It’s time for Jose Melendez’s KEYS TO THE GAME.
1. Jose comes to you today live from his brand new home in Durham, North Carolina, where he expects to be engaged in light bondage with Susan Sarandon while listening to Edith Piaf records at any moment.
Truth be told, while Durham (note: disappointingly not named for Ray Durham) seems nice enough so far, Jose is having some trouble adjusting. For starters, Jose is completely unused to living in an environment where he is not surrounded by Red Sox fans. Of the 30 or so people he’s met so far, only 10 of them are Red Sox fans. Seriously, what is wrong with people?
Second, Jose is a bit uncomfortable living in any state that could produce Grady Little. Jose sort of imagined, based on Grady, that North Carolina would be a dangerous place. He expected to see drivers going right through obvious stop signs.
Third, Jose has already had a run in with a Yankee fan a classmate wearing a Derek Jeter shirt.
The conversation went something like this:
Jose: Did you know Derek Jeter has herpes?
Classmate: What?
Jose: He has herpes; he gave it to one of the Jessica’s.
Classmate: How do you know? Have you been looking at his @#$@#$?
Jose: (stunned silence)
Classmate: Have you?
Jose: The herpes probably have great intangibles.
So Jose is off to a great start on that relationship. Jose must have missed the chapter in How to Win Friends and Influence People where it says not to point out that someone’s hero has herpes.
Now many of you may wonder what sort of affect this move will have on the KEYS. Can Jose continue to produce a quality product while so far removed from the motherland? The answer, of course, is no. Denuded of his comfortable stories about how the Red Sox club house resembles the Middlesex County Registrar of Deeds office, Jose is going to have to develop a whole new set of analogies.
For instance, Jose will have to raise important questions such as “How are the Red Sox like biscuits and gravy?” They are both predominantly white and will eventually cause heart attacks.
2. The news emerged yesterday that St. Josh a Beckett’s next start will be pushed back due to a lack of feeling in his pinkie and ring fingers. (Note: Is this a good excuse of adultery? “Honey, I didn’t cheat, I just forgot I was married, because I didn’t feel the ring on my finger.”) In light of this, Jose thinks he has the perfect theme music for Beckett. Jose saw this movie called The Squid and the Whale, and this kid in it wrote a wonderful original song called “Comfortably Numb.” It would be perfect.
While it sound like the numbness is a bad thing, Jose would differ with the conventional wisdom and suggest that this is a blessing in disguise. After all, how will Beckett feel his famous finger blisters if he can’t feel his fingers?
3. In more serious news, Yaz, the Red Sox legend/birth control device underwent emergency triple bypass surgery yesterday. It was the slugger’s first triple in 25 years. While the surgery is distressing and Jose is concerned about the legend, you can rest assured that even in his current condition, Yaz remains a better hitter than Rococo Crisp and a better left fielder than the dearly departed Manny Ramirez. Of course, the same can be said for Ted Williams.
I’m Jose Melendez, and those are my KEYS TO THE GAME.
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2 comments:
Glad to hear you've joined the exiles in the land of dixie. Not because you'll enjoy it, but because I like people to share my suffering. Be prepared for blistering hot days that last all night long, rancid buses that will have you longing for New York subways, and an irritating mix of unintelligent yet wholly arrogant Orioles and Rays fans. Have fun.
Good call on grad school at Duke. There were a number of us Sawx fans there in '89-'91, before "Nouveau Nation" when it was easier to tell who was real. They were mostly from the northeast of course, but then as you are starting to learn, Duke is really just the Durham Campus of the University of New Jersey. They also have a basketball program on campus that is likened to the Yankees, even though the players are pretty straight up and play a selfless, team oriented style of ball. I guess having a lot of success brands you "Yankee-like" these days, which is why people are starting to call the Red Sox "the new Yankees." That begs the question, "what happened to the old Yankees?", which is really pretty rhetorical, because they are actually pretty old, aren't they? But then, I digress...
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