July 21st, 2008 → 9:03 am @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
Among the many reasons I haven’t been posting as much as of late is that I recently returned from several weeks in Iraq. While I was there, the only exposure I had to baseball was during the pair of meals I ate in a D-Fac — that’s military for “dining facility” — in Diyala province a couple of hours north of Baghdad; the US Armed Forces does keep its troops sated with a steady diet of SportsCenter and Fox News. For most the trip, however, I was unembedded, which meant no baseball for me.
I did get one jarring reminded of the global reach of the Crimson Hose. One afternoon, I set out (with the mandatory armed guards) to spend a quick half-hour exploring a local market which has only recently re-opened. Included among the too-large, garish Iraqi shirts–my wife is none too fond of the Maystro brand number I’ve been sporting since my return–was a table of counterfeit Sox hats…decorated with glued on sequins formed into a heart with the word “Love” written out in the middle. This is not a joke.
For what it’s worth, there were no Yankees hats to be seen.
