Anticipaton...

I like baseball.  I love play-off baseball.  I am in lust with game seven play-off baseball. How I feel about game seven of the World Series is how I am told young toddlers feel about Dora the Explorer. 

It must be watched.

But like any good love affair as you age you gain perspective.   You see, the baseball playoffs are killing me slowly.  The games don't start until 8 pm.  They don't end until early the next day and they invariably have late inning heroics.  Couple that with the fact that I have a 10 month old son who wakes up like clockwork at 5 a.m. and you have the recipe for disaster.

I can tell I getting older by my inability to stay awake to watch sports.  Each year I get older it feels like my will to watch gets one inning less strong.  When I was 20 the game would end and I would watch highlights for another 2 hours.  When I was 25, I was able to watch the whole game and then went to bed right away.  Now at 32, I am ready to call it quits when the celebrity de jour starts singing "God Bless America" in the seventh inning.

If you can tell a tree's age by counting its rings, you can tell a sport's fans age by how many innings  (s)he can stay awake for during the playoffs. 

But tonight was different - it is game 7.  And it is now the seventh inning.  Texas is trailing 5 to 2.  It is a rather unremarkable game so far. And I am getting tired.

Maybe I should go bed...would that make me a bad sports fan?
Maybe I should stay up and up watch the whole thing...would that make tomorrow a disaster? Would I be a bad father because I will be tired when I play with my son?

Just like a good game of baseball the enjoyment comes not from the outcome, but from the anticipation...should I watch or should I sleep?

*** Fast Forward to almost 12 am Saturday ***

I made it.  I am still a sport's fan.  Congrats Cards.  Sorry Texas  (you only have yourself to blame after game 6).

I am going to need a large coffee in 5 hours.  I say a small prayer to the baseball Gods that my like-clockwork son will sleep past 5 am. 

But, I don't think the fact that I am tired tomorrow will make me a bad father for one important reason.

As I turned off the TV and wrote this, my one thought was:  I hope that the next time there is a Game 7 in the World Series that my son and I can share it together.

Now that is something I would definitely stay up for.  I guess fatherhood is also about the anticipation.