Uncharted Territory

This disappointing season for the Mets has turned into a a year of firsts for the Glass Man. Never before had I been able to channel my sports enthusiasm away from baseball during the regular season. That was the backdrop yesterday on a beautiful mid-September day as I dug in for 12 hours of pure non-baseball bliss.

It all started with my debut in the Eastern Athletic Softball League. I'm not one to boast, but I was a bit of a stud softball player back in my college days, and ever since I graduated and my days of softball ended, I've felt like something was missing; I think ultimately it was just the sense of competition that sports provides.

Anyway, the league seems great. Good competition level, good people. Best of all, Sip and I are doing this thing together; he couldn't make it yesterday but beginning this coming Sunday it'll be Y2K in the building all over that league. Cot damn.

When softball was over I bounded home for a shower and a change. After scarfing down Little Miss Shea's homemade chicken wings, the two of us headed for Court Street looking to find a neighborhood sports bar with a satellite package. Cody's and Downtown Bar and Grill did the honors; neither has any of the immediate charm of Blondie's, but they both have things going for them (the nachos at Cody's, for one thing, are a hell of a lot better than at Blondie's).

Realizing there was no chance either bar would interrupt the football to devote a screen to the US Open, we headed home after the Jets game so that we could flip between the Giants and the Federer semifinal.

Young Elisha looked good; you couldn't help but feel like the Giants should have put up a lot more than 23 points, but at the end of the day they did what they had to to win the game, and that's not the worst thing in Week 1.

As for Federer, Djokovich gave him a run for his money, but ultimately Fed did what Fed do.

Exhausted but excited, we hit up the 7 train and headed for Flushing where we had tickets to the Women's Final of the US Open. In a showdown between Mega Mom Kim Clijsters and Turbo Teen Caroline Wozniaki, it was Clijsters who took home the trophy. It was an altogether "eh" kind of final, but it was the first championship game of any sports that I can recall ever seeing in person, so it's a good memory in that respect.

* * * * *

In the midst of this orgy of sport the Mets played a doubleheader against the hated Phillies that meant absolutely nothing.

In the 10 minutes of live baseball I saw, John Maine looked fine. As with the return of Carlos Beltran, seeing Maine out there just gives you a sense of longing for what might have been this season.

In the nightcap, well, Pedro sure made us look foolish for thinking he was the done, didn't he? I mean, I'm glad we didn't sign him, but it does drive me a little nuts that he signed with Philly. Couldn't the Dodgers have used him?

Oh well. Yesterday wasn't about the Mets for me, it was about entering the uncharted territory of embracing other teams and other sports well before the end of baseball season.

In other years everything else had to take a back seat. If the Mets were in a playoff run, football, tennis, everything else was just background noisee. But as we know too well, 2009 isn't like other years.

Oh well. Seventh worst record in the league and counting.

- A.F.O.M.G.