I was in Saudi Arabia for the Brunansky catch. I’m not sure when I found out about it. I do recall that someone had a copy of SI about Clemens going berserk in the playoffs.

Best sports moment came for me in a soccer game during high school. I was playing defense and the goalie got pulled out of the box real far and a ball started slowly rolling toward the goal mouth. I was able to catch it but the only way I could actually stop the ball from scoring a goal was to grab the ball as if I was the goalie. Of course this was a no-no but I did stop the goal. It also caused quite an uproar with the other team and referee. I wound up with a yellow card (unsportsmanlike conduct I guess) and the team got a penalty kick. Of course you know the result — they made the penalty kick. But wait, no! We had the referee rattled and conveniently pointed out the fact that an opposing player was offsides during the penalty kick so the penalty kick was nullified and done again. The second time they really did miss. You’d have thought we won the World Series the way we celebrated. Probably the highlight of my soccer career (I hung up my spikes after this season). Also a memorable season as we imitated the 2008 Detroit Lions and lost every game by a comfortable margin. But I had my moment in the sun.

Just yesterday I was going through an old box of t-shirts. Found my Greenwell. It was a large. So I set it aside to wear to Fenway this year. I should be the only one. I still have my “Gator Country” poster, too, and I still say it kicks the crap out of that Mattingly “Hit Man” one.

Like Josh, I live in Chicago and, from a few of his entries, I’ve also realized that we both live in the same neighborhood. In the George Brett entry from the 16th, he described the bitter cold snap that we were suffering that week. That Thursday, the coldest day, I got home from work and resolved not to set foot outside that evening. Unfortunately, I later realized that I had an overdue DVD, Pineapple Express, that I needed to return. So I put on about four layers, wrapped an enormous scarf around my face and set off for the video store. Though it’s a fairly short walk to Division and Damen, I regretted the decision to leave the house after about three minutes as my beard had begun to freeze, despite the scarf.

After returning the movie, I looked up at the digital bank clock across the parking lot, saw that it read ‘-12 F’, and said, out loud, “I am a f***ing moron”.

I didn’t check cardboardgods until the following Monday but I could barely believe the similarity…same movie, almost certainly the same store, same day, same bank clock noted. Strange, huh?

Being at one with the moment expressing freely – pure love that resonates from a corner of the core of your being.

I savor these times.