Decisions, Decisions


After grousing to my wife for two days that I am utterly uninterested in the world series and couldn't be bothered watching, it is now coming home to me that it is, after all, the World Series we're talking about here. It's America. It's tradition. It behooves me to scrounge up some interest here, not to say some motivation.

In overcoming a large case of "don't care" this is what I've come up with:

The Yankees. When you need someone to root against, the Yankees always seem to be there, bless them, to supply the need. This can supply the emotional trigger. Always providing they lose as required. If they don't lose, it can backfire on you.

The Marlins. Not much here to fire one up. But wait. In The Times this morning I read this:

Finally, for the Marlins to win this championship, somebody also has to get McKeon to the church on time.

He is one of the few people in sports who claims to attend daily Mass, and actually does.

On his office wall is a picture of St. Theresa of Lisieux. He prays in the car, prays in the dugout, praying for hits and runs and lost souls.

As a baseball writer covering McKeon's wild San Diego Padres two decades ago, I remember strolling into the team hotel around dawn, just as McKeon was leaving for morning Mass.

"You really do go to church every day," I said.

"Somebody's got to pray for you guys," he said.

When we later engaged in a theological discussion based on my discovery of his devotion, he said he felt there was only one true religious mystery.

"I've been reading all these letters from Paul to the Corinthians," he said. "Don't the Corinthians ever write back?"

O.K. That - in addition to the fact that my great-grandfather was a Jack McKeon born in Armagh - will do for starters. (The whole article is here. If you want to read it, don't dawdle. The Times puts these things in the archive after a week and it will cost you to retreive it. As it is, you have to register.)

At the moment I need to turn off the Notre Dame/USC game, wherein Notre Dame is somewhere in the second quarter and behind USC 21-14 which is not as hoped and expected, and put on my best bib and tucker to go play for a wedding in Redondo Beach. It's a military wedding, Marine officers with drawn swords forming an archway. Should be fun.