I apologize to regular readers for my Joel Zumaya-like track
record of comebacks and delays in regards to writing about baseball. After
several years of this, it still feels weird to me that other people actually
enjoy my idiotic ramblings. So thank you. But my recent personal rough patch
just got taken to another level with the shocking death the other day of one of
my best friends in the world.
Look for this site to pick back up around Spring Training. I
wanted to give those of you that check here daily a heads up. I just don’t have
it in me right now to do this for a while. Thank you and I’ll see you in a
couple months.
The following is for me. Read on, if you want. But I
understand if you don’t. I just feel the need to put these thoughts out there
for my own peace of mind. I need to pay tribute to a friend. Jerks have hearts
too, you know.
A good buddy of mine likes to refer to me as “an acquired
taste”. I tend to come off cranky and mean oftentimes, I guess. Thus, while I’m
happy to have so many good people as friends in my life, there are only a very
small handful of them that I really consider close to me. I could probably
count them on one hand and still have fingers left to both scratch my ass and
flip off a White Sox fan with. My friend Tyna, pictured above with goofball ‘ol
me at a game last season, was one of those few folks.
We became fast friends through work around fifteen years
ago. Over that time, we were housemates for a couple years and I don’t remember
us getting into one fight in the entire time we knew each other. We became so
close that she could tell how near I was to laundry day just based on whatever
I was wearing on any particular afternoon. We knew what the other was thinking
without saying a word. As an only child, she became the closest thing I’ve ever
known to a having a sister.
She shared my love of baseball and took particular glee in
trying to get me to laugh all the time. I don’t really laugh easily and Tyna
was one that was always trying to crack me. My explanation to her that she
wasn’t very funny just made her try harder. And when she was successful, she’d
celebrate like an NFL wide receiver scoring a touchdown while I would pretend
to be mad and call her names. In reality, she was one of the funniest people
I’ve ever known and we shared a similar twisted sense of humor. We did not,
however, share her weird infatuation with former gigantic MLB first baseman Richie
Sexson that I never quite understood.
She also loved to mock me for being color blind and that my
outfits often didn’t match. We sometimes had a stupid voice that we’d talk to
each other in that made others just shake their head. I can think of half a
dozen odd inside jokes off the top of my head that we shared. Yet I can’t think
of one that I share with anyone else.
In recent years, we didn’t see each other as much due to a
variety of reasons. But we talked usually at least once every week or two. She
would tell me stories of the odd cast of characters in her life and I’d do the
same with her. We’d exchange stupid texts all the time trying to make the other
laugh. Her being only two months older than me, I looked forward to a long life
of us being friends. Of our kids becoming friends. All that good stuff.
Then she died the other day. Out of the blue. Cardiac arrest
leading to other complications. We still don’t know what caused it. All I know
is my friend is gone. And it’s tearing me apart. I’ve never had a close friend
pass away before. My heart goes out to those of you that have.
Her funeral is this Thursday and I’m going to be one of the
pall bearers. I’m honored that her family asked me to do so. If anyone reading
this is the kind of person that likes to send out prayers or kind thoughts,
focus them on those poor people in her family, not me. Tyna’s mom died just
three months ago. Her father and sister were still learning to deal with their
grief over that when this tragedy happened. This is all breaking my heart, not
only due to my closeness with her, but because they are such good people and
don’t deserve this. Neither do her beautiful four year old son or her
boyfriend, who like me, doesn’t seem to own a piece of clothing without an Old
English D on it. Life is a motherfucker sometimes. No one deserves this.
Thank you for being in my life, Tyna. You brought it more
joy than you ever knew. I’m a better person for knowing you, as well. I’ll love
you and cherish your memory until the day I die. And I promise to try and wear
matching clothes to your funeral. Granted, I’ll probably fail without you to
correct me and call me a dipshit afterwards.
Anyone still reading this, please do me a favor. It’s going
to be cheesy, but help a brother out. Think of someone in your life that you
really care about. Now go find that person in the next day or two, give them a
big hug, and tell them you love them. Because they could be taken away from you
in an instant. And when they ask what that was all about, tell them “Fuck you,
that’s why.”
This way, I’ll have an inside joke with the lot of you now.
I think Tyna would get a kick out of that.
Take care of yourselves. Seeya in the Spring.
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