Yankees Time

I’ve been watching Yankees post-season exploits since the middle 1950s. I can safely say that it’s a lot easier watching the Yankees pursue another championship in retirement, with no school or job to rush home from, or to wake up early for. Games can be watched guilt-free, without a care as to when they start or finish.

The only drawback, aside from when they lose a game or heaven forbid, a series, is that there’s no one around to talk with the next day about the game. Gilda tries to display interest while the game is on, but often she’s asleep before it is over. Yes, I could reach out and call friends to bond over superlative performances or strategies gone astray, or blown calls by umpires, and sometimes I do, but it’s not the same as a face-to-face rehash of the highlights and lowlights of a game.

That’s the thing with retirement, forced or chosen. You miss the physical social interaction with others. For someone who follows sports, or new movies or plays, or anything that is public, like a presidential press conference or a captivating news story, being alone all day is challenging. When I worked, I rarely spent more than 30 or 40 minutes at a given task before requiring a break, a walkabout to gossip with staff or other associates.

This is not about home-alone loneliness. You can be working in a company and lonely just as easily as when you’re home alone. Yes, there are days that run longer than others. But they are thankfully few and far between. As long as the Yankees keep winning, excitement runs high. And when the season is finally over, the championship is won (eternal optimist that I am), there's always the rest of the football and hockey seasons to keep me occupied until next spring's baseball begins anew.