8/16/2013: baby buck
I have collected what I feel is profound proof that many of the actions I take in life are somehow influencing the entire world around me, including the NY Mets, my favorite sports team.
Before the start of the 2013 season, the Mets acquired catcher John Buck in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays. Buck was an older player and nothing really special but he’s just a placeholder until the Mets' top catching prospect (also received in the trade) comes up to the bigs later in the year:
In April, as the season officially began, I happened to move from Seattle back to Los Angeles. During this month, I spent a TON of money. Between the flying back and forth to check out places, the move itself, buying a bunch of new furniture, a large deposit to secure the apartment, blackout shades installation, etc, I spent more money in one month than I had the previous 12 months combined.
So, as I’m spending all these BUCKS, what was new Met, John BUCK, doing during that period of time? Mr. Buck was putting up a superstar month, unlike any month he’d ever had before during his 10 years in the league. After his first 25 games he was leading all of MLB in home runs (10) and RBI (29).
This was a player at the end of his career (in fact, he would play only 1 more year after this one) who’d never done anything remotely like hitting 10 home runs in a single month. I had a feeling at the time that it was because I was spending a lot of...bucks.
Here are some examples of how it all coincided:
1. On April 8th I would fly to Los Angeles and stay at the Four Seasons. The total charge for my room was over $5000 and for the next few days, I would eat at the most expensive restaurants, get high priced room service, buy top notch champagne, etc. I spent more money on this trip than any previous trip over the last 3+ years.
John Buck happened to hit home runs in 4 consecutive games during THIS EXACT PERIOD (there was no game on the 11th):
The dinner I took my friends out to on April 12th, when he hit one of the home runs (and the Mets won 16-5), was the most I've spent on a meal in years.
(Quickbooks software lists it as the 15th (probably when it posted to my account), but we ate there on the 12th)
Quickbooks entry:
Reservation email:
2. On April 27th, movers move my stuff from Seattle to Los Angeles and it cost me nearly $5000. John Buck hits a home run on that day, as well:
3. Two days later, April 29th, I'm officially in my new place in Los Angeles and proceed to buy a couple new lamps from a high end place. It’s the most I've spent on furniture of any kind in years. $3500 for fucking lamps. John Buck hits a home run:
From the 8th to the 29th of April, John Buck hit 7 home runs during that period and 6 of them coincided perfectly with the events above.
After my month and a half of spending a SHITLOAD, I basically stopped spending money. Buck completely fizzled out and did hardly anything productive for the next 4 months, which just happened to coincide with my frugality. No travel, no more major furniture purchases, etc.
Flash forward to August 16 of the same season. I decided to make a trip to San Diego for the Padres game on Friday night since they are playing the Mets, who are on their once a year West Coast swing. It will officially be my first travel/trip since I moved from Seattle to Los Angeles and it's the first time I will be spending major money on anything since April, which I showed above.
Coinciding with the timing of this trip is some weird story about John Buck's wife expecting a baby. This story has actually been going on for weeks, with Mets fans speculating when “Baby Buck”, the nickname that is constantly being used, would finally arrive.
I mean this whole "when is Baby Buck going to be born???" thing that is constantly on Twitter or on Mets related sites is completely odd. All this fuss being made over some baby being due for this player who has only been on the Mets for 4 months, who is at the end of his career, who isn't some big star, etc. Just complete nonsense. To me, it just seemed coded based on the reality I experience and how I know everything is connected.
Anyway, I make the trip down to San Diego for the game. I pay for the best seats available, dugout 1st row. I book a suite at the best local hotel, I eat an expensive dinner before the game, etc:
A little over an hour before the game, I even decided to go to a “Lids" store and buy a new Mets cap, something I haven't done in years.
After I buy the cap, I began to walk to the baseball park, which is about 20 minutes away. BUT, when I got to the sidewalk outside of the Lids store, IMMEDIATELY, I happen to walk by a big, athletic dude who is wearing headphones and casually walking around the block. I realize instantly that it’s JOHN BUCK.
I think to myself, hmm, that’s weird, why the fuck would John Buck be out walking around town when the game is starting in like an hour? Ballplayers are normally at the stadium at least 4 hours before game time, even if they're not starting in that night's game. But John was definitely supposed to be in the lineup/starting tonight. It didn't make ANY sense.
Well, I found out what the reason was:
Even though that tweet says "8:13pm", it was 5:13pm PST (where I was located) when it was tweeted.
So, Mr. Buck wasn’t even going to be in the game that night and was seemingly just walking around San Diego buying time till his plane left. It all made sense now.
The key to all of this is that he was placed directly in my path so I would see him. This is how my absurd life operates. It wasn’t like I ran into him directly in front of the stadium, where it might make sense. He was specifically planted outside the Lids where I had just bought my Mets cap, an 18 minute walk away from Petco Park:
Here is my email to my friend Mika, right after it happened:
Here’s why I believe this crazy incident happened. I believe that the act of me suddenly spending more money than I had over the previous 3+ months was me spending major “bucks" again, just as I had done in April when John Buck blew up for a single month. This new semi-spending spree of major bucks somehow translated to Buck’s baby finally being born. They even planted him directly in my path right as it was happening.
It’s all metaphoric but somehow related to my actions and the fact that the Mets are so connected to me. It's insane but seemingly really happening.
After this one day trip, I went back to my place in L.A. and back to not spending any more money. John Buck was traded a week later to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
An interesting side note: One of the two Mets players traded for John Buck, at the beginning of this story, was named Josh Thole (he was actually the Mets main catcher at the time before he was swapped for Buck). You can see his name mentioned in that sports article I posted at the top of this entry. A month after I moved into my place in Los Angeles, right after that trade, a new employee would begin working at the building my apartment was in:
SHAZAM! Close enough. Josh Thole. Josh Tohl.
As soon as Josh Thole was not on the Mets anymore, a new form of him was cast into my reality as a non-famous person who was now offering service to me, in some way. Just another mind bending sync that corresponded with all of it.