Danielle: Have a good night!
Me: [long pause] …Get lots of work done!
Danielle: HEY!! Fine. Have a productive night that doesn’t involve baseball then.
Me: Okay. That I can live with. You too!
Danielle: gosoxokaybye!
Me: Goodnight, bitchface!
Now I’m going to go watch and see how far into this game JoshBECKETT can take a nono. *duck*
I am taking a little break from wailing about what a stupid idea it was to not have a backup plan in place when your starter is clearly worried about the destruction in his hometown from the hurricane (and you cannot convince me otherwise, because the other option is that he sucks like a tick). Instead I am going to share a little story.
I was walking into my building from my car, and two guys from the store were sitting outside. There is Store!Guy, who is a Yankees fan, but who is also supernice to me, so I forgive him for that. And then there is Deli!Guy, who I don’t know as well.
Store!Guy: You must be in seventh heaven right about now!
Deli!Guy: How come?
Store!Guy: Her Tampa Bay Rays are [sic] going to [somewhere so jinxtastic I will not even *rethinkg* it please don't listen to him, baseballgods].
Deli!Guy: You’re a TAMPA BAY RAYS FAN??!?!?!?
I cannot really convey the tone of voice, though I tried with the caps and the bold and the italics and the excessively ungrammatical punctuation. Imagine, if you will, the way that someone might say, “You TiVo REBA?!?!?!???” or perhaps, “You KILLED A PUPPY?!?!?!” THAT was his level of horror that I might actually be a Rays fan living in Virginia.
I’m not sure which is more irritating: that reaction, or the time that Danielle and I went to Camden Yards dressed in Rays gear, and an Os fan looked at us, totally confused, and said, “I didn’t know you people existed.”
Well, America, we do! And we have the really annoying cowbells to prove it!
Dear Tampa Bay Rays:
Hi. If you could, you know, see fit not to prove my direst predictions correct, that would be swell.
*sigh*
Love,
Mel
Yes, I am flailing and overreacting in spite of having The Best Record in Baseball. Yes, I am That Annoying Fan. Probably it’s best not to actually try to reason with me.
I am kind of a wuss.
I am the kind of girl who cries at Hallmark commercials.* I also cry at movies and TV shows and REM concerts, but generally I draw the line at baseball games and that sort of thing since, well, it is only a game, and one that I am not even playing.**
Oh, sure, I got all sniffly when Little Jonny Lester threw his no-hitter. When Tito hugged him after the game? Just thinking about it makes me choke up a little. But, generally speaking, unless there is some sort of overcoming-life-and-death theme happening, I don’t get particularly teary-eyed thinking about baseball.
Until now, apparently.
And here is the thing. It’s over those “There’s Only One October” ads. Y’all, I hate that theme–I think it is stupid and annoying and I couldn’t be less emotionally excited about it. Or, I couldn’t have, until they started putting my Fighting Sunbeams in the ads.
Y’all. My Tampa Bay Rays are IN A COMMERCIAL FOR THE POSTSEASON.
That is really when it hit me that it might be a possibility. Not all the times when I’ve looked at their record and the standings. Not when I’ve spent hours every day memorizing Baseball Prsopectus’ postseason odds page. No, it was when I saw the “There’s Only One October” ad.
There’s still a huge part of me that is trying not to get my hopes up, particularly since DANIELLE JUST FELT THE NEED TO SAY SOMETHING INCREDIBLY JINXY ABOUT MY RAYS OUT LOUD BECAUSE SHE IS MEAN. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, the season-ending slide to begin. I’m expecting them to go into the ninth inning with a seven run lead and then lose the game, because then I can be angry, but my little optimistic feelings will not be squashed like a bug.
But somewhere, there is a teeny tiny part of me that thinks they can do it. And that part of me apparently likes to cry at bad commercials.
* Y’all, the one where the kid gives his teacher a thank you note to thank her for helping him learn to read? And then ASKS IF HE CAN READ IT TO HER? SOB!
** Me not playing is actually the ONLY reason I am able to say “it is only a game.”