The Last Day of July

 

Sean holds down the fort at a sidewalk sale, July 2014

July 31, 2014.

A Thursday.

I was sitting in my office when I got some news from a colleague.

Admittedly, I thought it was news that was probably best for everyone involved.

However, I suddenly thought about another colleague. How were they handling the news that morning?

This was back in the days of using AOL Messenger for conversations between different offices and colleagues.

I sent a message over to ask how they were doing.

The answer was they were not well. Really, not well at all.

As we talked, I knew I had a friend who needed a friend. But, more to the point, they needed to not be where they were.

"You need to get out of there," I said.

Expecting to hear "I'm fine" or some other way to shift off the topic, I got a different answer.

I was told where we were going to meet and what time. 

I now had to put my money where my mouth was and leave the office. Honestly, I never expected this to happen.

We met, we talked, a certain healing began, and a friendship strengthened.

For them, it was a tough day. For me, it was a day to help someone who needed support. I'm happy -- thrilled -- to be that safe space.

And they've helped me more times than I can ever explain.

It made me think about who I was ten years ago and where I was. We can never predict the future, of course. Oh, sure, we can get a few things right, but overall not so much. I doubt I can say I'm truly the same person that I was in 2014. I'm older, wiser, perhaps not quite as naive, maybe a bit less irrational, more guarded. 

I don't know. I'd like to think I'm a better person and in a better place.

And I'm patient. Far more than I've ever truly realized.

But these are things that are always tough to talk about so it gets written about in a vague sense.

If it even happened at all.

Thus July 31, 2014, will always stand out to me.

*****

Tomorrow's Renegades/BlueClaws game will air on the YES Network. It's the second time a Gades game will go up to the big channel.

I watched the first one from home. Tomorrow, I'll be in the booth on PA announcing. Barring something strange, my voice should be heard at some point during the broadcast.

To say that is pretty cool is an understatement. 

Obviously, one should always want to reach their goal and calling a Yankees game on YES (or WFAN Radio) would be the obvious call.

But it will be nice to tell people about once doing PA on a broadcast that ran on YES.

So, to clear up any confusion, I'll be the voice in the background that is saying things like, "Leading off for the Renegades, the second basemen, number two..." and so on.

The guy on the field hosting the games and between-innings events will be my guy "Fish," who is crushing it. That will be my role on Saturday and I'm sure I will have quite a few critics as I take that big step.

But having watched the great Rick Zolzer and now Fish, along with Zach Newbauer, I have a sense of how I want to do that on Saturday.

The thing is this: I can't be Zolz. I can't be Fish or Zach or anyone else.

Just as in the broadcast booth, I can only be me and that's what I'll be on Saturday night.

But, to the point, it will be fun to be on YES tomorrow night. Obviously, as a 50-plus-year Yankees fan, it's exciting.

Then, after Saturday, I'm likely heading to Rhode Island. Then back to Connecticut. Then back to Rhode Island.

More on those plans likely tomorrow.