Crimson & Clover

The Dodgers Game

"Guess what day it is?" Tom asked me as he read the morning paper.

"Thursday?"

"Ya but what else is it today?"

"I give up."

"It's exactly one year ago today when you were sort of fired from Big Al's."

I put down my cup of coffee and thought about it for a second as I glanced at the date on the Los Angeles Times. Tom was absolutely right. Coming to think of it, this day should be some sort of a national holiday for myself. That was the day when I got my 1964 Thunderbird.

"There was only one thing wrong about that day," continued Tom. "We never did get to go to the ballgame."

"That's because we went out that night," I reminded him.

Tom looked up from the sports section. "Wait a minute, wasn't that the night when you met Betty?" he asked.

Tom must be part woman I concluded. No guy remembers dates that well.

"It was," I answered

"Well if you and Betty don't have any plans tonight, I have four pretty decent tickets to the Dodgers game. What about it, you, me, Julie and Betty?"

"I suppose I should ask Betty first but it sounds great to me," and then a thought occurred to me, I had completely forgotten that today was the anniversary of the first day we met. I'm sure Betty remembered, I thought to myself, after all, Betty was one hundred percent woman.

I always wondered why I had such an affinity for the Dodgers. It could have been because Tom always took Adam to see them when they were kids but they also went to a ton of Lakers games and today I couldn't care less for them. No, I really believe that my love for the Dodgers was because of this one night and the memories that came with it.

Betty, as it turned out, couldn't come tonight; she was under the weather. Strangely enough she hadn't remembered that today was our anniversary either and I wasn't about to remind her.

"Would it be alright if I took Billy instead?" I asked her in the living room.

"Really?" she asked surprised. "I'm sure he'd love that." 

"I'm going to the ballgame!" Billy's voice could be heard screaming from the kitchen. He had heard us.

"Adam, watch out for him," she said to me nervously. "He's never been to a ballgame before."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked her, surprised by the revelation and then I remembered he didn't have a father and his grandparents didn't seem the type to go to a sporting event unless they were going with clients. This was sure going to be fun, for both of us. "You have nothing to worry about. Billy is safe with me."

"Hey Adam, where's Billy?" Tom asked as we headed for our seat.

I turned around, Billy was nowhere in sight, lost in the mix of the thousands of people squishing their way through the concrete hallway.
I backtracked through the crowd, recklessly pushing my way in the opposite direction of the mass of people. Tom and Julie followed behind in my wake.

"Billy!" I called out in a panic. "Billy, where are you!"

"How could lose him," Julie asked me. "He was with you just a second ago. How can you be so irresponsible?"

In my head I was thinking to myself, is this questioning really going to me help me find him? Why is it that in times of crisis women seem more interested in handing out blame than on finding a solution? Know I know why God made women so darn beautiful. If they weren't then they could never attract a guy. What self respecting man would stay with a woman that was ugly, and a nag? I suppose it would have to be guy that was even uglier than his woman.