On the Wagon

I am a bandwagon jumper, a superficial sports fan and a fair weather friend.  I only follow the Bruins during the playoffs and the Knicks when Lin is in play.  I root for specific people and stories.  It's how I started watching baseball in high school.  Baseball is the one sport that I watch during the regular season.  The slow pace annoys many, but that's exactly what appeals to me.  It's the perfect sport to channel surf or procrastinate to, or to listen to in the background.  As my doctoral cohort will tell you, there's nothing I like better than to do something else while reading the paper.  Baseball allows me to do that.  This week, I was gripped by 2 stories in the news: this and this, both tales of dashed dreams and renewed hopes, ever changing by the hour.  Both have been great fodder for conversations between Father and Me.  China and baseball are our 2nd and 3rd favorite discussion topics.  The first, of course, is Taiwanese pro-athletes who compete in the U.S.  Here's looking at you, Wei-Yin Chen, and a speedy recovery to you, Chien-Ming Wang.  If your country was the size of Maryland, you'd be on their bandwagons, too.