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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Superstitions

Last week I read The Voodoo That You Do by Phil Taylor in Sports Illustrated.

The article is about the superstitious, and crazy, things sports fans will do to "help" their team win. I chuckled through the whole article...because this is so my husband (ok and me too a teeny, tiny bit).

Some snippets:
- the guy who admitted he wears his wife's garter belt during Tampa Bay games because he believes that helps the team win.

- A poll showed 20% of sports fans admit to doing things to helping their team win...and Mr. Taylor says of the other 80%, they "forgot about the six straight days they ate Chinese food because the Lakers were on a winning streak, or the three hours of cruel and unusual punishment they subjected their bladders to on Sunday because bathroom breaks wreck the Steelers' mojo."

- "I made a pumpkin pie from scratch yesterday... and the Brewers won," KLSnow blogged... "I'm going to need a lot more pumpkins."

At the end of the article Mr Taylor writes about an Angels fan who asked, on his blog, if he should agree to his girlfriend's birthday request that he shave off the good-luck playoff mustache he began growing on the day Los Angeles clinched a berth? The prevailing sentiment seemed to be, Keep the 'stache, lose the girlfriend.

Because the Angels lost in the first round my first thought after reading that was "I wonder if he shaved it off?"

That night when I called Joe (he was TDY) I had to read it to him. When I read that last paragraph to him the first thing he said was, "I wonder if he shaved!" That's why I love him :)

Yeah, very irrational. As if there is anything the sports fan can do at home to affect the outcome of the game! Still, during games you'll frequently hear things like this in our house: "They got a home run when you walked in the kitchen; so stay in there." The kitchen can also be a negative spot too, "They fumbled when you went in there; get back in the living room!" "They were doing good when I started standing here so I can't sit down yet." "You moved to that side of the couch and now they're losing, move back over here."

Lot of good these superstitions are doing right now though. Joe's team lost in their championship series last night, and my team is down 3 games to 1 and has to win tonight. I wonder if I'll be spending my time in the kitchen, sitting a certain way on the couch, or if the game will even be on the TV, because, you know sometimes they do better when we don't watch.

So, what are some of your (or your husband's) superstitions when it comes to sports? A favorite chair to sit in? A shirt that has to be worn for each game? A certain meal that has to be eaten?

Get It Down; 31 for 21

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13 comments:

Jessie said...

this is cute (first time responder by the way - love your family!)...my mom is not allowed to watch Cardinal baseball games - she jinxes them every time :o)

Jeanette said...

We are Longhorn Fans "Hook 'Em Horns". In our circle of friends we each have an item that MUST come out during football season, MUST face the TV during the game and MUST remain out in the open during the entire season. In my house it is a Longhorn football player nutcracker (I collect them at Christmas), My friend Rhonda has a "Go Go Gorilla" with a UT shirt. He plays the "da.da.da.da.. HEY" theme and our other friend Bill has a troll. I don't know when this started, but Hey, it's tradition and MUST not be broken. =0)

Cate said...

Oh, man. I can't even think of anything specific that we do, but tonight is going to be stressful. Not looking forward to it.

Molly said...

my friend's dog MUST wear her Yankees Jersey each time they play or they lose. And they always lose when I go to games.....

RK said...

Every Sunday, all during football season (and the occasional Monday night)we are all decked out in "Bears wear." The whole family, Braska included, and the whole side of the inlaws too. And M has to have his Dr Pepper in his special Bears glass to drink during the game. And that's the ONLY time he will drink DP that's NOT straight from the can. We're 3-3 so you can see it's not a sure thing. :o)

Danyele Easterhaus said...

ok...my hubby was a pitcher and like most baseball players, he never stepped on the chalk lines. my thing i did...always swing the bat 3 times before a hit. i never paid much attention to anything else...never had time. super funny though that some guys really do have their special panties. ha!

Sue said...

J is not really into sports, but these are funny. I never thought about people doing things like this for their team to win. Thanks for the chuckle!

Stephanie said...

blushing here. We are sooo superstitious. We make faces in baseball...hold our pants at foul shots in basketball and wear the same shirt for hockey games (this is my dh)....I swear we know it does nothing, LOL
Your post is so ironic....GO PHILLIES!!! LOL...

Nancy M. said...

We only watch racing. But, I used to tell my husband if I didn't watch the entire race, my driver wouldn't win.

It's funny, but alot of people do believe this kind of thing when it comes to sports.

Anonymous said...

hehe we are not sports fans but my husband never shaves while writing papers/grant proposals etc...

Trace said...

D will not wear a particular shirt whenever his team plays. His theory is that every time he wears it they lose. Haha. Maybe he should have worn it last season because they lost most of their games anyway! :)

Trace :)

Kim said...

How funny....we love the ecu pirates and their colors are purple and gold. Well we have a yellow lab and she has a purple and gold ecu color. Last year...I'm not kidding everytime she left the room they played awful and when she sat in the room with us...they started winning. So at each game, we kept our lucky dog with us. This year, we have gone to some friends' houses to watch the game.....that must be why we are on a losing streak!

Amy said...

This is so my husband. He has to wear his Dallas shirt and his Dallas ring and his Dallas hat EVERY Sunday. And if they aren't doing good the hat goes backwards and if they still aren't going good it goes sideways and so forth. It can be pretty entertaining!