How To Get Sick and See History

Since the Mets remain cold as the Hot Stove continues to simmer, I’m going to take a brief break from the rumor mill and report on something that has nothing to do with Johan Santana, Joe Blanton, Eric Bedard, nor any other top-flight pitcher the Mets won’t be getting this winter.

You may have noticed that the blog posts here have slowed a bit … this was due to two issues. First, I went to the Caribbean for vacation for two weeks, and the combination of sun and rum tends to get in the way of banging away on a keyboard. Second, during the tail end of my vacation, I fell ill with a tropical disease that’s sent me to bed and made me quite lethargic.

Stay with me, I’m building to something interesting here.

So my illness was severe enough to visit a doctor upon my return home, and during the visit it came out that I was a big Mets fan (funny how the Mets enter nearly every conversation in my life). The doctor proceeds to tell me a story about being invited by a friend to Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS — Mets vs. Cardinals. His friend was a big shot Wall Street guy or something, and had front-row seats directly to the right of the Mets dugout. Already I’m foaming at the mouth not from my illness but out of jealousy. Yes the Mets lost but can you imagine sitting there for that game?

The doctor goes on to describe what an amazing game it was, and how the stadium went nuts when Endy made THE CATCH and then THE THROW that doubled up Jim Edmonds on first to end the inning. At that point, Carlos Delgado trots back to the dugout, flips THE BALL into the stands, where this doctor snatches it. After hearing this I almost fall out of my chair, and then I do when he points to the ball sitting in a glass case on his bookcase.

The worst part of this story? The doctor isn’t even a Mets fan — he prefers the Yankees!

Doh!

Still, getting to see “Endy’s ball” was well worth all the chills, aches, fever, and pain that brought me to it.

(And no, I will not tell you who this doctor is, for fear you will break into his office and steal the ball.)