Frederick Family photo. Henry Frederick attends a Yankees game in the Bronx with his son, Henry IV, then 5 years old on April 27, 1996. Little Henry is now 16.
Sera and I finally had a chance to put the New Smyrna Beach elections aside and enjoy the World Series game with the New York Yankees winning their 27th World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Sera and I are big sports fans and tonight we finally were able to just sit back and relax. Sports is a great distraction from the daily grind of life because life is so much like sports. You have winners and losers.
And in life, it really does matter how you play the game as was evidenced in Tuesday night's election for two newcomers -- Zone 1 Commissioner-Elect Judy Reiker and Mayor-Elect Adam Barringer.
Many years have passed since I was last in the old Yankee Stadium, which was torn down to make way for the new Yankee Stadium just across the street.
I have a lot of memories living in suburban New York from 1989 to 1995, before moving to Florida. My son was born in Nyack, N.Y., and I had my first major reporting job covering cops and courts for the Journal-News of Rockland and Westchester Counties.
One of my favorite stories there was of a hot dog vendor who found a neatly severed head, arms and torso in sealed clear plastic bags at an overlook to the Hudson River. Those were the days of really cool stories and running with the pack media, which might help explain to some locals why I am so agressive in my reporting.
This past year, Sera and I got married in April and we bought season tickets to the Tampa Rays. As much as we tried to become fans of the Rays, it was hard with the likes of the Boston Red Sox, the team I grew up with, and the Yankees, the team I switched over to when my son was born in 1990, to root for the Florida team, even though the Rays made it to the World Series last year.
The great thing about sports is you may be the prohibitive favorite at the beginning of the season, but you still have to play the games. Just ask the Yankees about the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Florida Marlins earlier this decade.
So what if the Yankees went out and paid $300 million-plus for Mark Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. So what if the Yankees had a nucleus of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte. So what if the Yankees have arguably the best player in baseball in Alex Rodriguez.
The unlikeliest of heroes emerged in this World Series with Hideki Matsui being named the most valuable player for the Yankees.
Ok. The World Series is done. It's back to work providing greater New Smyrna Beach with the most intense media coverage as we demonstrated on election night. It's how we play the game and win.