Sports Jinx

Sports enthusiasts are superstitious people in general. It's pretty well known that Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform for every game. Tiger Woods wears red on the last day of a tournament (red is a good luck color in Thailand, where his mother is from). Wade Boggs eats only chicken on game days and draws a good-luck symbol in the dirt before each at-bat.

Similarly, sports fans are often superstitious. Many fans have a lucky shirt or hat that they wear when watching games. Mark has a lucky shirt, hat, lanyard and Paul Pierce figurine that he has to have with him whenever he watches a Celtics game. He is convinced that these are lucky. (And Paul Pierce has to be facing the television.)

Rationally, we realize that these things have no effect on the outcome of the game (especially fan stuff). Yet, some part of us insists that it helps.

Yesterday, Mark's team lost the semifinals. Last night, I watched part of the Red Sox game with Brenda and Brian. We stopped watching when the score was 5-0; Brenda was exhausted and we were all a little depressed at what looked like a spectacular loss.

Turns out, the Sox made a phenomenal comeback, pretty much right after we stopped watching. When I read that this morning, my first thought was "oh SURE, we stop watching and they start winning!" My next thought was that yesterday I was a major sports jinx. Maybe if I hadn't watched Mark's game, they would have won. Maybe I should be banned from major sporting events (I watched the Super Bowl, the Patriots lost. I went to a Red Sox game, they lost to the Yankees.). Of course, the many times that I *have* watched a game and there has been a win was drastically overshadowed by these losses. Seems I, too, have more than a little streak of that ol' superstition. I know, I KNOW, that having my eyes pointed at the action on the field had zero effect on the outcome. In fact, having my eyes on Mark's field was probably a positive thing, as I was showing support and yelling encouragement (in the pouring rain, no less). But still, a little niggling thought keeps poking at me. maybe is IS your fault, it says.

Kira's got her last soccer event of the season tomorrow, a round-robin tournament. Where's my lucky hat? mk