Do an of you have superstitions?
First off, I am a math guy and pretty much on the side of science. I don't believe in ghosts, UFOs, or bigfoot. Yes, I believe there's life on other planets that I am sure have not visited us yet, and entertain the idea that there could have been a native primate in North America much more recently than most scientists believe, but I tend to be a skeptic.
When I hear about the deniers of global warming or talk to somebody who thinks the earth is 5,000 years old, I truly feel sorry for them. But I do have some personal superstitions that defy all logic but tend to be a part of me.
The most common one in a commonly superstitious realm (American baseball) is where I too fall victim. I can see where some players may feel one way or the other about certain rituals before a game to mentally prepare, but it does not make sense for a fan like me to have any rituals. But below is my five year odyssey of baseball superstition:
2010:
But while I love baseball and football and follow both most years closely, I got superstitious in 2010 with my SF Giants and "felt" that if I didn't give them all my attention as a fan, they wouldn't do well. Football came up like usual in 2010 and I was all ready to root on the SF Niners but for the first time in decades, I didn't watch a game, cruise the internet, or buy fan gear of my beloved football team. To you all, that would be like not touching an Ibanez for many weeks on end! The 2010 Giants had too many holes on their roster to be expected to make it to postseason and had to best the San Diego Padres (a better team) in the last series of the regular season. The Giants got past them, got into postseason on last day possible with an improbable win, got past better Braves, got past better Phillies, and then beat Rangers in five to get first ring in 56 years. Wow. I had followed Giants since the 1970s and it was weird to see this.
2011:
But that had nothing to do with my exclusivity following Giants and putting away all attention towards football in September and October. So in 2011 I followed both sports like I have always done. The Giants didn't make postseason. Oh well.
2012:
So in my depression of having seen the Giants unable to even make postseason the year after they won the World Series, I vowed to only follow baseball until its completion in 2012. So when I could have followed football that year, I watched the Giants face three elimination games against a red hot Reds in the NLDS only so see the Giants prevail against everybody's predictions. Football and Niner fandom was at its height but I refrained, and while that was hard, the Giants went and faced and survived another three elimination games, but this time against the defending World Series champ Cardinals. Nobody has done that. But this time in the World Series we were going to put our old and underachieving pitcher Barry Zito (who did any real work with A's before his trade to Giants) against the world's best Justin Verlander. We won that game and the next three and swept the Tigers. What? How?
2013:
Then I came back down to earth, and math/statistics, and followed the Giants and Niners at the same time in the overlapping parts of their seasons like most bay area fans, and guess what, the Giants failed to make postseason. How does a team with two out of three years getting two rings miss postseason?
2014:
So in 2014, I got superstitious again. Yes, it worked doing the hard thing of avoiding football in 2010 and 2012 in the virginal parts of the football season in Sept/Oct, but my common sense and grad school work in statistics/math told me that it's stupid to avoid football as if it will hex my baseball season. So this year while my Niners were in some terrible front office turmoil and needed its fans, I blocked them and got myopic on the Giants in a year they least belonged in a postseason in decades. San Francisco had a hurt ace in only perfect game pitcher Matt Cain and took two time Cy Young pitcher Tim Lincecum off the starter list entering postseason. Ace hitters Scutaro and Pagan would not make the postseason and we were down two out of four of out good hitters. No chance according to most and best odds put the Giants at 70 to 1 to win it all. So I am avoiding football for third time ever (after 2010 and 2012) and Giants in baseball barely make wild card but have to travel to Pittsburgh but win the wild card. OK, we got lucky. Then we face the NL's top regular season team Washington Nationals and beat them. But then we have to face the revenge based Cardinals whom we came from behind 1-3 to win NLCS and take them out, and with a final walk off 3 run homer from minor league prospect Travis Ishikawa (washed up minor league Pittsburgh Pirates castoff to late season SF Giant). We somehow get through the wild card game, NLDS, and NLCS but then have to face the undefeated postseason Kansas City Royals who seem to be a team of destiny (and great hitters all around). We to go seven games in World Series and beat them in the last game on the road the night after they demolish us 10-0 in game six. Too weird. Three World Series championships in just five years and we aren't the Yankees.
So that's my rant on my weird (every other year, so far) superstition of being a baseball fan to end of season and avoiding all football fandom.
First off, I am a math guy and pretty much on the side of science. I don't believe in ghosts, UFOs, or bigfoot. Yes, I believe there's life on other planets that I am sure have not visited us yet, and entertain the idea that there could have been a native primate in North America much more recently than most scientists believe, but I tend to be a skeptic.
When I hear about the deniers of global warming or talk to somebody who thinks the earth is 5,000 years old, I truly feel sorry for them. But I do have some personal superstitions that defy all logic but tend to be a part of me.
The most common one in a commonly superstitious realm (American baseball) is where I too fall victim. I can see where some players may feel one way or the other about certain rituals before a game to mentally prepare, but it does not make sense for a fan like me to have any rituals. But below is my five year odyssey of baseball superstition:
2010:
But while I love baseball and football and follow both most years closely, I got superstitious in 2010 with my SF Giants and "felt" that if I didn't give them all my attention as a fan, they wouldn't do well. Football came up like usual in 2010 and I was all ready to root on the SF Niners but for the first time in decades, I didn't watch a game, cruise the internet, or buy fan gear of my beloved football team. To you all, that would be like not touching an Ibanez for many weeks on end! The 2010 Giants had too many holes on their roster to be expected to make it to postseason and had to best the San Diego Padres (a better team) in the last series of the regular season. The Giants got past them, got into postseason on last day possible with an improbable win, got past better Braves, got past better Phillies, and then beat Rangers in five to get first ring in 56 years. Wow. I had followed Giants since the 1970s and it was weird to see this.
2011:
But that had nothing to do with my exclusivity following Giants and putting away all attention towards football in September and October. So in 2011 I followed both sports like I have always done. The Giants didn't make postseason. Oh well.
2012:
So in my depression of having seen the Giants unable to even make postseason the year after they won the World Series, I vowed to only follow baseball until its completion in 2012. So when I could have followed football that year, I watched the Giants face three elimination games against a red hot Reds in the NLDS only so see the Giants prevail against everybody's predictions. Football and Niner fandom was at its height but I refrained, and while that was hard, the Giants went and faced and survived another three elimination games, but this time against the defending World Series champ Cardinals. Nobody has done that. But this time in the World Series we were going to put our old and underachieving pitcher Barry Zito (who did any real work with A's before his trade to Giants) against the world's best Justin Verlander. We won that game and the next three and swept the Tigers. What? How?
2013:
Then I came back down to earth, and math/statistics, and followed the Giants and Niners at the same time in the overlapping parts of their seasons like most bay area fans, and guess what, the Giants failed to make postseason. How does a team with two out of three years getting two rings miss postseason?
2014:
So in 2014, I got superstitious again. Yes, it worked doing the hard thing of avoiding football in 2010 and 2012 in the virginal parts of the football season in Sept/Oct, but my common sense and grad school work in statistics/math told me that it's stupid to avoid football as if it will hex my baseball season. So this year while my Niners were in some terrible front office turmoil and needed its fans, I blocked them and got myopic on the Giants in a year they least belonged in a postseason in decades. San Francisco had a hurt ace in only perfect game pitcher Matt Cain and took two time Cy Young pitcher Tim Lincecum off the starter list entering postseason. Ace hitters Scutaro and Pagan would not make the postseason and we were down two out of four of out good hitters. No chance according to most and best odds put the Giants at 70 to 1 to win it all. So I am avoiding football for third time ever (after 2010 and 2012) and Giants in baseball barely make wild card but have to travel to Pittsburgh but win the wild card. OK, we got lucky. Then we face the NL's top regular season team Washington Nationals and beat them. But then we have to face the revenge based Cardinals whom we came from behind 1-3 to win NLCS and take them out, and with a final walk off 3 run homer from minor league prospect Travis Ishikawa (washed up minor league Pittsburgh Pirates castoff to late season SF Giant). We somehow get through the wild card game, NLDS, and NLCS but then have to face the undefeated postseason Kansas City Royals who seem to be a team of destiny (and great hitters all around). We to go seven games in World Series and beat them in the last game on the road the night after they demolish us 10-0 in game six. Too weird. Three World Series championships in just five years and we aren't the Yankees.
So that's my rant on my weird (every other year, so far) superstition of being a baseball fan to end of season and avoiding all football fandom.