Guest Post: Janine, of Confessions of a Mommyaholic, on Baseball

photo credit: Starball via photopin (license)

I can count on certain certainties in life.

My daughters’ love.

My Rockies to struggle.

And for Janine Huldie to comment on my blog.

Janine, who writes Confessions of a Mommyaholic, has been a blog and life friend for years. In times when I’ve pondered the health of this blog and of myself, she’s been there to encourage. Unfailingly. Janine embodies the kind of kindness and loyalty that can help sustain you during good times and bad.

Today, she’s here to talk baseball – specifically, how a nice girl from Long Island makes the mistake of giving up her Mets for those dastardly pinstripes – and also her journey back to all things sensible.

Please give her a warm CD welcome.

Courtesy of Janine Huldie

Take Me Out to The Met’s Ball Game…

Tearing into the Christmas paper, I truly didn’t know what to expect.

I surely never thought I would find a personalized jersey from one of my favorite Mets’ players.

But that is just what I found when I ripped open the last of the gifted package from my younger brother.

Staring down at that jersey with tears in my eyes, I could hear my late grandfather’s voice singing, “For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out at the old ball game!”

Still there it was staring back at me–#34 Noah Syndergaard–the Mets’ newest ace pitcher, aka Thor on my own personalized Jersey.

Yup, I was gifted this jersey last Christmas. But there is a pretty neat story that goes behind this one.

Courtesy of Janine Huldie

My brother had been trying to surprise me, but when he finally went to order this jersey on MLB shop online, he found out they were sold out of them only a week before Christmas.

I guess Thor really is that popular. Who’d have guessed it? OK, sarcasm all over this one, as he is most definitely one of the hometown’s favorites having even pitched a flawless World Series start in his rookie year with the Mets.

Many phone calls later, my brother actually was indeed able to secure the jersey for me.

It took a Christmas miracle of sorts with him touching base with one of the workers at Citi Field’s apparel shop to do all she could to get this jersey specially made for me after my brother laid it on the line to explain how much this gift would mean to his sister as I am a Mets’ fan from way back.

I was indeed a Mets’ fan as a kid, because my own beloved grandfather taught me the love of the game and this team specifically.

However, there was a dark time when I was gasp–A Yankee fan, who even attended a ticker tape parade in NYC in the Yankees’ honor!

Courtesy of Janine Huldie

How could that have happened?

I mean the Mets and Yankees are both New York home teams, but anyone who is anyone knows you either root for the Mets or the Yankees – never both, nor do you root for one and then somehow find yourself rooting for the other instead.

But I did just that for a brief respite in the 1990s, when it was the cool and in thing to do.

See the Mets were on a losing streak from the late 1980s on and the Yankees all of a sudden weren’t and actually were also the team not to be beaten.

I was a smart mouth college kid during this time and rebelling against all that I believed in and loved, including the baseball team that I was a major fan of for years.

So, I essentially turned my back on my childhood team and became a front runner for the enemy–the New York Yankees.

Bless his heart, he really let me do all of this without fighting me in hopes that I would see the error of my ways in my own due time, because my grandfather was a patient man who loved me in spite of it all.

My poor grandfather, who was incidentally a Mets fan from the team’s inception in the 1960s despite having been born and raised in the Bronx (the home of the New York Yankees), believe it or not actually took it in stride.

We even had this playful back and forth banter about it, but still his only granddaughter was watching his arch nemesis team on TV, going to Yankee Stadium (a place he swore never to darken his presence at) to see games and even as I said ended up at the very first 1990s world series ticker tape parade.

Bless his heart, he really let me do all of this without fighting me in hopes that I would see the error of my ways in my own due time, because my grandfather was a patient man who loved me in spite of it all.

I wish I could say that I did find my way back while he was still alive, but sadly he passed away before that ever happened.

Don’t get me wrong. After he passed away, I stopped watching baseball altogether as it didn’t feel right to enjoy a sport that I shared with him over the years.

What actually brought me back to my roots and my love of the New York baseball team known for their orange and blue colors?

See by this point, again I wasn’t really rooting for either team.

It actually took meeting my husband, who called me on it pretty early on in our dating.

He was then and still is a Mets fan through and through, who also didn’t mince words.

See by this point, again I wasn’t really rooting for either team. But I had shared that I was a Mets fan who had fallen out of grace subsequently following the Yankees for a few years with him early on in our relationship.

He made sure to playfully bust my chops for this and I remembered thinking, “Who is he for judging me?”

I even told him as much, because I have never been one to back down from a good fight (my grandfather could have totally attested to this).

Part of me was guilty for my former Yankees following and had a bit of my own demons and guilt to deal with. Even though my grandfather never complained, I knew it had to have not been easy to have me turn my back on the team he raised me to know and love.

I am not even sure when it happened exactly, but I finally put those past demons to rest once and for all.

This was a huge part of the reason, I couldn’t even watch a baseball game Mets or Yankees after his death.

But again it was my husband (then boyfriend) who got me to slowly watch baseball and the Mets again.

I am not even sure when it happened exactly, but I finally put those past demons to rest once and for all.

Early in the season last year, we finally took our girls to Citi Field to see their first Mets’ game. Hearing them cheer, “Let’s Go, Met’s Go!” was truly like coming home and somewhere I believe my grandfather was smiling down below that I was passing on the love of the Mets to a new generation with them.

By the way, it was a huge success as even through the rest of the season, as well as post season, my girls watched the games rooting for the boys in blue and orange.

Now, the girls are all set for Mets baseball to finally start up again and just asked us this past weekend if we could go to more Mets games this upcoming baseball season now.

For as my grandfather also would always say, “For it’s root, root, root for the Mets!”

Well, looks like they will get their wish as spring training is just commencing with pitchers and catchers reporting and we also already have tickets purchased to our first game in the regular season, as well.

So, it looks like I will get to wear my Syndergaard jersey as I am once and for all a believer of the boys in orange and blue.

For as my grandfather also would always say, “For it’s root, root, root for the Mets!”

Now, let’s play ball!