"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

I hate how I'm about to reference this movie, especially because I know this isn't the first time I've done it, but there's really no better way to explain what I felt last night.

In Fever Pitch, when Jimmy Fallon misses a Red Sox Yankee game for the first time in his life, and at first he's okay with it because they're losing 8-0 or something. Then the Sox end up coming back and beating the Yankees 9-8 with an 9-run 2-out rally in the bottom of the 9th or something. And he turns on the tv and every single person in Boston is screaming and celebrating in the streets saying how it was the best game in the history of life.

Last night, I was at work.

"Yeah, we'll definitely be done by 7:30."

"Ok, because, um, you know the game starts at 8, and..."

"I know, I know."

"Ok, cool."

At 8:20, I was still working, and I get back to my desk, John Sterling had been prattling for a good 15 minutes in my empty office, and then I hear the raucous celebrating that didn't sound too good, considering the Yanks weren't the home team.

"And the Rangers take a 3-0 lead in the first, what a shot by Josh Hamilton!"

I don't know if anyone else had to listen to the CBS broadcast of the game, but John Sterling sounded like he had gotten possessed by the hater demons of the world. Seriously. I think I would have rather listened to Joe Morgan announce the game. It was bad enough hearing the score, it was infinitely aggravated by the fact that Sterling was practically giddy, giggling, etc.

"And this is really bad, I mean things couldn't get much worse for the Yankees right now. CC is just flat out AWFUL tonight, and the Yankees are really just LUCKY they got out of that inning with only 3 runs. Because I mean if they hope to have ANY shot at this game, they have to pull CC and figure out SOMETHING because right now, I gotta say it doesn't look like this game is ever gonna get better, just worse."

Sweet Christ, John.

I was devastated. I turned off the radio and continued working with the GameCast playing on my computer. I could have watched on MLB.tv but when the Yankees are losing, I find it a little more palatable to see the score on the sterile stat listings of a computer, rather than have it exacerbated by 10s of thousands of screaming fans.

I can count on 1 hand the number of times I've been that upset at work that I felt like crying, and last night was #2 all time.

I was trapped there. It's easy for people to say, "OMG just LEAVE! I can't believe you WORKED on a playoff game!" as if I wanted to do that. As if there was a choice involved and I decided to do the productive, responsible thing.

To make matters worse, Strange--usually my go to buddy for support in Yankee-induced anxiety--was texting me "I'm not gonna lie, this game is absolutely brutal."

But then it happened.

A text that changed the face of the night.

"I'm sitting in the bathroom with a corona."

It was from my sister.

And I knew what that meant.

Whenever I watch games with her, as soon as it starts to be a critical point in the game, everyone in my family exiles my sister to the bathroom. A superstition which I'm sure she just LOVES.

"I'm sitting in the bathroom with a corona."

She was sitting in the bathroom...

..And would she do that if she was still watching a 5-0 game??

I peaked at the score.

OH. MY. GOD.

The Yankees were doing it.

They were chipping away at the lead. I immediately looked away.

(It would have been really, really depressing if "I'm sitting in the bathroom with a corona" just meant something like "It's too cold in your living room, so I'm just hanging out in bathroom alphabetizing your toothpastes.")

Then I couldn't take it anymore, I had to watch. I was too nervous to turn on the game and find out it was over, but I was even more nervous to turn on the game and find out it was over.

With no outs, the Yankees tied the game in the 8th.

And then took the lead.

Then won.

And I missed all but 15 minutes of it.

I went out last night, and NYC was havoc. All my buddies were screaming when they saw me, "HOW FUCKING AMAZING WAS THAT??!?! YANKEES !!!! HOLY SHIT!!! AHHHH!!"

"THAT WAS THE MOST AMAZING THING I"VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!!"

I wanted so badly to be able to share in their recounts of their emotional rollercoaster, but I could just be a captive audience.

But they did it.

THE YANKEES GAME BACK FROM 5-0 AND WON.

It was like they were waiting for alllll the haters to get comfortable in the whole "HAHHAHAHA you guys are a joke, you're gonna get SWEPT!" mentalities...and then decided to swoop in, all "Go kick rocks, small fry. We're not going anywhere."

My buddy Super Rob may have said it best when he said, "I think I'm in love with being a Yankee fan."

You know what? I gotta say that as profoundly exhilirating as that game was, it was just as invigorating to be among Yankee fans who watched the whole game. Because I gotta be honest, when the Yanks are getting embarrassed, it's not like I give up on them, but watching it is hard to stomach. I'll mute the tv, or I'll change the channel for 5 minutes and then really quickly flip back hoping the score hasn't ballooned out of control out of our favor.

It's hard to watch loved ones tailspin like that.

But it's like the line in the Godfather,