Poptarticus

I am not really a sports-oriented person, but yesterday when Mark emailed me to tell me Josh Beckett would be pitching against the Padres last night, I was like, I HAVE to GO.

Because I totally love Josh Beckett. He’s a Marlin.

I’d say that’s kind of weird (for me to love Josh Beckett) but really, it’s not. Because I can spot greatness and when I first saw him pitch, out of the corner of my eye, on a TV I wasn’t even watching, I was like WHO is THAT? I couldn’t take my eyes off him - six feet five inches of intensity and concentration. And, as an added bonus, he was so young he could barely grow any facial hair.

Then of course he went on to beat the Yankees practically single-handedly in the 2003 World Series. Don’t you remember? It was HOT.

Last year Josh (we’ll just start calling him Josh now) didn’t pitch here at all. So when Mark emailed me I was practically peeing my pants in anticipation. I tried to get tickets on the Padres website, but it wasn’t working. So I found some tickets on craigslist. The guy wanted face value but, if you were cute and single, you could maybe have them for free. I emailed him and got no response, but I had this crazy feeling he read my blog and clearly, I wasn’t cute enough to get the tickets for free. So I emailed him again and I was like Dude, I want to PAY.

He replied in about three minutes. It was a done deal and we would meet at the Tivoli Bar and make the exchange before the game.

After a couple more emails from this guy I decided to out myself because he would be sitting next to me and Mark and I was scared he might be some Padres freak who would be pissed that I was in love with a Marlin. So I emailed him and told him I had a Josh Beckett fetish and I hoped that was OK.

He emailed back and asked if I had a Josh Beckett bobblehead, or even a shrine. My answer was, all my pleas for a Josh Beckett bobblehead have gone unheeded, and the bobblehead doesn’t look like him, anyway.

Whateves. Me and Mark met at the Trolley Station and took the Trolley downtown, met the Craigslist guy and his cousin, got the tickets, and cruised over to the game.

I was so excited that I was going to see Josh pitch! I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited at a sports thing before, except maybe when I won an $84.00 exacta at Del Mar. Or maybe when me and my ex-roomies Leigh and Laurie went to a WWF match at the Cow Palace.

So, it was a fun and emotional night down there at Petco Park. Craigslist guy and his cousin were cool. “I know way too much about you,” craigslist guy said. “Like you live in OB and like hairy backs.” Because he’d read some of my blog and clearly, was picking out select entries based on their titles.

Then there was Josh! Check it out:

Josh pitching!

Josh batting! He can even hit the ball. He hit a double!

Another star of the evening? Downtown San Diego on a perfect Spring night.

At one point craigslist guy said, “if you like hairy backs, how come you like Josh Beckett who just has peach fuzz on his face?” (Or something like that.)

“Dude. I don’t discriminate.” I said. (Or something like that.)

It was a great night. I got to see Josh, but the Padres won. So everyone was happy. Tonight I am going to see the Trashcan Sinatras at the Casbah. I’ll probably stand there fantasizing about Josh Beckett the whole time. It’s the perfect kind of music for that.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 14th, 2005 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Tales from a Strange Land. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.