October 6, 2002, Network Associates Coliseum,
It was my 25th birthday, and I celebrated (at least tried to) it attending Game 5 of the American League Division Series between the A’s and the Twins. Alas, the A’s lost the game and the series that day, and I was leaving the stadium with the all the other glum A’s fans, I heard a voice behind me chanting, “I love the A’s! I love the A’s! I love the A’s!”
I turned around and saw a man in a yellow A’s jersey. “I love the A’s! I love the A’s!” he continued to chant.
I took a few steps towards him and said, “I love them too, man.”
And we hugged. Complete strangers, in our most vulnerable state as baseball fans, sharing our common love of the team that, moments before, dropped a playoff series in heart-wrenching fashion. Even in one of the darkest moments, our love for the green and gold never wavered.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Oakland Athletics and fans!
5 comments:
Great story.
Valentine's Day still sucks, though.
And that mask of yours still scares me.
Thanks, Jason.
And I'll take the scary mask as a compliment too. :)
I just realized I had spelled "wavered" as "waivered." Thanks to baseball I use the word "waiver" much more than "waver", so it felt natural to spell it like that.
Even thought it made me misspell a word (now edited to reflect correct spelling), I heart baseball!!
No way, that was YOU!?!?
At least your team makes the playoffs!
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