SFLOI DREAM TO RING IN THE 2010 SEASON

Just as the title states, I just woke from a SFLOI dream 5 minutes in advance of my alarm clock, which I would have slept through because the sound was off, so I would never have had Kathleen Marple of 1010Wins tell me to get up. So today, Saturday January 16th at 7:00AM, I am up in, I guess, anticipation of of the start of the 2010 SFLOI season, also known as the Polar Bear portion of the season.

This surprises me for a few reasons: A. I went to bed at 1:15AM, not the latest I've gone to bed on a SFLOI night, but still, B. I had a cup of green tea with honey before I did causing me to toss and turn for the first hour, C. I had a bad dream at 3:30AM which woke me and caused a small panic attack (which caused me to miss 2 or 3 SFLOI dates last year!), and D. I never spring out of bed for anything!

Onto the dream, which I jotted down the highlights so I can transfer them here after the morning piss; dreams usually fade rather quick for me. So, OK, first off, before you think I'm a crazy man, this is the first softball dream I can remember having. That said, it's still pretty vivid. We start with me, Ian, and Seung on a subway train on our way to the city of Riverdale. As we prepare to get off the train, Seung climbs into the bat section of my Easton equipment bag to take a nap. With Seung on my back, Yoda or C3PO style, (interesting to note that two Star Wars characters were carried on the backs of others almost at the same time in Empire, weird, huh? Analyzation for another time.) We get out in Riverdale, which looked like a weird mid-town Manhattan to me. I wanted to stop at Dunkin Donuts (hmm...), but Ian decided to keep going to the field, naturally. Inside Dunkin, I ordered a Box of Joe for all (hmm...) and a large grape juice for the sleepy Seung on my back. I think I got an egg and cheese sandwich, too. Upon leaving, we meet with Ian again, who got lost, and decides he wants yogurt to go along with the coffee I bought. We stop in some yogurt store where he orders a yogurt, but is pissed when it comes with giant hunks of indescribable fruit. Onto the field we go.

Once there, everyone is kind of blurry, and for some reason the only familiar players are Havelock, who is already formulating the sides, and Angel Torres, who I think I've seen once or twice in my life. There's a big puddle by home plate. We meet the owner of the field, a big rowdy Texan, who shows us the lower level, which is another small indoor field with absolutely no outfield. His wife appears and wants us to play down there because of an upcoming storm. Me and Ian convince them otherwise, and I head upstairs. I walk over to Torres who has our line-up card, which he proceeded to make. Here was the top five: 1. Ian 2. some name I cannot recall 3. Marvin! 4. another guy, but he was a man-mountain at the plate, and 5. me. Ian comes up from the basement level, and I hand him the line-up, to whom I offer up the disclaimer that Torres made it already, and he's fuming.

The game begins. Ian leads off and bunts off the female pitcher. Four errors ensue and Ian rounds the bases and scores basically a bunt homer! (Alex's goal for 2010, btw) The next guy gets on somehow, I miss Marvin's at-bat, but heck, Marvin batting third is awesome! The next guy is the man-mountain and he walks. So there's at least two on, and I'm up. I get to the plate and then decide to change bats to my new one. I have a tough time finding it, and then I'm disappointed that the bat is already all scratched. Ian inspects it, and likes the barrel. I step up to the plate and then realize I don't have cleats on, but rather my house slippers. I put on the cleats, although I think this is a quick blur, and step back to the plate. I'm in my stance when my dream completely shifts, and I'm now in a house with my girlfriend's uncle, who has just bought us matching smoking jackets. He's trying his on when I wake up 5 minutes in advance of my alarm.

Story of my playing career, folks, men on and I don't even take a swing! Welcome to 2010, SFLOI!