Saying “I Love You” With Baseball

Sung J. Woo

我的父亲不是个爱表达情感的人，我想我也不是。我为棒球而狂，是纽约大都会队的死忠粉，而我的父亲——他最喜欢的两项运动是高尔夫和钓鱼，虽然在我看来那根本算不上运动。其实，父亲对我来说也只是个“熟悉的陌生人”。他唯一一次陪我打棒球——当他一次次拙劣地用手掌心径直接球时，我甚至难堪得想钻进地缝。直到1985年的那天，纽约大都会在世界大赛上竟出乎意料摘得桂冠。虽然口口声声陪我看球的父亲早已打起盹来，但那又如何呢？我们一起看了这场比赛，而他那沉重的接球声也将永远刻在我的脑海。

Football may be America’s most popular sport, but baseball is still where our hearts lie, especially this weekend when the season starts anew. Back in 1985, my own heart was firmly with the New York Mets1. New York Mets: 纽约大都会队，美国职业棒球大联盟球队之一，隶属于国家联盟东区。. Most of my friends were Yankees fans,which was precisely why this immigrant teenager fell for the Mets:2. Yankees: 纽约扬基队，美国职业棒球大联盟球队之一，隶属于美国联盟东区，是世界上最著名的体育俱乐部之一；immigrant: 移民的；fall for: 迷恋，爱上。They needed my help. They won my loyalty when they lost the division to the St. Louis Cardinals that year, proving once again that misery loves company.3. 然而，他们那年在分区比赛中输给了圣路易斯红雀队，同时也赢得了我的衷心，这再一次证明了什么叫做祸不单行。division: 赛区；St. Louis Cardinals: 圣路易斯红雀队，美国职业棒球大联盟球队之一，隶属于国家联盟中区。

My father, on the other hand, did not care about baseball, and truth be told, I wasn’t entirely certain he cared about me. He’d left South Korea for America when I was a toddler, and seven years passed before my mother, my siblings and I followed him here.4. toddler: 初学走路的孩子；sibling: 兄弟姐妹。By’85 our family had been reunited for four years, so I probably should have known him better. But I didn’t.

The problem was, he didn’t talk much and wasn’t the touchy-feely5. touchy-feely: 过于情感化的。type,and I guess I wasn’t, either. We spent many hours at the Oriental gift shop he owned at the Jersey Shore, where we sold silk kimonos and ceramic vases and trinkets from the Far East.6. Oriental: 东方的；kimono: 和服；ceramic: 陶瓷的；vase: 花瓶；trinket: 小玩意，小装饰物。But that added up to just being in the same place at the same time.7. 但这最多就是我和他在同一个地方、同一个时间里出现。In a way, my father was like a co-worker at a job, a familiar stranger I saw every day.

Two recreational activities8. recreational activity: 娱乐活动。he enjoyed were golfing and fishing, neither of which I considered a real sport. On our days off during the summer, he’d drag the whole family to the piers to fish, and whenever I cast a line, I’d swing the rod like a bat, much to his chagrin.9. 赶上我们夏天休息的时候，他就会带我们一家人去码头海钓，然而每当我抛出鱼线时，我都会把钓竿像棒球杆那样一挥，这让我父亲着实懊恼。pier: 码头；rod: 钓竿；bat:（棒球）球棒；chagrin: 失望，懊恼。Back at the store, I listened to games on my Walkman, oblivious to customers who waved their arms to get my attention.10. Walkman: 日本索尼公司生产的个人随身音乐播放器，后泛指各类随身听；oblivious: 遗忘的，不注意的。

Watching those slick major leaguers turn double plays on television made me want a glove of my own.11. slick: 娴熟的，灵巧的；double play:双杀，指在棒球比赛中一系列连贯防守动作造成两名进攻球员同时出局；glove: 手套。To my surprise, my father said he wanted one, too.

“You?” I asked. “Really?”

“Yes,” he said. He was on the portly side and not exactly graceful, but then again, one of the pitchers on the Mets, Sid Fernandez, was even fatter and threw one heck of a curveball.12. portly: 肥胖的；pitcher: 投手；one heck of a...: 很棒的；curveball: 弧线球。So I thought, Why not?

We bought two gloves, and that evening, he suggested we go out to the courtyard in our apartment complex and toss the ball around.13. apartment complex: 公寓大楼；toss:投掷。I’d already practiced catching and throwing in gym class at school, but I could tell this was a first for my father, because every time he caught the ball, it landed squarely in his palm instead of the webbing.14. squarely: 径直地，不偏不倚地；webbing:（棒球手套）拇指与食指间的、由皮革编织的挡球网。If you’ve ever caught a ball with a baseball glove, you know how much this hurts.

But my father caught ball after ball this way. Slap!15. slap: 啪地击打。Slap! He winced16. wince: 畏缩，退避。.After about five minutes, I told him I’d had enough. It wasn’t out of mercy,but for my own self-interest. Neighborhood kids were watching and would no doubt tease17. tease: 取笑。me later for having an old man who didn’t even know how to properly catch a baseball.

My father took the glove off and shook his left hand. His palm was as red as a beet18. beet: 甜菜根。.

Dad, who passed away 11 years ago, never told me he loved me. But that sound of the baseball landing in the soft flesh of his hand, over and over again—it spoke its own tender language, though at the time, all I felt was shame.

In 1986, the Mets owned the best record in baseball. We squeaked by the Houston Astros’ Mike Scott, he of the gravitydefying split-finger fastball, and then it was on to the World Series.19. 我们险胜休斯敦太空人队，接住了迈克·斯科特那一反地心引力的快速指叉球，然后进入了世界大赛。squeak by: 险胜，侥幸成功；Houston Astros: 休斯敦太空人队，美国职业棒球大联盟球队之一，隶属于美国联盟西区；gravity-defying: 违反地心引力的；split-finger fastball: 快速指叉球，是棒球中的一种球路；World Series: 世界大赛，是美国职棒大联盟每年10月举行的总冠军赛，是美国以及加拿大职业棒球最高等级的赛事。The World Series! I was beyond excited, and then I was beyond inconsolable20. inconsolable: 极度伤心的，无法安慰的。. I watched the first five games of the series alone and I suffered with my team. In a blink, the Boston Red Sox were a win away from taking the title.21. 转眼之间，波士顿红袜队只差一场比赛就能最终摘得桂冠。in a blink: 一眨眼；Boston Red Sox: 波士顿红袜队，美国职业棒球大联盟球队之一，隶属于美国联盟东区；title:桂冠。Saturday would be the sixth game, and even though Saturdays were the busiest days for the store, I had to stay home.

“My team needs me,” I told my parents.

“That’s ridiculous!” my mother said.

“It’s OK,” my father said. “We’ll manage.”

It was 10 at night when my parents returned, exhausted. My mother headed straight for bed, but my father hung around.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“I want to see the game,” he said.

I said nothing. I was mad. I was mad at my parents, for no real reason except that I was an insufferable adolescent and they were often in my field of vision. I was mad because the Mets were losing. And I got madder still when I caught my father nodding off22. nod off: 打盹。. He was falling asleep because it was now past midnight and he’d had a long day, but in that moment, I was so indignant23. indignant: 愤慨的。. My team was one strike away from losing everything, and it felt as if it was his fault.

Then, as we now know, the impossible happened in the bottom of the 10th inning: two runs to tie,24. inning: （棒球的）一局；run: （棒球中的）得分；tie: 打成平局。then the ball rolled between poor Bill Buckner’s legs.

I jumped out of my seat as Ray Knight scampered home for the improbable, ridiculous win.25. scamper: 飞奔；home: （棒球）本垒；improbable: 不大可能的；ridiculous: 荒谬可笑的。My father blinked and clapped26. clap: 拍手。.

It didn’t feel like it at the time, but you know what? We watched that game together.