Superstitions
Nov. 3rd, 2016 08:01 pmFor those of you not devoted to any sort of SportsBall Tournament type things, you've probably heard the faithful talk about their superstitions or have seen commercials that touch on the subject.
Allow me to explain how such things work.
I've been avidly following the World Series - with all the rabid attention of a starving man at a buffet. I didn't want to talk about it, because I was afraid that anything I said would jinx things.
As far as the series itself goes, I haven't seen more than a few plays outside of recaps, replays, and highlight reels for the last four games..
Why? Because they played better when we didn't watch.
Don't laugh, it's true. And verifiable. I'll get there in a second.
Every night we would put on American Pickers on the History Channel and silently check the score by madly refreshing Google or MLB.com. We didn't discuss this, we didn't mention why, we both knew that watching was bad. Occasionally, when I'd see that something big happened, we'd switch over, watch the replay, then quickly flip back.
Fast forward to last night. We sat, hearts in throat with Frank and Mike while I refreshed the shit out of my iPad and he did the same on his. Around the fifth inning, with the score 6-3, we took our lives into our hands and turned on the game.
At first, everything seemed fine...then Campbell. Then the hit. Then the runs. It's bottom of the eighth, it's starting to rain, the Cubs blew a lead, and we've been Cub fans for 51 and 25 years respectively. Our hearts were in our throats, our stomachs full of lead, and it felt like the inevitable had arrived.
More importantly, though, we were *watching*.
So we made the supreme fan sacrifice and turned off the TV and went up to bed.
The rest is 108 years in the making.
So, Chicago fans everywhere......you're welcome :) :) :)
Allow me to explain how such things work.
I've been avidly following the World Series - with all the rabid attention of a starving man at a buffet. I didn't want to talk about it, because I was afraid that anything I said would jinx things.
As far as the series itself goes, I haven't seen more than a few plays outside of recaps, replays, and highlight reels for the last four games..
Why? Because they played better when we didn't watch.
Don't laugh, it's true. And verifiable. I'll get there in a second.
Every night we would put on American Pickers on the History Channel and silently check the score by madly refreshing Google or MLB.com. We didn't discuss this, we didn't mention why, we both knew that watching was bad. Occasionally, when I'd see that something big happened, we'd switch over, watch the replay, then quickly flip back.
Fast forward to last night. We sat, hearts in throat with Frank and Mike while I refreshed the shit out of my iPad and he did the same on his. Around the fifth inning, with the score 6-3, we took our lives into our hands and turned on the game.
At first, everything seemed fine...then Campbell. Then the hit. Then the runs. It's bottom of the eighth, it's starting to rain, the Cubs blew a lead, and we've been Cub fans for 51 and 25 years respectively. Our hearts were in our throats, our stomachs full of lead, and it felt like the inevitable had arrived.
More importantly, though, we were *watching*.
So we made the supreme fan sacrifice and turned off the TV and went up to bed.
The rest is 108 years in the making.
So, Chicago fans everywhere......you're welcome :) :) :)