Sixteen years ago, I snuck away from home on a school night to attend my first Yankees game because a classmate told me he had an extra ticket. When I asked for permission, my parent said something to the effect of “hell no,” but back then, there was still such thing as ‘opposite day’ so I went regardless of whether or not my parents approved. I didn’t think too much about the punishment during the game, just tried to take it all in cause it was pretty magical for a 13 year old. I got home slightly after midnight and the living room light was on the moment I opened the door. I knew my Nintendo was probably going to get smashed with a hammer, amongst whatever other punishment my parents had already thought up. I don’t really remember how long I was grounded, all I remember was Dwight Gooden pitching a no hitter, and to date, it was the greatest sporting event I’ve ever attended. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life going to live sporting events that’ll never live up to that brisk May evening in 1996, but I hope other kids get to experience what I did in their respective generations. While Junior Dos Santos can’t promise he’s going to deliver a performance like Dwight Gooden did for me, he has brought along a boy from his gym who’s dream was to come to America and watch him defend his belt at UFC 146. I could go on telling you about this, but there’s a video approximately three inches below this sentence that picks up where this irrelevant writing leaves off.
