Thinking about the Yankees playing the Twins always takes me back. Not always to the game itself, you know? More like, stuff that happened around that time.
I remember this one time, years ago. Me and this guy I worked with, let’s call him Dave. We were all set to go see the Yankees. Might have been against the Twins, might not, doesn’t really matter. Point is, we talked about it for weeks. Big plans.
So, I went ahead, did my part. I looked up the tickets. Found some decent seats, not too crazy expensive. I sorted through a bunch of options online, checked the stadium map view, the whole deal. Sent Dave the details. He was all “Yeah, looks great, grab ’em!” So, I did. I pulled out my wallet, put my card down online, waited for the confirmation page, got the confirmation email. Forwarded it straight to him. All good, right? Wrong.
Game day comes closer. Maybe a week out. I needed to figure out logistics, meeting up, all that. I asked Dave about getting the money for his ticket too. Suddenly, it’s radio silence. Like, complete ghosting. I sent a text message. Read receipt, no reply. Nothing. Sent another one a couple days later. Still nothing. Tried calling him at work, got his voicemail. Left a message. Tried his desk line, his colleague said he was “in a meeting”. Every single time. Total crap.
So now I’m sitting here with two tickets I paid for. I’d already told my wife I was going out that night, arranged stuff around it. I felt like a real idiot. What do you even do then? Just let the ticket go to waste?
What I Ended Up Doing
I thought about just eating the cost for his ticket. Just go alone. Then I thought, screw that. And definitely screw Dave. I wasn’t gonna let him ruin the whole thing just because he couldn’t be bothered.
I called up my brother instead. Just picked up the phone, dialed his number. Asked him if he was free that night, totally last minute. He was surprised but said yeah, he could make it. So, I told him I had an extra ticket, explained quickly what happened without getting into too much detail. He was in. So, I took him. We went to the game. Had a blast, actually. Grabbed some beers, some hot dogs. Talked the whole time. Way better than going with flaky Dave would have been, I bet.
Saw Dave at work the next week. He walked right past my desk. Acted like nothing happened. Just a casual “Hey, how’s it going?”. Didn’t mention the game, the tickets, the money, nothing. I just looked at him. I didn’t bring it up either. What’s the point? You just learn about people, you know? Some people are just all talk. You make plans, you put in the effort, you follow through, and they just… disappear or pretend it never happened.
So yeah, Yankees vs. Twins. Makes me think about that whole thing. Makes me think about who you can actually count on, who actually does what they say they’ll do. Not Dave, that’s for sure. Haven’t made plans with him since. Learned that lesson the hard way, paid for it upfront, literally.
