18 July 2008

Invisibility Cloak


Just got back from New York, and in case anyone was wondering, I'm not making any of this up. We like to get out and about when we're in the city, so the first night we went to the mega Bon Jovi concert in Central Park. My son wore a white shirt with the Red D*Backs lettering. The next day we mostly hung out in Times Square and saw a show. The third night, my son wore a red D*backs shirt as we wedged ourselves into an incredibly crowded '4' train uptown to Yankee Stadium, where we watched the Home Run Derby, with tens of thousands of Yankee fans and Baseball enablers.

I mention the shirts because in all that time, crossing paths with hundreds of thousands of people, not one New Yorker remarked about the Dback logos. Not one. As far as I can tell, no one even gave my kid so much as a look. Boy, was he disappointed. I'm not sure what it means, exactly, but thought it was all the more fascinating since on our last day, we hung out at the Gershwin Theatre for half an hour, trying to resell some tickets, and the people we sold them to, immediately remarked about my son's shirt, which on that day happened to sport the name and logo of the Phoenix high school he'll be entering this fall.

Maybe the biggest baseball city in the world didnt bother to look closely, and assumed my kid was in an Iron Butterfly shirt, but in any case, this identity problem that Derrick Hall and I talked about, doesnt appear to be going away anytime soon.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back.Although I'd sort of got used to reading-"Big Brown accelerates like Deion Sanders" and I will miss it.

Glynnjamin said...

Good god, I thought this website was on the DL like half our roster. Thanks for joining us.

In June 2007, my wife and I went to NYC for a Dbacks' games against the Yankees. While we were only there a for a day and a half, we received a fair amount of criticism for our Dbacks gear. Once we got to the game, I was thrown into a knock down drag out brawl with a drunken Yankees fan implying some not so nice things about myself and the Dbacks. All in all, NYers were light-hearted and friendly. Yankee fans, on the other hand, should be inside the stadium when it is torn down.

I think it is just easier for Yankee fans (the ones who like to curse and be rude) to act out against adults rather than kids. Generally speaking, a 13 year old with a Red Sox cap could probably sit through a Yankees game without too many people saying anything to him.

Anonymous said...

Welcome, bienvenue, bienvenidos, huanyin guanlin, Matt. I don't think it had much to do with the shirt to be honest. When I was in New York last summer, I was on the subway (a full car during rush hour) when a somewhat delirious man pulled down his pants and started touching himself inappropriately. No one flinched. No one screamed, yelled, gasped, nothing. Everyone on the car went about their newspapers, books, iPods as usual. It must be a New York thang.

Anonymous said...

Russell,
Thanks. That line will be available in archives shortly (for a nominal retrieval fee), if you care to revisit it.

G,
I'm sure this "knock down drag out brawl" had everything to do with your Dbax gear and nothing to do with your personality ;-)

I will concede the Derby likely had more of an inclusive, festival atmosphere than a direct NYY/Dbacks tilt, although our stands were still dominated by NYY fans/shirts.

In my experience, young teens (boys anyway)in visiting garb are targeted for plenty of verbal grief inside Yankee & Shea. Besides, my 14 yr old is 6'2", 170 lbs and has a mustache - not exactly off limits to most Bronx warblers, if any of them deciphered the logo or actually gave a crap.

J,
The first thing crazy people learn on the NY subway is to at least keep their hands to themselves. Nutjobs who touch other people are weeded out via natural selection.

Michael Norton said...

Well look what the dog barfed up and the cat drug in! Welcome back, although I concur with Russell, I'm going to miss the Big Brown post.

I dunno about the shirt thing, though. I was remarking to my son the other day that I've never been to NYC when I didn't see someone on the streets in a Superman suit.

Michael Norton
Some Clubhouse

Anonymous said...

Small world.

Spied a nerd in a Superman getup on Saturday, as a matter of fact. Am in San Diego, and got dragged to some giant dork convention called ComicCon.

Anonymous said...

(Whispering)---Uh,Jeff. That was MATT on the subway.
Why do you think his blog's been inactive all this time? He got busted for indecent exposure AGAIN!! And the NY jails aren't country clubs like in Arizona; no internet access. I suppose that's why no one blinked at the admission of ticket scalping. It's the least of his crimes.
I've seen some stuff on trains--- fights; homeless women begging for money and spitting on the person who told her to get off drugs; but the most memorable was the homeless guy who took off his shoes and socks and reveled in the disgusted reactions of the other passengers to the stench of his repuslive feet.
If your son's that big, teach that boy to pitch Matt. Please tell me he's lefty. If so, you'll have a big leaguer on your hands. $$$$$

Anonymous said...

The current state of your blog reminds me of Pete Seeger's:

Where have all the flowers gone?

So much has happened in baseball the last two months... and now Dunn is a Dback!?! I just wonder when the vacation will be over?

Forgive me if I'm not being sensitive to whatever might be holding you back, Matt. I really don't know and it's none of my business.

Just wanted to let you know that you (and your posts) are missed.