When things go right

Sometimes, life gives you a second shot at things, and they go just swimmingly. Today was one of those days, to my immeasurable relief.

Today marked Day 2 of singing the national anthem at the Taiwanese All-Star Series! As I mentioned yesterday, the pressure was kind of on since we sucked before; beyond that, today marked the last of the 5 games in the series. In other words, today was our last chance to redeem ourselves as not-too-horrible singers who just had an off day before.

Fortunately, I wasn't the only person who had come to this conclusion, and those with the power to do so took steps to fix the problems we had yesterday. In other words, we actually used our lined-up time to practice, novel thought, and we practiced with a leader, one of the people with an earpiece. Furthermore, said leader actually turned to face us so that we could follow his lips, rather than the echoes of his voices reaching us far too late to do any good whatsoever.

And the results of all this logical-and-not-too-difficult thinking were encouraging: when it came to the actual singing, our voices were neatly corralled into a single strain of song, and that song was almost perfectly aligned with the music everyone else heard. It was absurd and more than a little difficult to follow someone's lips when you can also hear his voice several seconds behind, singing with what sounds like the part of the song you should be on, but it worked!

Our waiting period was infinitely shorter and less eventful, but we did have a false alarm and several quasi-exciting moments. Walking back from the bathroom, I passed a tall, fit black man in a Yankees jersey; turning around I spied the number 24 on his jersey. I smiled at him and ran back to the press room where we were waiting then.

"You guys, who is number 24 for the Yankees?" (Clearly, my MLB knowledge is in desperate need of an update.)

They turned to look at me, and Emily (one of the biggest Yankees fans I've ever met) was quick to the answer: "Robinson Cano."

"Is he a big black guy?" (Really, how did I get into this event?)

"YES!" Emily disappears into the hallway, closely followed by Brittany, Rachel and I--to discover that is was just a Yankee manager who happened to be wearing Cano's jersey number. Oh well.

In the tunnel going in, we once again got to see Screech (Nationals' mascot) and his sidekick, and once again got to see Kaohsiung's mayor--but none of the pictures I took of these instances are even remotely good enough to post on here, thanks to my I'll-just-hold-the-camera-and-click-it-without-looking-when-they-come-past strategy. On the plus side, I got to high-5 all of those people! On the negative, no viable proof of this exists; just half of them walking into my photo frame.

What I did get this time, though, was pictures of the field from as we were leaving!

Then, while walking back to get our stuff, we were halted in the hallway so that the entire Taiwanese team could pass in front of us. So, there's that--at the front of the line, I got to see pretty much everyone just a few feet away.

We soon realized that the tickets they'd given us were for the outfield seats which, while we could live with the location, did not actually exist. No reserved seating in the cheap seats + popular game + trying to find seats late + group of 6 people = nowhere whatsoever to sit. So we improvised and bluffed our way back into the lower level of the stadium, then climbed up till we found a row of empty seats above the first baseline where we could sit.

Then, of course, came the game, which was pretty great--Robinson Cano hit a home run, and the MLB team ended up winning 6-4, cementing their series-long winning streak. We had some yummy food (ENTIRELY different from US baseball food; aside from my Coke, I had fried chicken and fries eaten out of paper bags using a wooden skewer and an iced tea--and those were way on the tame side of the food stand offerings in the foyer), bought some merchandise (official T-shirts, and a Mariners hat for me, since I somehow left Seattle without buying one...), and enjoyed the game.

Then, as the last inning came to a close, came the real excitement.

The KAS adult leaders had told us to meet them down on the field level after the game for a chance to meet the players; Red Sox player Josh Reddick's dad had spent about an hour chatting with them before the game, and had promised to see what he could do about getting us in to meet people.

Well, that never happened. BUT, as we stood along the hallway across from the press conference room (and once again, incidentally, were reminded of how annoying high schoolers can be in important situations), along came Robinson Cano for his press conference! Hearts stopped all along our line, and he waved to Emily before going into the room and leaving us to anxiously await his return while griping about the photographers and others who were blocking our view through the windows.

This is not zoomed in at all.

Eventually he emerged, along with the World Series-winning coach of the San Francisco Giants (who unfortunately eluded our cameras in our obsession with the major league superstar mere feet away), and announced that he would sign autographs for five minutes. His managers and security personnel told us, anyway, and asked us to form a line.

Let's see. Take over-excitable high schoolers in Taiwan, add a celebrity and the chance to meet said celebrity, and then ask them to form a single file line. Yeah, that turned out exactly as well as you would expect it to.

Into the press, though, Mr. Cano's dad, Jose Cano (who used to play pro baseball in Taiwan), came walking and selecting people to come to the front of the line. He was looking for kids initially, then grabbed Emily: "come," then me: "stay," then Rachel: "come," then one of the high schoolers standing nearby: "definitely come." And I regretted that I had left my Mariners hat upon my head.

Eventually I did make it to the front of the line, though, and he neatly signed my baseball and handed it back to the security guard to his right, who then passed it back to me. I stared down at my hand for a second, then realized I was still less than five feet from him and whipped out my camera.

We turned to leave, abandoning the possibility of KAS connections eventually coming through because, really, who could top Cano?

And that's when I discovered JUST how amazing our group's interaction with Cano had been.

Emily was wearing a hat. Emily had not been wearing a hat when she entered the stadium. Nor had she purchased one from the hawkers upstairs. No, the hat she was wearing was Robinson Cano's hat.

As we left, she explained: after she had gotten her shirt signed (which itself happened after he went to sign the Yankees jersey she was wearing and stopped when he realized that it was Jeter's, not his), she turned to go, and felt something alighting on her head. She turned around and he nodded to her, hatless. There were tears in her eyes as we left, and we spent a good portion of the ride home asking her to tell us more details, and passing it around before she returned it, probably never to leave again, to her head.

Plenty of people can claim to have Cano's autograph. But how many can claim to have the hat he used in the final game of the Taiwan All-Star Series, in which he hit a home run? That would be one: Emily.

We returned home with our prizes, still beyond jazzed at our wonderful day.

"Once in a lifetime" can't quite contain the events of today, especially when held in conjunction with the events of yesterday. To be honest, it can't contain any of the events of this year for me. They just spill over, one into the next, and create a world which I really can't believe I'm living in. I am truly blessed; every day I live here in Taiwan reminds of this truth. Especially days when things just go right.