Humbug!

It never fails. As soon as I voice allegiance to a team and actually get excited about watching a game or match, my team tanks. So, you gods of sports and/or Twins players reading this blog, listen up: I don't care. Hear me? I don't care that you had a minimum of four opportunities to bring in a winning run and didn't do it. I don't care that you teetered so tantalizing close to success that I overcame my natural reserve as a Midwesterner and believed greatness was possible, only to have to chastise myself later for forgetting that as a Minnesotan it is my lot in life to always be disappointed by sports teams. Liriano's sixth inning slide, Favre's madness against the Saints (twice), Gary Anderson's missed kick in 1999... It's a legacy that's hard to forget. Or at least, is hard to forget until the bases are loaded and the fans are on their feet and just one run will give us the lead, and your husband is so excited he's jumping and shouting until he remembers we have a sleeping baby, so then he's crouching on the couch and chewing his fingernails in agitated silence...


Our viewing experience was even more exciting because we were streaming the game online, and didn't realize that we were on about a five minute delay until one of our friends texted Joe about a go-ahead run on third, when there was only a runner on first. Joe looked at his phone, looked at the screen, looked at his phone again with wrinkled brow, and then slowly put the phone down in wonder as the runner on first stole a base and advanced to third. His face went from "My friend can see the future--oh my god we scored!--my friend is omniscient--this streaming picture keeps cutting out and jumping ahead--oohhhhh." Two other friends texted us in excitement and we had to tell them to quit giving the game away, but later in the game our excitement was tempered by the ominous silence of Joe's phone. We were very conscious of the fact that as we were anxiously watching a bases-loaded situation, our friends already knew the outcome, and even though we'd told them to shut up, we were pretty sure someone would have told us about a grand slam. It suppose it made the disappointment a little less painful, but it's hard to make yourself believe that what you want so badly really isn't going to happen...two innings in a row.