Fall, perhaps classic

Was it really just a week ago that it was--still--ninety degrees and sunny, the calendar the only indication that October was upon us? Way back then I just couldn't believe it was Fall. Tonight, though, it's darker than it's been in months, and when the neighbors' cars splash their headlights down the street, it somehow doesn't feel like a warm summer shower has gathered along the side of the road. Grab a jacket; it might be warm again tomorrow, but tonight it's cool. And maybe there's a game on.

I'm reaching, I know, for something that probably won't be there when I close my fist around its shadow, and even I'm a little surprised. I barely paid attention to the Rockies' extra-inning dispatch of the Padres; it was a heck of a game, but it wasn't mine. And the wild card, well. Can you spell abomination? Besides, we're deep into football season, and I've no time to watch TV. Except that I'm up until the wee hours anyway, and the NFL only gives one game a week, and, after all, Clint Hurdle and Jamie Quirk (Colorado manager and bench coach), were both Redbirds of my 80s era, and that dead Rockies minor leaguer--the one felled by the foul ball but voted a playoff share--also had a Cardinal connection. And then I had to go and read this, some blog by some guy.

And while his point, with which I agree, is that the postseason only is worth watching if the team is your team, well, baseball is nothing if not a magnet for the sentimental. And, while at the time, I tried my darndest to be stoic about it, which, ohmygoodness, is just so not me, October 2006 really was something. And I wish I could have it again.

In a way I'll be kind of afraid to turn on the World Series, once it gets here, dreading that the announcers will allude to this year's disastrous Championship "defense," dredging up all that is wrong with baseball and nothing that is right. Oh, well. It is, technically, just a game, and my team is not even playing. But sometimes, magical things happen. I have seen them with my own eyes. And it is that time of year.