They shouldn’t have been that shocked: after all, I was wearing a Red Sox batting helmet when the all-day meeting started. In fact, I had been wearing it for a month; it was a tight race.

I was certain that I would be fired, and didn’t care. I have my priorities. (GU Law Center Dean Dave McCarthy saved my job, saying, in essence, “Jack is unusual, but he’s what I need, and he makes me laugh.” That was the same explanation Jessica Rabbit gave for why she was married to Roger.)

I thought then that I could take pride in the fact that I still had the passions of a 12-year-old, and I guess I should take solace now that I still think like that 28-year-old. (Yeah, it’s a rationalization, but I like it.)

2. How baseball teaches us about character and life: Imagine. Today’s starting pitcher for the Red Sox is rookie Peyton Tolle. The Yankees are already huge favorites, and the winner of Game #1 in a 3 game play-off usually takes the series (although Boston won Game #1 last season and still lost…) Tolle is already a rising folk hero in Boston because of his sheer presence, his exuberance, his child-like joy in playing a kid’s game, and quirks like doing push-ups on the mound mid-game and affectionately hugging an opposing player while tagging him out….and because he’s been really, really good.

If Tolle wins tonight (he’s facing the certain Cy Young winner, Cam Schlitter, who has had a Sandy Koufax-like season) he’ll be on the way to legendary status in Boston, Curt Schilling/David Ortiz/Dave Roberts immortality. But if he loses, and especially if he loses badly and the Yankees go on to sweep, he’ll be facing consignment to Red Sox Hell with Mike Torrez (who gave up Dent’s cheapie homer), Denny Galehouse (The “surprise” starting pitcher who lost the one game play-off for the AL pennant in 1948), the idiot Sox manager (He Who Must Not Be Named) who inexplicably left a spent Pedro Martinez in the final game of the 2003 ALCS to lose to the Yankees, and, of course, poor Bill Buckner.

How many of us ever face a Fate crossroads like this in our lives, much less at 23? Will Tolle rise to the occasion, galvanized by the pressure and the fact that Red Sox Nation has their hopes depending on him? Will he “choke,” crushed by the burden of those hopes and the import of the game to the rest of his career, indeed his reputation, legacy and life?

All I can say is that I hope he has memorized my father’s favorite poem, “If,” or at least has it handy. It gave the Major inspiration and comfort during his often chaotic life, and I have recently found refuge in Mr. Kipling’s wisdom myself. Tolle’s perilous moment under the public microscope and how he responds, both during the game and after it, epitomizes why sports is so vital to the culture, and also why baseball and my life-long journey with the Boston Red Sox have shaped so many of my perspectives and values.