I utterly and completely screwed up.

As you may have noted from my last post, I woke up in Michigan this morning.

So did Jim Thome and the rest of the Minnesota Twins as they were scheduled to play the Tigers tonight.  A few weeks ago, I realized this was going to happen, and thought about changing my flight so I could go.  But then I was feeling cheap and didn’t do it.

Fast forward to a few hours ago… Thome is entering the game with 598 homeruns.  I am just getting out of the San Francisco airport.  (As an aside, thanks, broken SFO conveyor belt, for making me miss the beginning of the game.)  Eventually I get home to discover that Delmon Young is batting for the Tigers… I check twinkietown.com and discover that he was traded while I was on the plane for a couple of minor league prospects.

Bummer, I think to myself, it would have been fun to see Delmon go to the other dugout.

Then Thome gets up to bat with the score tied at 3 and Jason Kubel already on base… and he hits career homerun 599.

Dang it, I say to myself, I should have stayed in Michigan.  I also call my dad and say this to him and my sister.  While we’re on the phone, Ben Revere nearly hits an inside the park homerun but is thrown out at the plate.  Eventually we hang up.

Then, Jim Thome comes up again with two runners on and the score at 6-5 Twins with runners on the corners.  BOOM… he hits number 600, the first guy in history to hit 599 and 600 in back to back at bats.  (Ruth did it with only a single homerless at bat in between.)

#$%%$^%&^#$#@, I say to myself, I really should have been at this game.  And then the phone rings with my Dad’s customized ring, which happens to be the Twins theme song.  I briefly consider just listening to the song and not answering, but I don’t.

And I am given crap for not being there.  Which I deserve.  But I hang up on him anyway.

Congrats, Jimmers… I really should have been there.