It’s taken me a week to deal with the shame of this scenario, the Cubs go to Yankee Stadium and drop three in a row. I lost two bets on the series, and suffered the humiliation of allowing this banner to hang on my house!
We’ll get a flag of our own, and have it hanging on the Holland house one day. You’ll see.
Hello from section 521 at RFK Stadium in DC. The Nats are up 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th, but us Cub fan have faith that a win will be ours today.
UPDATE: No joy in Cubville, the score stood and the Cubs lost. Dang.
See more photos.
It’s Rippon at Saunders in a middle school track smackdown on a wonderfully warm spring day. Will’s events are the 4×100 and the 4×400.
They lost the 4×100, but Will ran a great anchor leg. Wednesday track meets this spring are gonna be great fun.
We are ready for some baseball here in the Casey house! Most of us went with the current model Cubs hat for this season, but Colleen is modeling 1969 vintage headwear. The Cubs start their season today at the Arizona Diamondbacks. We’ll see them when they come to DC in May, and again in Chicago in July. Play ball!
It’s been a stressful few days, but our Cubs tickets are bought. I’ve spent the last five days endlessly dialing ticket offices and re-loading the online ticket site, in a seemingly futile effort to secure tickets to a game. Now finally, after widening our target window for travel and game selection, I got Cubs tickets for the family and we’ll in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field this summer!
What has become of me? A few short years ago, I couldn’t give a flying f*#! about baseball. Seasons could start and end, with me only barely aware. Now I’m counting days until tickets go on sale, I know when Opening Day is, and I’m actually aware of some general comings and goings on different team rosters. Don’t misunderstand, I’m no encyclopedic sports fanatic or anything. But I guess I’m changing, because I’ve discovered an interest in the game I have had since I was a little leaguer. I’ll be 40 by the time our Cubs game this summer roles around, and I know I’ll enjoy it more than I would have as a kid. I will no longer watch the pros with the little leaguer’s dream of growing up to be one of them one day. I will instead be older than most of the players on the field, and will enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that each beer I drink is helping each of them earn more in that single game than I might earn over many years of work. Wow, it may take several beers to take the sting out of that reality.
I pay little to no attention to college football these days, but I caught the big finish tonight watching the University of Southern California trounce Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl to win the National Championship. It was great fun to see an SC Heisman winner lead his team in a dominating performance over an Oklahoma team that just didn’t look like they belonged on the same field.
And for me, itt was also a trip down memory lane, because I grew up on SC football.
When I turned 14 I received season tickets to SC games which we kept for several years. Initially going to these SC games was something I did with my Dad. Once I was old enough to drive, it became a regular thing to do with any number of my friends. And later, when my older brother went to USC and I followed, we did our share of games as students (neither of us graduated from there, while both our parents have advanced degrees from SC… sorry mom and dad 🙂
Over those years we saw a lot of great football, and great football players. I saw Heisman winning running backs Charles White and Marcus Allen run wild for SC. I saw my football inspiration Ronnie Lott at defensive back, picking ’em off and taking them back. And what SC fan can forget, “Rokshani in motion…” And we saw some great players on the other side of the ball too; John Elway playing for Stanford, Joe Montana playing for Notre Dame, and many others.
I have many wonderful memories of those weekend SC football games. The campus bookstore was among my favorite destinations, there was always room for one more article of clothing or household item with an SC logo on it. I remember visiting Heritage Hall to see the Heisman’s won by Trojans. I had my first (and many many subsequent) beers at an SC football game.
 Marcus Allen & Me |
 Hanging out with Traveller (the horse) |
But by far, the best was not on a game day. It was in the fall of 1981 a special season kickoff fan appreciation event, a pep-rally basically where season ticket holders could come onto the field, meet the players, and revel in their burgandy and gold. We did, and it was great. Then as my friend Mike and I were leaving this event at the LA Coliseum, we ran into every sixteen year old’s dream… The USC Song Girls. They spotted us, frozen and drooling with a camera in hand, and immediately recognized they were in danger of us latching onto their legs and grinding like pitiful mutts, and one of them quickly and deftly difused the situation by offering to take a picture with us with them.
 Mike, Myself, and the 1981 USC Song Girls |
It’s a tragically blurry photo, but neverthless treasured. Still, I’d love to round the girls up for another try at it 🙂
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I still consider myself a fledgling baseball fan. Not yet a long suffering Cubs fan, but I have suffered with them. And despite the exciting, curse-breaking win by the Red Sox, it’s still an off-season of disapointment for Cubs fans, waiting for Spring and another season. And there was good off-season news today, Nomar Garciaparra has re-signed with the Cubs to play a second season. It must have been tough, watching the Redsox break the curse without him, but I am glad he’ll be back in Wrigley next season to help break a different curse.
Since 1936, the result of the Redskin’s game that takes place immediately prior to a Presidential Election has accurately predicted the winner. If the Redskins win, the incumbant has won. If the Redskins lose, then the challenger wins.
Today’s game?
Green Bay Packers 28 – Washington Redskins 14
The only curse we’re reversing here is the curse of Bush.
for further reading:
snopes.com, the Urban Legend Reference Pages.
Naturally, anyone with a head as large as mine either has many undiscovered mental powers, or water on the brain. In my case, it is of course the former (think for a second, which is first former or latter? My trick, latter comes later).
Anyway, I’ve never been much of a baseball fan, or much of a cap wearer either. But in the last few years, especially starting with the McGuire/Sosa home run race in ’98, I’ve been following baseball more closely. And with the bald spot on my head growing like the hole in Earth’s ozone layer, I’ve been adding more caps to my wardrobe.
In our home, we cheer for the Cubs. My wife’s from Illinois, it’s a rule and I’m fine with that. Following them to the heartbreaking finish of their 2003 season was my initiation to the ranks of the suffering Cubs fans. I even bought some ‘official’ Cubs merchandise, a cap and jersey, to outfit myself for fandom. But the jersey is like wearing a wetsuit, rubbery and uncomfortable, and the cap was a size too small and just too stiff. Still, I wore both regularly to do my part for the team.
Last season was also my introduction to the Red Sox, mostly through a great HBO Documentary called ‘The Curse of the Bambino‘ which recounts the many long years of suffering for the Red Sox and their fans since their fateful sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919. Like the Cubs, the 2003 playoffs looked hopeful for the Sox, until, as usual, they suffered painful defeat at the hands of the Yankees. As a freshly-minted Cubs fan, it was easy to share the pain of the Red Sox and root for them over the hated-winning Yankees.
The 2004 baseball season was the first I have ever followed from opening day. All season long, I could actually tell you generally which teams were doing well and which were not. When I was in Boston in July to work at the Democratic Convention, I bought a Red Sox cap (when in Rome and all that) and cheered their wins over the Yankees in Fenway that weekend. The cap was very comfortable, much more so that my Cubs cap. A nice fit, even for my big head.
After returning from Boston, I went online and bought myself a new Cubs cap, this one to match the brand, size and style of my comfy Red Sox cap. It arrived, fit wonderfully, and took its place as my starting cap. All was good, and the Cubs were winning. Until I left the cap behind at a friends wedding in California on September 25th. Returning home from my friends wedding without my Cubs cap to wear, I began wearing my Red Sox cap again.
And just look what happened.
For the two weeks that I had that Cubs cap, the Cubs were 10-2. From the day I lost the cap through the end of the season, they were 2-7. Sorry Cubs fans, it’s my fault they didn’t reach the playoffs this year.
And the Red Sox? Down 3-0 in their playoff series against the Yankees, they won four straight to put themselves in the World Series, and then swept the Cardinals, the team with the best record in baseball this season, to win the World Series. With their cap on my head, they reversed the curse and ended their 86-year long championship drought.
This is wierd science folks, but there’s just no disputing the awesome power of my head. If I’m wearing a teams cap, that team WILL win! Can I learn to control this power? To harness it? Am I more like the mutant X-man Professor Xavier, or the horror queen Carrie?
I must use this power for good (or for money)! So, with baseball season over, I have a new cap to wear for now. And next season, if you would like, you can buy me a hat, and send money (power like this doesn’t go cheap), and maybe YOUR team will win next year! (preferred stye: The Franchise by Twins Enterprise, XXL)
