Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Dream Day

A snowy night slammed into a rainy morning and turned the Bronx to slush. That made it a good day to talk about anything other than the weather.

“I’ve always had this dream about Spring Training,” Jon begins. “The field is the greenest green you can imagine and there are palm trees and the sun is so bright.

“Everything is perfect,” he continues. “I have a seat behind the plate and a sack of my Mom’s famous tuna-fish sandwiches. I watch batting practice and they take old-fashioned infield and then play until dark.”

Jon smiles and soaks it in.

“I’ve never been south of Staten Island,” he admits, “And I’ve never even seen a palm tree, but I’ve always had that dream.”

It was born in the Bronx.

“I love baseball so much,” Jon says. “I grew up on Jerome Avenue and have gone to Yankee Stadium all of my life. I’ve see the greatest players and the greatest teams and the greatest games, but the most romantic dream I have is about Spring Training.

“I used to think that was strange,” he continues. “But I guess it’s natural to have these larger-than-life dreams about things you’ve never actually seen before.”

Spring Training will probably stay out of reach.

“I have a wife and a daughter and two jobs,” Jon explains. “The dream will stay a dream unless the D train starts running to Tampa.”

He stops and considers.

“I don’t even want to go anymore,” he resumes. “I prefer to keep the dream.”

7 comments:

Donna said...

That is a nice dream. Thanks for passing it along.

JoeyBoy said...

I needed a good story today. Thanks for always being here, man.

Henry said...

This story is perfect.

Jessica Lee said...

Can't wait. Let's play ball.

Larry Jaffe said...

Dear Todd,

Yesterday had to be one of the oddest days in baseball history. Without getting into the controversy of who did what to whom, ya gotta wonder who is steering the ship to allow such stuff to go on. Who in their right mind would even higher that McNammee fellow. I mean no disrespect but the guy is a bit on the slimy side. Did no one check out his bona fides? Again who is running this show. Athletes are not always the brightest of bulbs anyway but ya would think agents or managers would have their head on straight. As I was watching the carnival I could not get the image of ol Bud Selig there at the finish line when Maguire broke Roger Maris' record. He knew what Maguire was doing and swept it all under home plate. Now folks are having to dust off that plate and all kinda stuff is hiding under it. This ain't the way the game should be played. I write this to you dear friend Todd, cuz I don't know that anyone else understands. I used to like John Heyman we even wrote back and forth a bit. But you know what he has decided he is Clemens' executioner. Guess he thinks there is a book and movie deal if he can assassinate the rocket with his purloined words. Me, I just wanna sing take me out to the ball game.. eat some dogs and crackerjacks and drink a coke.

Todd Drew said...

Thanks for the note, Larry. I think the difference between people like us and those who like to pass judgments is that we understand we are far from perfect. And we also understand that there is nothing wrong with that.

Todd Drew said...

Jessica is right. Let’s play ball!