Thursday, February 16, 2012

A MONTREALER PAYS TRIBUTE TO GARY CARTER.

Years ago, years before I ever imagined I’d be writing about baseball, my friend Steph in Montreal was writing about it all the time on her web site. She wasn’t a baseball blogger, she just wrote about her life, and her life involved baseball - a lot of it. She would write about going to games with her dad and by herself and about the Expos coming into the restaurant where she worked, and at the end, the very end, she was writing editorials and letters to the editor about why the Expos should stay in Montreal. She was a huge inspiration to me and metsgrrl.com and was the first person I thought of today when we heard the sad news about Gary Carter.

Well, the day has arrived. The day where the scab on the pain of losing my team, the Expos, always threatening to fall free, is ripped off entirely. The twist in my stomach and tears in my eyes because Gary Carter, more affectionately The Kid, #8, lost his battle to cancer today.

When Caryn asked me if I wanted to say anything about this, I felt myself cringe. Would it be right for me to pay homage to a man who in absolute all honesty has been on my shit list since it was revealed he was questioning entering the hall as an Expo when his time came? Should it be me to bring to mind his greatness when the last few times I pumped my fist in the air toward Carter it was the fabulous emotional cocktail of anger spiked with betrayal?

But here I am writing. Because, of course saddened when I followed the stories in the Gazette of the tumours spreading and worsening, robbing him of his life piece by piece, I didn’t realize what would happen when this inevitable end came. And it’s this: I forgive him. No, I more than forgive him. I completely forget about it, who cares, you were an Expo AND a Met, it was me, not you, Gary. I’m so sorry.