The Uninvited

 

For me, this is the most bittersweet fact of 2020 and COVID-19.  A Dodger World Series and I can't be there.  As the fall classic is played in a Arlington, Texas bubble, there will be a daily attendance of 11,500.   

None of them named "me."  Good friends are throwing a helluva party and I am not on the guest list.

This hit me like a dump truck of bricks on Sunday as I watched the deciding NLCS game in virtual solitude.   Alone.   And in silence since I like to keep my finger on the mute button to drown out that melon-headed idiot John Smoltz.

These are the moments where true baseball fans need to be there.   The game normally would have played out in Dodger Stadium.  I would have been there in my season seats.   Loge Aisle 120, Row L, Seat 1.

Nope.

Getting your team to the World Series doesn't happen a lot.   Being there for the winning game is a needle in a haystack.   I remember being in Shea Stadium when the Mets won it all in 1986.   I turned to my friend and said that we need to savor the moment because it is very, very rare.

Indeed, there are many moments missed by people in this cesspool of a year called 2020.   Senior proms.   Senior plays.  Weddings.  College and high school graduations.  Even memorials for those who succumbed to the coronavirus.  There are the parts of life...and death...which you never get back.

The 2020 World Series with the Dodgers is my missed opportunity this year.  Such baseball nirvana needs to shared with a community.   It's an experience that requires the participation of both friends and strangers.   A triumphant World Series is not to be celebrated on your living room couch.  

Oddly enough, a friend in Texas had tickets to the NLCS games.   I had my chance.  Airfare, even in these trying and desperate times, was cost prohibitive.  And a two-day drive one-way is too much driving for this intrepid motorist.

Even more oddly enough, I do have access to tickets if the World Series would get to Game 6.   Again, who knows about airfare?  And I really don't have friends that adventurous and impulsive to make the journey with me.

Still, I need to capture the enjoyment of these games somehow.  Maybe I'll go to a bar.   Or the Dodger Stadium parking lot.  Or somebody else's living room.  

Beyond the baseball aspect, I see this upcoming World Series as a metaphor for life in 2020.   It's time to be out among the living.   We have been trapped in our cells for too long.   

Life...like a winning World Series...doesn't come around that often.   Enjoy it.

Dinner last night:  Leftover Chinese food.