What does it take to speak to the spirit of a man you’ve never met?
How ridiculous, futile, and almost juvenile does it seem to connect with a dead baseball player? To laugh every time the Marlins Monkey pies someone in the face or at every Justin Bour doughnut joke? To jump up and down when Giancarlo Stanton hits (and continues to hit) homer after homer, or when Edinson Volquez threw the no hitter?
All of it passed with a bitter taste. Despite the end result, this was a fun season of baseball for the Marlins, but it felt like the first Christmas without the person that most personifies your family.