Happiest Season Of All

We have now entered possibly my favorite time of the year to be a sports fan. Football is in full swing, baseball is entering the post-season, and the NHL and NBA are nowhere to be seen. It's everything I love and nothing I don't want. As I type this, in fact, I'm watching the last game of the regular season, in which the Chicago White Sox need a win over the Detroit Tigers to force a one-game playoff with the Minnesota Twins. It's a home game for the Sox, so the stadium is electric.

Moments ago, with the scored tied at two, the White Sox sent a rookie to the plate with the bases loaded. ESPN flashed a stat that he already had 3 grand slams this season, tying him for the all-time MLB record. As I informed Nina of this, the pitcher threw a nice safe first pitch fastball, and the kid nearly swung himself out of his shoes, absolutely crushing it over the right field fence. I would give anything to be at a game when something like that happens some day; even over the TV speakers you can hear how different it is when the entire crowd cheers as one. The only thing that was better -- small concilation, really -- about watching it on TV was being able to see the replay; the batter wasn't even finished swinging and his smile was already threatening to consume his entire head. That kind of play is what I love about baseball this time of the year; the length of the season can take a lot of the intensity out of the games and it's great to see the players wearing their hearts on their sleeves once again.