Monday, June 23, 2008

Sports Luck & Me

There is something about being a sports fan that makes you inherently myopic & narcissistic. I recognize this and am aware of this, yet I cannot help but notice some strange occurrences that passively involve me in some way. Consider the following:

• On my Ballpark Pilgrimage, I usually rooted for the home team, but there was one game where I rooted for the Red Sox in an away game. Along the way, the teams I rooted for went 2-8 in ten games. In the first game I watched at Fenway, the Red Sox lost their first game at Fenway since May 1st.

• I showed up late to my game in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. When I got to the game, I spent an a couple innings just walking around and checking out the stadium from different perspectives. When I finally got to my seat, I realized that the Phillies pitcher was working on a no-hitter. The very next inning after I had sat down in my seat, the no-hitter gets broken up.

• Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis set a major league record for consecutive games at first base without an error earlier this year. When the error-less streak came to an end, guess who was there. Not only that, but he also committed ANOTHER error the next day. And, yes, I was also there for that one.

• Three days before I saw the Cardinals play, Albert Pujols injured his calf and went on the DL.

• Two days before I saw my first Red Sox game in Baltimore, David Ortiz injures his wrist and goes on the DL.

• One day before I saw the Cubs play, Alfonso Soriano broke a bone in his wrist and went on the DL.

• The night I saw the Indians play, Victor Martinez injured his elbow and went on the DL.

I thought of all of this tonight while I was watching the Red Sox/Diamondbacks game on ESPN. I had been watching the game in one particular room. I got up to go use the restroom, and then I began watching the game in another room in my home. All of a sudden the Diamondbacks scored two runs off of Red Sox ace Josh Beckett. I immediately went back to the original room, but it was no use. D'backs beat the Sox 2-1.

I wish I was making this stuff up.

3 comments:

Jordan said...

I think you might be part of a secret government testing program. You will be unleashed on our enemies soon.

III said...

From a chat session between Jordan & I this morning. I started off talking about my fantasy baseball team...


Philip says:
my lineup went 2 for 35 last night

Philip says:
but one of my starting pitchers hit a grand slam, which of course doesn't count for anything

Philip says:
and even though he was cruising toward a Win, he got injured in a freak accident at home plate with 2 outs in the 5th inning -- one out short of being eligible for the win

Philip says:
compare all that with my latest blog entry, and then help me figure out how I can get out from under the voo-doo curse someone has obviously placed on me

Jordan says:
haha

Jordan says:
will do in a minute

Jordan says:
well, there is my response

Philip says:
that'd be cool

Philip says:
I'm sure Al Quaeda would take me right in without reservation

Jordan says:
if you become a fan of them, they would go down in 3 months top

Philip says:
... all of a sudden, ooops, Bin Laden's location gets leaked

III said...

I just realized today, after having written this last night, that my forum sig on an Alabama football bulletin board was a photo of the doomsday numbers from "LOST" -- 4 8 15 16 23 42.

Yeah, I'm not using that sig anymore...