My girl has been visiting her folks up in Vermont this past week and she’s on her way home this afternoon. Em couldn’t wait to watch the World Serious every night, and she educated her mom, dad and sister on the finer points of the game. Every morning I received e-mails from her informing me about how she would surprise herself with how much she knew. The funny part is she wouldn’t have been especially interested in the games if she hadn’t been familiar with at least one of the teams. She doesn’t like the Red Sox, but she knows them better than any other team save the Yankees. And knowing a little something about them, recognizing their faces, means everything to her.

So dig this: she calls me this morning and asks me if I can tape the victory parade for her. Hello? I thought she was joking. But she was dead serious.

“Do you realize what you are asking me to do? Why in the hell do you want to see the Red Sox celebrate?”

“Well, because I’ve never seen a victory parade before and I’m curious.”

“Yeah, but…Honey…Look, it’s not even being televised here in New York.”

Ten minutes later she calls back to say that it’s being broadcast on ESPN News.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not like I’m asking you to watch it or anything. If I could find it up here I’d have my dad tape it for me. I just want to see what it’s like.”

I protested some more. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Finally, I held my tongue (After all, I do want to get laid tonight). I resisted calling her a bad Yankee fan, and all sorts of other nasty things, because well, she can be whatever kind of fan she wants to be. But my god, I was like Ralph Kramden ready to erupt. Brother. The things we do for love.