Bronx Bummer

If you have ever had to tell a child that his puppy has just died you know the feeling I had this morning. Let me rephrase that…if you’ve ever had to tell your child that you just ran over their puppy you know the feeling I had in my stomach this morning. I don’t have a puppy so I’ve never had to tell my son that…but I can imagine if I ever did it would feel like I felt this morning.

My son and I have some things in common…and some differences. One of the things we have in common is we both love the Yankees. So you can imagine his excitement when I told him he’d be going to his first New York Yankees baseball game this year. The date was set…plans were made…we are going to Tampa to see the New York Yankees vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. Today was supposed to be the day…or so I thought.

It began to unravel yesterday at lunch. I’m eating at Po Boy’s where they are showing baseball highlights. I’m watch…with satisfaction…to see the Yanks beating the Angels. Good. But aren’t the Yanks in Tampa all week for a week long series? I didn’t think much more about it…until later that night.

Laurie and I went to the late movie to see, ‘The Translator’ after church. It was decent. Too many things that made you go…that would never happen…but that’s a different blog. After the movie Laurie is checking some e-mail and stuff on the computer so I sit down and turn on Sports Center. There’s the Yankees. They lost to the Angels in New York. Bummer. But weren’t they going to be in Tampa all week for a four game series? Oh, well. Guess not. The Rays lost to Toronto. Toronto? They are playing a night game in Toronto and than flying to Tampa Bay to play the Yankees tomorrow? That’s the game we’re going to. We have tickets so I guess so. That’s going to be a long day for them. Stinks for them…go Yanks.

I run up to the church to fax something for Laurie. On my way home it begins to hit me. There is no way the Rays would schedule a night game in Toronto followed by a game all the way back home in Tampa. Something’s wrong. My stomach began to sink. What have I done? I get home look at the tickets and realize my worst nightmare. Yankees Vs. Rays Section 127 Row UU Seat 18…MAY 5th. I was off by a week. Uh oh (cleaned up version). This is going to be a difficult conversation with Josh in the morning. My mind began to scramble. No big deal. We’ll just go next week right? Wrong says, Laurie…that is the class field trip to Sea World. I sunk.

At this point I feel like a dad telling his son, ‘not only is your puppy dead, it’s dead because I ran over it.’ The next morning arrives. I go and tell Josh…he say’s, ‘yea right’. ‘No, I’m serious Josh. I goofed. I’m very sorry but I blew it.’ He just rolls over and lies on his face. Great. Now what?

I begin to picture my son 20 years from now in some recovery group saying, ‘yea, my dad promised we’d go to that Yankees game.’ That wasn’t the only time my dad let me down. But I sure remember it’.

But, it’s all good. All is well that ends well. The Sea World Trip turns out to be on Friday, not Thursday, so it may all work out in the end. I only hope. We’ll see. I’m not making any promises!