"I'm Scared"

Yesterday after an afternoon viewing of the movie MacGruber, which is a lot funnier than you might think, I sat down to an early dinner. I was the first ever dinner patron at The Cheese Shop dowtown. They had literally just opened for dinner for the first time ever at 5pm and I walked in at 5:01pm. My waiter kind of made a big deal about it. Around 5:30pm I noticed I was still the only person in the place, so I asked the waiter, "I guess you're just trying this dinner thing out?" "Yeah, we were expecting a bit of a bigger crowd because of the game tonight." I had almost forgot the Padres were playing the Mets later that evening in game 2 of the series. I walked outside and got the paper to see the standings and read up on the previous nights 18-run romp. I saw that as of yesterday we had the best record in the NL! I then had this text conversation with fellow Kept Faith contributor Joe Chandler:

Me: "I'm Sacred."
Joe: "Sacred or scared? And if the latter, why?"
Me: "We have the best record in the NL."
Joe: "So weird right? Just embrace it and try not to think about it too much."
Me: "That sounds good."
Joe: "There are four more months left. FOUR! We just need to breathe."

While I enjoyed the Pearl Jam reference it didn't ease my concerns any. I finished my Italian grilled cheese sandwich and left. I saw some guys wearing Mets jersey's walking by and had quite the epiphany. Here I am getting worked up over my team, who by all accounts is overachieving. Then there are the Mets, who have a payroll over $100 million and aren't even in 2nd place! My mind went soft. I became like the Ninja - clear of all worry and pain. I need to enjoy this and that's all. It's just a game and we are winning it. Don't think about the future and rely on the past my friends; get out to a ball game and cheer on the grittiest team in the NL while it still matters. The Padres could always be like the Mets but the beauty is the Mets can never be like the Padres. We just need to breathe.