When you’ve recently lost someone important to you, every day without them is like wandering through a landscape of cactuses, trying to avoid getting pricked by memory; you can avoid the big, obvious ones (major holidays, birthdays), or at least safeguard yourself against them, but when you’re not looking, a sneaky spine will occasionally lodge in there nevertheless. Today that memory-spine is of one of my dad’s favorite, most often-repeated bits: following a narrow, seat-clenching Mariners win, he’d love to call me up and, as an opening salvo, chortle wickedly, we had ‘em all the way.
The Mariners decidedly did not have the Royals all the way in this one, because these two teams love to play the most bonkers games possible and are committed to this bit with an intensity that would make Strasberg jealous.