comfort him in his last days, to help fill his final hours with just a little release from reality by taking him to the ballpark and away from his situation.
In any case, I admired my father-in-law greatly, he was the best, as far as I was concerned, even if he only held that title officially for less than a year - fortunately I got to know him well while dating my wife and I felt good that I was there to support his family, helping to run the family business, while he was ill and then gone. He treated me like family from the beginning and for that I thank him, he was a good man and I miss him, he would have been a great grandfather. And I would have enjoyed watching him playing with our kids.
And he treated his team like a part of his family as well. Perhaps the team disappoints you a little, sometimes it disappoints you a lot, but you appreciate their good qualities and forgive the bad qualities. And you know there will be bad times, so you fight your way through those, and you appreciate the good times when you get them. We both think alike in many ways.
I also wanted to give my props to my favorite Giants fan, my father-in-law. My family spent the weekend honoring his memory on the anniversary of his death as people of our culture are wont to do, and it was nice and sad, all at once. I was really looking forward to going to games with him and my children but unfortunately he passed just months before my first child was born. At least he knew he was going to be a granddad.
He was a devoted fan, even more so than I, listening to games on his transitor radio or car radio wherever he went. He was never bitter about how the team might be doing, he always rooted them on, no matter how disappointing they might be playing, and they did not play well at all the year he passed. In fact, baseball gave up on him that year, going on strike while he laid on what eventually became his death bed, denying him the team and the game that he loved before he moved on.
I guess that probably added fuel to my anger towards baseball after it returned the next year. I never realized that till now, I always felt that my anger was towards players attitudes, like that exhibited by Mark McGwire. The players forgot that they were fans too, before they became stars, and don't realize how much the money and fame warped reality for them, made them blind to the inequities in the game. But I guess I was just as mad that baseball wasn't there to comfort him in his last days, to help fill his final hours with just a little release from reality by taking him to the ballpark and away from his situation.
In any case, I admired my father-in-law greatly, he was the best, as far as I was concerned, even if he only held that title officially for less than a year - fortunately I got to know him well while dating my wife and I felt good that I was there to support his family, helping to run the family business, while he was ill and then gone. He treated me like family from the beginning and for that I thank him, he was a good man and I miss him, he would have been a great grandfather. And I would have enjoyed watching him playing with our kids.
And he treated his team like a part of his family as well. Perhaps the team disappoints you a little, sometimes it disappoints you a lot, but you appreciate their good qualities and forgive the bad qualities. And you know there will be bad times, so you fight your way through those, and you appreciate the good times when you get them. We both think alike in many ways.
posted by obsessivegiantscompulsive at 8/25/2005 12:00:00 AM
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