Very Superstitious
The writing is on the wall. Or so we, as sports fans, believe. We've done something stupid -- changed seats, worn the wrong shirt on game day, whatever -- and it's bound to cost our favorite team a game it should win. Some sports fans claim to be above such obvious nonsense. Truth is one of two things: that person is not a real sports fan, or that person is lying.
You see, it's kind of silly to analyze a 41-10 victory. Things went very right for the Bears and very wrong for the 49ers. There, I've analyzed it. Look, I predicted a Bears' win. Who didn't? I thought the game would be a little closer than it was. Who expects 41-10? I thought the Bears' plan would involve a lot of ball control passing featuring Desmond Clark. I actually am a little pleased with that one.
But it's all secondary. The Bears won easily because I changed my computer password. I'll explain. I've generally believed that when I make an outward showing of support for my favorite teams, it dooms the team to failure. In 2001, after the Cleveland Indians reclaimed the AL Central from the White Sox, I decided to abandon Sox paraphernalia. The talk of baseball at the time was the possible contraction of the Minnesota Twins. In an effort to ensure that the improving Twins didn't replace the Indians as the main nemesis of the Sox, and to show support for a franchise that never should have been at the top of Major League Baseball's contraction list, I wore a Twins hat for the entire 2002 season. The result? The Twins won 94 games and the first of three straight AL Central crowns. The lesson for me? I can't escape my personal curse.
So, I stopped trying. But the curse stills rears its head occasionally. I started a new job near the end of the 2005 baseball season. My office's computer system requires me to come up with a new password every 8 seconds or so, each of which must have a capital letter, lower case letter, and number. Around November of last year I ran out of ideas. Fortunately, the Sox had already secured their World Series title because I struck upon the disastrous idea of using their roster for my passwords. So Beuhrle56, was followed by Jenks45, etc. Obviously this was directly responsible for the Sox choking away the AL wild card this season. But I didn't realize it until the baseball season ended.
Once the Sox' season concluded, I decided to switch my passwords to the Bears. It seemed like a good idea to stay current. My first Bears password was Grossman8. I switched to this password the Thursday before the Bears traveled to Phoenix for a Monday night game. Immediately it dawned on me what had happened. I switched again, this time to Arkhipov19. The Blackhawks it seemed were destined to have a pretty lousy year anyway.
What followed was astonishing, and confirmed my worst fears. The Hawks were 4-2 when I made the switch. Since then they've lost their first line center, starting goaltender, leading scorer and four straight games. This curse is powerful stuff not to be trifled with. In fact, I'm somewhat concerned that there will be major ramifications to writing this blog entry.
The question is what to do now. The Bears, free of the shackles of Grossman8, are back on track. The Hawks will probably miss the playoffs regardless of what I do, so maybe I should just move on to Aucoin33. On the other hand, I'd hate to further set the franchise back by causing a career ending injury to Havlat or Khabibulin. I can't begin using Vikings players because I learned with my Twins hat that I cannot intentionally turn the negative power of the curse against opposing forces.
Oh well. I can live with the Hawks being bad. Wirtz deserves it. The bigger question is whether the Bears are really that much better at home than on the road, or whether I need to start wearing my Urlacher jersey for all games, instead of going with the Payton jersey for road games?
You see, it's kind of silly to analyze a 41-10 victory. Things went very right for the Bears and very wrong for the 49ers. There, I've analyzed it. Look, I predicted a Bears' win. Who didn't? I thought the game would be a little closer than it was. Who expects 41-10? I thought the Bears' plan would involve a lot of ball control passing featuring Desmond Clark. I actually am a little pleased with that one.
But it's all secondary. The Bears won easily because I changed my computer password. I'll explain. I've generally believed that when I make an outward showing of support for my favorite teams, it dooms the team to failure. In 2001, after the Cleveland Indians reclaimed the AL Central from the White Sox, I decided to abandon Sox paraphernalia. The talk of baseball at the time was the possible contraction of the Minnesota Twins. In an effort to ensure that the improving Twins didn't replace the Indians as the main nemesis of the Sox, and to show support for a franchise that never should have been at the top of Major League Baseball's contraction list, I wore a Twins hat for the entire 2002 season. The result? The Twins won 94 games and the first of three straight AL Central crowns. The lesson for me? I can't escape my personal curse.
So, I stopped trying. But the curse stills rears its head occasionally. I started a new job near the end of the 2005 baseball season. My office's computer system requires me to come up with a new password every 8 seconds or so, each of which must have a capital letter, lower case letter, and number. Around November of last year I ran out of ideas. Fortunately, the Sox had already secured their World Series title because I struck upon the disastrous idea of using their roster for my passwords. So Beuhrle56, was followed by Jenks45, etc. Obviously this was directly responsible for the Sox choking away the AL wild card this season. But I didn't realize it until the baseball season ended.
Once the Sox' season concluded, I decided to switch my passwords to the Bears. It seemed like a good idea to stay current. My first Bears password was Grossman8. I switched to this password the Thursday before the Bears traveled to Phoenix for a Monday night game. Immediately it dawned on me what had happened. I switched again, this time to Arkhipov19. The Blackhawks it seemed were destined to have a pretty lousy year anyway.
What followed was astonishing, and confirmed my worst fears. The Hawks were 4-2 when I made the switch. Since then they've lost their first line center, starting goaltender, leading scorer and four straight games. This curse is powerful stuff not to be trifled with. In fact, I'm somewhat concerned that there will be major ramifications to writing this blog entry.
The question is what to do now. The Bears, free of the shackles of Grossman8, are back on track. The Hawks will probably miss the playoffs regardless of what I do, so maybe I should just move on to Aucoin33. On the other hand, I'd hate to further set the franchise back by causing a career ending injury to Havlat or Khabibulin. I can't begin using Vikings players because I learned with my Twins hat that I cannot intentionally turn the negative power of the curse against opposing forces.
Oh well. I can live with the Hawks being bad. Wirtz deserves it. The bigger question is whether the Bears are really that much better at home than on the road, or whether I need to start wearing my Urlacher jersey for all games, instead of going with the Payton jersey for road games?
posted by Criminal Appeal at 1:50 PM
5 Comments:
You know, Crime-Dog, there's always the Cubs. And they won't directly affect anything the Sox do!
To start this season I wore my Crede jersey to every Sox game I attended. I started off 0-4, stopped wearing the jersey to games, and went 5-0 after that.
So, in a way, my Crede jersey cost us a playoff spot.
how about using something like Mauer7 or Hafner 48 next year?
the best ever dennis green video is found here:
http://firethefucktard.blogspot.com
enjoy.
I haven't shaved my balls since Jordan hit "the shot" over Craig Ehlo. I feel like it has worked out pretty well for all parties involved.
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