November 9, 2025
Two Mondays ago, Jill and I channeled one of the great movie lines of all time — from Risky Business. (I’ll substitute “heck” for the original.)
“Sometimes you gotta say, ‘What the heck,’ make your move. Every now and then, saying ‘What the heck’ brings freedom. Freedom brings opportunity, and opportunity makes your future.”
Both Jill and I like routines. I find that when I’m in my regular routines, I eat more healthily, I exercise hard and regularly, I sleep a little better than I would otherwise, and I get a lot done.
I don’t travel that often, but when I do, all of my routines typically fall apart. I repeatedly channel Jerry Seinfeld – “You sit down in a restaurant, and you’re like the ruler of an empire. “More drink! Appetizers! Quickly, quickly! It will be the greatest meal of our lives.” A few times it’s worth it, but it’s always a lot. Exercising is challenging, and more often than not, I don’t do it.
But usually, after a week of being back home and back into my routines, I can get the scale to be in the same area code as it was when I left for the trip. Victory!
In our most recent travel experience, just last weekend, Jill and I visited our son Dawson and his girlfriend Kylie. We spent some time in the mountains, including a visit to the largest natural hot springs pool in the world. They even had some lanes for lap swimming. Each lap was 33 yards, and Jill and I both swam a little. It was more of an experience than exercise. Swimming in a 98-degree pool does not invite anything strenuous. But it was a cool experience.
We came back and got to see Dawson and Kylie’s apartment – their first place together – and we enjoyed all of the things they are doing to create a home. We ate like emperors at an incredible Italian restaurant – Gusto – in Edgewater, Colorado. Pizza, salads, pasta, dessert, a little wine, and it was all great.
We flew out of Denver back to LA on Monday morning, ready to get back to our routines and our happy place.
But we had a crazy idea in the back of our heads, and we started thinking . . . what the heck?
Game 3 of this year’s World Series was happening that night at 5 PM in downtown LA. We landed at noon, went to lunch and talked about the idea of going to our first ever World Series. And off we went. We pulled into the Dodger Stadium Parking Lot (Does $80 seem like a lot to park?) around 2:00 and started looking at tickets. The way you get last minute tickets these days is far easier, and far more legal than it used to be. There’s an app called Gametime. Ryan used it earlier this year and paid $100 dollars to sit 10 rows behind home plate, tickets that would normally go for 10 to 20 times that amount. We hoped that as the opening pitch neared, we would be able to go to a World Series game for a true bargain.
Long story, less long . . . prices never dropped. We waited until 4:45, then bought the tickets for the same price we would have paid 3 hours earlier. Oh well.
As we hustled to our seats. Jill pointed out the four Fox Sports hosts sitting just outside the stadium – “Look! It’s the guys!” A few seconds later, Jill pointed up and cheered as we saw the five AT-6 World War II era planes approaching the stadium while Brad Paisley’s muffled but still awesome voice finished the Star Spangled Banner. We settled into our pretty darn high, and yet totally spectacular seats just before the first pitch, and off we went.
Little did we know that we were just in time for an all-time classic 7-hour,18-inning Dodgers victory that would not end until just before midnight. And yes, we stayed. And yes, it was fantastic! Here are a few observations from the game.
- I never tire of walking into a baseball stadium and seeing the perfect and magically beautiful baseball field. The Field of Dreams movie spoke often of that magic. “This field, this game: it’s a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”
- We sat about 10 rows above the club level – pretty high – and at the same time, just perfect.
- Even though I was over 250 feet away from home plate, and even though I had no angle, I could absolutely tell when the umpire got his balls and strikes wrong. And I confidently booed with the rest of the crowd, like I knew what I was talking about.
- They stopped selling beer after the 7th inning, and they stopped selling food shortly afterwards. They made a mistake that cost them a whole lot of money. And I made a mistake by not getting a second Dodger Dog, a second beer, and some peanuts to carry me through the next 11 innings.
- I loved it when, after the conclusion of the top of the 14th inning, the announcer told us all to stand up and get ready to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame for the second 7th inning stretch!
- I would say that almost 75% of the fans were still in the stadium when the game ended, and the only people that I saw leave were families with small children. Great job, Dodgers fans!
- There were plenty of Blue Jays fans in the audience. There was a lot of good-natured ribbing between Dodgers fans and Blue Jays fans. But thinking about it, did I really expect anyone from Canada to be rude?
- In the first few extra innings, there were about ten batters for the Dodgers who had a chance to win it with a hit. I have about 40 videos of the winning hit that never was. Eventually I gave up and just watched the game. And that was even better.
- There were at least five Dodger hits that soared high towards the fences, prompting the crowd to cheer what was for sure going to be the winning home run, only to watch it get caught at the warning track.
Then Freddie Freeman did it – he crushed a homer that went over the fence – we went just as crazy as the 40,000 remaining fans, Randy Newman’s I Love LA started playing, and we knew that saying “What the heck” led to us having an incredible life experience. As we walked out of the stadium to what we knew would be a long drive home, we knew that we had done something unique and beyond special, and we felt so fortunate. Every now and then, saying “what the heck” turns an ordinary Monday into a story you’ll tell for the rest of your life.
And as much as we enjoyed it all, it was not at all a letdown to go back home at 2 AM, wake up the next morning, and get right back into our routines.
If this story made you smile, please share it with a friend — that’s how new readers find me. – Mike
Post #141 on www.drmdmatthews.com
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NOTES
I remember back 20-30 years ago, when my friends Jeff, Will, Rick and I would go up above Santa Barbara to bike the Solvang Century, we would bike 100k (so much more civilized than 100 miles), and I would gain 3-4 pounds on the trip. We would eat a massive dinner at the Far Western Tavern – those steaks grilled over a red oak fire were amazing – and we would even stop at a few wineries on the latter part of the ride. Again, it took me a week to lose the pounds I would gain on a bike trip.
And then there were the week long bike trips, biking 40-50 miles a day for 5-6 days, but eating like emperors and absolutely gaining weight. It confirms my belief about weight loss. Eating (or eating less) is everything. Exercise makes you healthier and stronger, but it has very little to do with weight loss.
Whenever I go to a Dodgers game, it’s so stressful getting there. Traffic is awful, and it’s hard to get there on time. But I figured out that it’s stressful because I’m trying to get some things done at home or work first, then drive to the game. This event taught me to just devote the whole day to the game. Embrace the traffic, embrace the hours, get there way early, and commit. Although buying the tickets was stressful, and getting out of the stadium took way too long, the rest of the day was actually quite enjoyable.
I wrote a post just over a year ago about the power of routines. I’m still a big fan.
Finally, thanks for all the positive feedback on my most recent post describing my mom’s battle with dementia. It has already become one of my most widely read posts, and I’m grateful that it helped some of you. Your comments certainly helped me.
Mike Matthews 
Connie Harrington 
Lynn Johnson 
Brooks 
Susan Scheding 
Nanny Daly 
Rhonda Steinberg 
Terri 
Leigh Ann Swarm 
Bill Sampson 
Laurie Kantor Finn 
Harriett Janetos 
Betty Glass
We were there too! Stayed for all 18 in total disbelief. It was so long and so thrilling. You described it perfectly. What the heck.