Author’s note: Everyone deserves to have a friend who champions their work even - and perhaps especially - when they don’t really know or care about the work itself. Maddie is the pinnacle of that. She and I moved into a tiny Fremont apartment together on an afternoon when Félix pitched six shutout innings, Nelson Cruz homered and the Mariners tidily beat the A’s. There’s a photo of us from that day, sitting side by side on a couch we bought for $75, baby-faced, sweaty and beaming. I’m wearing a Yes We Canó t-shirt. In the, phew, many years since, Maddie has remained an exceptional friend and the ultimate champion of my baseball work, from gently teasing about my “baseball homework” as I freelanced frenetically at all hours, to finding a new roommate to take over my lease when Cooperstown came calling, to bragging mortifyingly about me any time baseball comes up in conversation - regardless of whether that’s at an afternoon work gathering or at 1 am at Comet.
Apple Cup (baseball): Mets (61-54) at Mariners (60-56)
