{"id":12302,"date":"2014-11-17T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bullmensfiction.com\/?p=12302"},"modified":"2022-08-03T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T17:15:00","slug":"plenty-of-time-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/fiction\/plenty-of-time-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Plenty of Time, Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in almost 30 years, nearly my whole life, my<\/em> team was six outs away from making the playoffs, and my four-year-old son, Sam, said he wanted a hot dog from the vendor.<\/p>\n

\u201cSammy,\u201d I said, \u201cI asked you earlier if you wanted a hot dog, and you said you wanted nachos.\u00a0 I got you nachos and you didn\u2019t eat them, so we aren\u2019t getting a hot dog.\u00a0 Not right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was maybe a little short with him, sure, but we\u2019d just broken through against their ace and took a one-run lead in the bottom half of the 7th and our set-up guy, who\u2019d been lights-out all season, walked the lead-off man before giving up a bleeder to right on an 0-2 pitch.\u00a0 The tying run was in scoring position for El Chico, their left-handed Dominican slugger. So yeah, like the 42,000 other people at the game, I was a little agitated.\u00a0 But it was only because I wanted to share this moment with Sam, even if he\u2019d never remember it.\u00a0 Knowing what I know now, there\u2019s little chance he\u2019ll ever be able to forget it.<\/p>\n

The manager emerged from the dugout, and I was surprised when he didn\u2019t signal for the closer who was up in the pen.\u00a0 During the meeting on the mound, Sam stomped his feet and shouted that he wanted to go home.\u00a0 The noise and excitement of the fans and vendors and the between-inning entertainment on the video board had kept him engaged most of the game, but it was way past his eight-thirty bedtime.\u00a0 Even though no one was paying much attention, were these circumstances normal, I would have removed him and we\u2019d have had a little chat.\u00a0 But like every baseball fan, I\u2019d seen the video of the brake lights on the cars leaving Dodgers Stadium in \u201988 when Gibson hit that home run.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t going to be us.\u00a0 And for what I paid for these seats\u2014second row, halfway between the on-deck circle and the first base dugout\u2014Sam could\u2019ve brought the house down with screaming and crying; we weren\u2019t leaving.<\/p>\n

As the umpire went to the mound, I turned to Sam to try another tactic. \u00a0\u201cDo you know what sounds good?\u201d\u00a0 He shook his head full-on four-year-old tantrum-style.\u00a0 \u201cA banana,\u201d I said, trying to be as persuasive as possible, and as the crowd noise began to rise, the video board demanding everyone MAKE SOME NOISE<\/strong>, I had to shout.\u00a0 \u201cBut where are we going to find a banana at a baseball game?\u00a0 I don\u2019t see any monkeys, do you?\u201d\u00a0 Sam continued to shake his head, but he was paying attention.\u00a0 \u201cWait a minute, I think I see one\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam stopped.\u00a0 \u201cWhere\u2019s he at?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s right\u2026here!\u201d I said and tickled his armpits.\u00a0 He squirmed and squealed, and try as he might, he couldn\u2019t stop from giggling.\u00a0 \u201cGood thing we found a monkey, because I just might know where we can find a banana.\u201d\u00a0 My tactic must\u2019ve worked because his eyes opened wide.\u00a0 It was while bent over digging in the bag my wife packed for us that I heard the crack of the bat.\u00a0 It rang out even over the crowd noise, and in the relative hush that followed, I rose and saw El Chico standing at home plate, bat still above his head from the follow-through of his swing, admiring the towering blast he\u2019d hit deep into the night.<\/p>\n

Before I knew what I was doing, I chucked the banana.\u00a0 In the split second all of this happened, I thought about\u2026nothing.\u00a0 I was angry.\u00a0 A lifetime of frustration with this team boiled over in that instant. \u00a0But as the banana boomeranged out onto the field, the crowd sighed.\u00a0 The ball had hooked foul.\u00a0 Now, I could only watch as the banana bounced, tumbling end over end before striking El Chico in the leg where he stood a few steps out of the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

Later, during the highlights of the game, after the broadcasters and analysts break down the game-winning double El Chico hit on the second pitch in his 8th inning at bat, they\u2019ll say some version of the following as footage of what happened plays: \u201cAn odd moment in the top of the 8th inning.\u00a0 El Chico hits a towering foul ball to right and a fan, thinking it a home run, expressed his frustration by throwing a banana<\/em> onto the field.\u201d\u00a0 The footage shows El Chico looking down where the banana struck his leg and then slowly raising his head in the direction from where it came.\u00a0 There\u2019s a close shot of his face\u2014known for its beaming smile\u2014going from confused to clearly angry.\u00a0 Then another wide shot of him pointing his bat at the crowd\u2014at me\u2014and yelling.\u00a0 He takes a few steps toward the seats, still pointing his bat.\u00a0 The camera pans the crowd before settling on me.\u00a0 How they knew I\u2019d thrown the banana, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 The announcer continues: \u201cEl Chico was visibly upset by the gesture, and play was suspended briefly while security escorted the fan and his young son out of the stadium.\u201d\u00a0 More footage of security leading me up the steps, and a stadium worker holding Sam\u2019s hand following behind us.<\/p>\n

Later still, in the shit-storm of coverage following \u201cthe banana incident,\u201d my actions will be described as disgraceful, and on nearly every social media outlet people will accuse me of committing a hate crime.\u00a0 As bad as that is\u2014and it\u2019s bad\u2014the worst is seeing Sam\u2019s teary-eyed face over and over in the pictures and video clips.\u00a0 People say he was embarrassed by what I did.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 But I think he just wanted his banana.\u00a0 He\u2019s got plenty of time, yet, to be ashamed of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Before I knew what I was doing, I chucked the banana. A lifetime of frustration with this team boiled over in that instant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[911,27,912,62,249],"class_list":["post-12302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-baseball","tag-fathers","tag-shame","tag-sons","tag-sports","writer-casey-pycior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12302"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12656,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12302\/revisions\/12656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}