Coming Home

 

I love the song “Coming Home” by P-Diddy. When it came out, I had to listen to it every day, without fail, because it was so catchy. And the lyrics send a strong message- the man just wants to go home.

Well apparently LeBron James feels the same way, because today he announced in what is known as “The Decision 2” that he would return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. HUGE announcement in the NBA and the whole world, as most had expected LeBron to go back to Miami, and a whole week of conspiracy theories, media reports, and “inside sources revealed” went on. But I think the main message LeBron wanted to convey, as titled by his letter to the world, was that he was “coming home.” More than the money, more than the new teammates, more than the championships, more than the fame and sense of importance he got from delaying his decision and holding the media hostage this whole week, it was about LeBron wanting to come home to the city that he had shunned four years ago and get back to where he was from. Anybody who’s ever had a home can relate: no matter how dysfunctional your family can be, no matter how many arguments you get in to, no matter how many old worn-out factories align your home as to make it unsightly, family is family, and there might not be a greater feeling in the world to be at home with one’s family, as it appears LeBron is quite the family man as well, mentioning his wife, 3^rd kid on the way, and mother. So I’m glad that LeBron’s coming home. I would like to know, though, how many times his letter to the world was proofread to make sure it didn’t contain the words “my talents.”  

I like to go home because I see my parents and my family. As a 27-year-old man (just a little younger than LeBron), it’s somewhat prohibitive to do so, and the conventional wisdom would be that I am independent person now, I should break free from my parents, but personally I think, depending on the circumstances, you can have your cake and eat it too. I live separately, I have a job, I drive (and pay for) my own car, I basically am independent, but I happen to live in a city close to my parents, so every other weekend or so I drive back there and see the folks, see my grandpa, see my sister. I see nothing wrong with this. Not to toot my own horn, but my primary motivation isn’t to go back and leech off my parents, although the laundry and food is free and high quality, but it’s more for them as well, to spend time with them now that I can actually engage in intelligent conversation and not be the rebellious teenager I was when I left for college. Once I get married, have my own family, these visits will be less frequent, and I really don’t know when my late-50’s parents or my late-80’s grandfather will have to move on (so far, very lucky that they’ve all been relatively healthy), so I’m taking this time to establish memories, make my presence known for as long as possible. And who knows how long I’ll be in this city. We can only control the present, and for now, I look forward to “coming home” as much as possible. (Cue P-Diddy song and video montage)

I was occasionally going to wax poetically about death and how death affects the way I live my life, but I’ll summarize: Death is scary. There’s no other way to describe it. I’ve heard an interesting quote that “Kids’ parents invented the Gods to allow their children to fall asleep at night.” Regardless of whether this is true or not, the point is taken: Everyone thinks about death and their own mortality. Personally, I’ve been deathly scared of death (get it?) since I was 5 years old. Every time I think about it, despite trying not to think about it, I get chills down my spine. It’s terrifying, but also a reminder that those great moments in life are so precious.

 

Which is also why I need to win my fantasy baseball league this year. Personal favorite fantasy baseball player right now: Lucas Duda. Man has a home now in the cleanup position of the Mets’ lineup, has consistently mashed just south of .900 OPS against righties, and has the first base job all to himself. A big 2^nd half is coming; the Dude will Abide.

I might be completely wrong on this, but I do think Yu Darvish will be shut down sometime in September. The Rangers are going nowhere, Yu gets these little nicks sometimes like neck injuries and getting hit in the head, I think the Rangers will protect their investment and find a reason to shut him down towards the end of the season. Other shutdown candidates that would seriously effect your fantasy season: David Ortiz if the Red Sox are out of it (he’s quite old now), Joey Votto if his injury persists, a bunch of Yankees, a bunch of Padres (none of them are really fantasy relevant though)

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan