Baseball Fan

I saw the kid in the terminal at O’Hare. He was all decked out in Dodgers gear including a Clayton Kershaw jersey.

His Mom was there too, wearing a Dodgers championship hoodie from last year.

I had a passing thought that the kid was going to be up late on Thursday in a do-or-die game against the Giants.

As luck might have it, he was seated next to me on the plane. I pegged him at about 17-years old.

“Nervous about tomorrow?” I asked.

“Oh God yes! I just came from Dodger Stadium for games 3 & 4. I wanted to go to San Francisco for tomorrow’s game, but I have to work.”

“You’re a Dodgers fan who lives in Buffalo? How’s that happen?”

The kids laughed.

“I don’t know. I loved them when I was a toddler. My Dad loves baseball. I really got into it. It’s all I think about.”

“I’ve always been that way with the Yankees,” I said.

“You’ve had your share of fun in your life,” he said.

For the next twenty minutes, as the airline was so nice as to have us sit on the runway as they worked on the air conditioning problem, we talked baseball.

(And yeah, the airline hustles is all onto a sweltering plane where we sit there inches from one another during a pandemic with masks on - I almost passed out).

“Kershaw is my hero,” the kid said. “Breaks my heart that he’s hurt.”

“And he might leave after the year,” I said. “His contract is up.”

“I know.” I thought the kid might cry. “But he’s from Texas and he wants to be near his family. I am okay if he goes to the Rangers.”

“Are you going to be heartbroken if they lose?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“I’ll just be so sad if there’s no more baseball until April. Life is better with baseball.”

I agreed with the kid, of course, but mentioned that there will still be two rounds left, with or without the Dodgers.

“How much have you watched since the Yankees lost?” He asked.

“I listened to games on the radio yesterday,” I said.

He held up his fist for me to bump.

“Excellent! A baseball fan.”

As we traveled, the kid showed me the photos of his visit to Dodger Stadium over the last few days.

I didn’t have the heart to tell the kid that before I met him I was strongly in the Giants camp for tonight’s game.

“It was great talking to you,” he said, as the plane touched down.

“Go Dodgers,” I said.

He laughed again.

“That’s nice of you to say, but Yankees fans don’t root for the Dodgers.”

He had a point.

“Tomorrow I’ll think of you,” I said, “But I won’t see the end. It starts at 9:00. Will you stay up the whole way?”

“I won’t sleep tonight!” The kid said. “Won’t sleep tomorrow night either, but that’s all right, it’s baseball. I hope it’s a 5-hour game!”

Only true baseball fans feel that.

Good kid.

And they say that kids don’t like baseball!