Tomorrow...Tomorrow...I love you, Tomorrow...etc., etc.

The excursion begins tomorrow and I promised a "juicy confession" in my last post, so I'll give you two.

1) I was in a middle school production of Annie I was a member of the President's cabinet and had about 3 lines which I don't remember. I was also an extra, or whatever you call it in play terms.

That's not even the good one...This one is...

2) My earliest memories of baseball (circa 1985-1986) are as follows:
- Sitting in outfield bleachers listening to my cousin Erin yell "Lenny D!", over and over again ad nauseum.
- Waiting outside of the bullpen area with another relative ( I can't remember who exactly, I'm not trying to slight anyone...it could very well have been my mother...and I actually think it was) trying to get Frank Viola's autograph.
AND...
- Lying in bed, hearing my mother, a few of her sisters and her friends screaming like banshees downstairs in a celebratory manner. The only word I could discern was "Mookie"

That's right...I was raised a Mets fan.

"Huh?" You ask yourself as you scratch your head, befuddled.

I know, it confuses me too, although, I guess it makes sense because I spent the first 5 years of my life in Queens with the Mets right around the corner, but the question is, why didn't it stick? My only real hypothesis is that with two older sisters, baseball was NOT a big deal in my house when I was that young. I did what they wanted to do, or I played alone. I hadn't attended school yet (except for a debacle of day in pre-school...let's just say I dropped out the day of a Halloween party), so I didn't have any friends my age. When Katie wanted to pretend the G.I. Joe's were neighbors, I played along. When Mary wanted to play Alvin and the Chipmunks, I played along. We played Stoop Ball, Hop Scotch, Freeze Tag, T.V. Tag, Hide and Seek, and various other outdoor games...but never baseball; I don't think we even played running bases while we lived in Queens. Lack of grass will do that to you.

So we moved out to Long Island, where the green grass grows, and in the midst of the move I came across a framed Yankees collage of my dad's. I don't remember which team it was, and the only player I clearly remember is Lou Piniella. Well, the collage led to some questions and a brief history of the Yankees (Dad, I promise I was listening, but don't remember a word), From there, we started watching games together, and I was learning more about the current team at the time. Needless to say my love of the Yankees was the real deal because they were NOT good when i started following them. They were borderline awful at times, but guys like Steve Sax, Mike Pagliarulo (sp?), Jesse Barfield, Alvaro Espinosa, Mel Hall, Dave Righetti, Andy Hawkins and of course, Donnie Baseball kept me interested.

So, here we are...26 years old and ready to embark on this journey to explore the rivalry between the Yanks and Sox. How odd that I have an earlier memory of the Sox (albeit indirectly), than the Yanks.

So it goes.