the junior circuit, whatever, i know i know
but matt has lived on the east coast since ’07, which if you recall motivated me to write to the Times which lead to that great opportunity
he’s also an Angels encyclopedia which is helpful because the AL is my blindspot
i mean it’s soooooorta baseball
it’s baseball enough.
lucked out and they were playing the Blue Jays so there were lots of Canadians in the house and families originally from Buffalo who now live in Oakland
and for some reason they decided to fly to Long Beach because Jet Blue had an amazing deal
so why not see the Jays take on the Angels?
i was all Buffalo? one morning i woke up in a toronto hotel with a canadian girl on new years day and i turned on the tv and they were playing hockey in a football stadium in buffalo
the winter classic, he told me.
yes! and the snow was coming down in thick flakes all over the ice, but it didnt matter because hockey players are the baddest asses in town. SNOW?
and then he riffed off three-four stats about that game.
so on the left, matt was predicting the future on the field (double play, right here)
and buffalo on the right was filling in the blanks of my past
on my lap was a thick grilled hot dog surrounded by french fries with shredded short rib on top a healthy scoop of guacamole on top of that, and because why not, an ice cream scoop of sour cream.
and i was working on a beer.
it was baseball enough, all right.