how sweet it is: the spontaneous group jump-hug.
ticket to prideyesterday, i was quite pleased to accept lina p and maddy b's invitation to last night's yankee game (hosting the texas rangers). it was my first game in a long time; frankly, i can't remember the last time i had been to The Stadium.
anyhoo, the game got off to a poor, poor start. specifically, thanks to a banged-up shawn chacon (i didn't know this during the game, but apparently he had a significant shin injury, from being tattooed by a mark loretta hit last week), the bombers went down 9-0 and then 10-1 in the early innings.
i feel very strongly that throughout my life i've had a strange talent for attending yankee games wherein the pinstripers - even, nay, particularly- during great seasons, have suffered especially ignominious losses. (my dad has always seemed to take a small bit of pleasure in corroborating this theory, i think on the grounds that he 1) dislikes team sports and 2) still associates the yankees with the crass kids he grew up with in elmhurst. ['the catholic kids liked the yankees, the other jews liked the dodgers. i liked the giants.'])
so i was disappointed but not shocked that this was gonna be another live blowout on my record.
anyhoo again, since the slaughter materialized so quickly, rather than talking of leaving, the three of us decided to settle into better seats, as the stadium was half-empty. we easily moved from our perch in the front row of the upper deck behind right field to a row near the front, by the first base line (high up, but very good vantage pt).
then, the yanks started chipping away. here a run, there a run, etc, until, after a sixth-inning barrage, they took the lead 11-10.
im now gonna curtail my apparent urge to boringly sum up the game. suffice it to say, we were all thrilled and falling all over ourselves when they took the lead, and not a little glad we hadn't left, which we all had thought about doing many times over.
then the lead changed sides a few more times, before jorge posada won the game on a classic, you-dreamed-it-up-in-your-backyard-a-billion-times-as-a-boy, two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth, walk-off two-run shot to the bleachers in right.
needless to say, the place fairly brimmed over with excitement. (we didn't specifically know it then, but we stalwarts had all just witnessed a single-game comeback tied with the greatest ones the yankees had ever pulled off. i doubt anyone there will witness a commensurate game in his/her lifetime.)
here's the pt of the post. when that ball went outta the park, lina, maddy and i started jumping up and down with glee, and we organically melded ourselved into a real spontaneous group jump-hug.
you know what im talking about. something so great happens to a group of people, that they have to hug each other and jump up and down together, as a single ecstatic unit.
thing is, we all agreed that usually these group-jump hugs are somewhat labored, forced or contrived. this was a truly spontaneous and pure group jump-hug. it was very joyous and life-affirming. we were very proud of ourselves for pulling it off, and well we should have been. the transcendent experience was quickly deemed blog-worthy. whoomp here it is.
for a final note, i should mention that the spontaneous group jump-hug is a close cousin of the spontaneous slow-clap - a concept illuminated by my idol, bill simmons (sports guy). you know the slow-clap. it's at the end of a lot of teenager movies, when some high school dork makes a speech to everyone in the school auditorium, extolling all the life lessons and virtues he's learned while being dumped on by popular kids and chasing the prom queen. the room is quiet when he's done speaking, but then someone starts slow-clapping, then someone else, it all builds, and eventually it becomes raucous applause. that is the slow-clap, my friends.
not to be confused with the group jump-hug, but certainly related.
anyhoo, the game got off to a poor, poor start. specifically, thanks to a banged-up shawn chacon (i didn't know this during the game, but apparently he had a significant shin injury, from being tattooed by a mark loretta hit last week), the bombers went down 9-0 and then 10-1 in the early innings.
i feel very strongly that throughout my life i've had a strange talent for attending yankee games wherein the pinstripers - even, nay, particularly- during great seasons, have suffered especially ignominious losses. (my dad has always seemed to take a small bit of pleasure in corroborating this theory, i think on the grounds that he 1) dislikes team sports and 2) still associates the yankees with the crass kids he grew up with in elmhurst. ['the catholic kids liked the yankees, the other jews liked the dodgers. i liked the giants.'])
so i was disappointed but not shocked that this was gonna be another live blowout on my record.
anyhoo again, since the slaughter materialized so quickly, rather than talking of leaving, the three of us decided to settle into better seats, as the stadium was half-empty. we easily moved from our perch in the front row of the upper deck behind right field to a row near the front, by the first base line (high up, but very good vantage pt).
then, the yanks started chipping away. here a run, there a run, etc, until, after a sixth-inning barrage, they took the lead 11-10.
im now gonna curtail my apparent urge to boringly sum up the game. suffice it to say, we were all thrilled and falling all over ourselves when they took the lead, and not a little glad we hadn't left, which we all had thought about doing many times over.
then the lead changed sides a few more times, before jorge posada won the game on a classic, you-dreamed-it-up-in-your-backyard-a-billion-times-as-a-boy, two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth, walk-off two-run shot to the bleachers in right.
needless to say, the place fairly brimmed over with excitement. (we didn't specifically know it then, but we stalwarts had all just witnessed a single-game comeback tied with the greatest ones the yankees had ever pulled off. i doubt anyone there will witness a commensurate game in his/her lifetime.)
here's the pt of the post. when that ball went outta the park, lina, maddy and i started jumping up and down with glee, and we organically melded ourselved into a real spontaneous group jump-hug.
you know what im talking about. something so great happens to a group of people, that they have to hug each other and jump up and down together, as a single ecstatic unit.
thing is, we all agreed that usually these group-jump hugs are somewhat labored, forced or contrived. this was a truly spontaneous and pure group jump-hug. it was very joyous and life-affirming. we were very proud of ourselves for pulling it off, and well we should have been. the transcendent experience was quickly deemed blog-worthy. whoomp here it is.
for a final note, i should mention that the spontaneous group jump-hug is a close cousin of the spontaneous slow-clap - a concept illuminated by my idol, bill simmons (sports guy). you know the slow-clap. it's at the end of a lot of teenager movies, when some high school dork makes a speech to everyone in the school auditorium, extolling all the life lessons and virtues he's learned while being dumped on by popular kids and chasing the prom queen. the room is quiet when he's done speaking, but then someone starts slow-clapping, then someone else, it all builds, and eventually it becomes raucous applause. that is the slow-clap, my friends.
not to be confused with the group jump-hug, but certainly related.
jorge's about to join a major league home plate team jump-hug,perhaps the most skilled, highest-order jump-hug known to man
for posterity: anatomy of a comeback (click on to enlarge)posted by Colby | 1:02 PM
3 Comments:
this one had me grinning ear to ear with a giggle at the end. I have never experience a genuine group-jump-hug or a slow clap, but I am looking forward to the opportunites.
It only got weird when Colby took his shirt off in the middle of it.
. . . and his pants.
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