Why We Cheer and Some Boston Love

I set out to write this post about two weeks ago, focusing a lot on the Michigan Final Four run and what we got from it, assuming we lost.  Laziness and a family stomach bug prevented it.  Now I'm starting it the same day as the bombing at the Boston Marathon, watching news coverage of all this, knowing that it is both an unfortunately believable tragedy in a city that the wife and I spent years in and still love, and fits perfectly into the post I set out to write.  We spent numerous Patriot's Days doing what the people there were doing, and that could have easily been us down there.  If you haven't been to Boston, it is a beautiful, vibrant, fun-loving, and friendly town.  I still miss it sometimes.

Thoughts and prayers

 The other irony, I suppose, is that I planned to lead into the old jump break with a quote from the movie Fever Pitch, which is based on the 2004 Red Sox breaking their World Series jinx (side note - we were in Boston at the time... and let's say I'm doing all I can to be in Chicago if the Cubs ever win).  This post is about why we cheer, aka, what sports can do for us.  And normalcy after tragedy is one of those things.  So in that vein, I'm pushing ahead, business mildly as usual, for the city of Boston.  Here's the quote, and the post, as intended.  We love you, Boston...

"It's good for your soul to be emotionally invested in something you have no control over."

Until your team loses, of course.  But it's still good for you.  In the vein of normalcy, and the original intention of a short Michigan loss moratorium, here is what our family personally got from that loss.  Which, by the way, I and all other Michigan fans I know have described as "disappointing, but a great run."  

Harvard Square - my personal fave place in Boston

- We entered our 2 1/2 year old in our bracket pool, playing a system based on where her family went to college, locations of schools related to her family, and mascots.  I filled it out in less than 3 minutes, no exaggeration.  As her parents went to Michigan, she had them winning it.  Up until the finals, she never left the Top 3.  If it had been Michigan v. Wichita St. in the finals, she would have won the pool.  Unfortunately, she finished 5th and out of the money.  But watching her bracket was hilarious, and the wife printed out a ton of emails and kept her bracket for her baby book.  

- The aforementioned family stomach bug of 2013 hit during Easter week and weekend.  On Friday morning, it was Daddy's turn.  That night, as Michigan made one of the greatest comebacks in tourney history over Kansas, the wife and I were watching OT.  At one point, I just looked at her and go, "my stomach hurts so bad, but I can't tell if it's nerves or I'm gonna be sick again."  Turned out it was nerves.  But it felt like I was gonna puke.

Davis Square - Somerville, MA, home of Tufts

- Ever since the tournament, our 2 1/2 year old all of the sudden is good with sharing Mommy and Daddy with sports on TV, and watches and wants to watch some to boot.  Examples - she watched almost the entire Michigan/Florida blow out, cheering, "yay, yellow and blue!" the whole time (the snack tray helped a bit).  She's been watching quite a bit of baseball, and loved the Masters ("I want to play golf, too.")  She even spent a half hour in Mom Mom's lap watching bowling, which made Mom Mom's day because 1. Time with grandkids in laps makes any grandparents day, and 2. Mom Mom happened to be quite the college bowler in her day.  

- In more toddler news, she wore a yellow Michigan hoodie to school the entire tournament.  After we made the Final Four, I said to the wife, "you know, that thing is getting really stained bad, I'm not sure we can send her to school in it, but I don't think I want to wash it, and she's gonna want to wear it (translation - if she doesn't get to wear it, Daddy's ears won't work for a week)."  The wife just gives me this look, and goes, "are you f***ing kidding me, we are not washing that."  It had multiple red juice stains and visible dirt on it.  I fell in love with the wife just a bit more in that moment.

BC - my grad school and one of many beautiful campuses

And that's just one family's tourney experience.  In the "not quite business as usual" vein, let's go big picture, for my peeps in Boston.  

- Remember after 9/11?  Me, too.  I don't know how you all got back to normal, and for the native New Yorkers, I don't know how or if you ever got there.  I remember baseball.  I remember a playoff hunt.  I remember trying to decide if it was okay for me to still hate the Yankees, even though the whole country was rooting for them.  I remember deciding that, if the world was going to be okay, I had to hate the Yankees.  I remember commenting that the Yankees should play the shortstop and second baseman at double play depth because Mariano makes a lot of people hit half pop ups up the middle or weak grounders up the middle, and a double play would win them the World Series.  Then I remember cheering when Luis Gonzalez hit a blooper exactly where Jeter would have been standing if I managed the Yankees.  And for a moment, it was all okay.  This will happen somewhere, someday, in Boston.  Soon.

- My friends and I, in a soon-to-be-revitalized tradition, used to meet for long weekends in towns where the Tigers were playing road games.  People came from wherever they were for a mini-reunion.  Memories of this include walking 2 miles in 100 degree heat in Baltimore and being in downtown Pittsburgh when the Red Wings lost the Cup to the Pens.  Oh, and the Tigers were 0-however many games we saw.  But the best memory was my friends coming from wherever they were to be there.  This means a lot when you don't live in your home town anymore.

- This final story sums up why I really love sports.  So about 7-8 years ago we got our friend, who is literally probably the smartest guy in the world into fantasy football and baseball, and more into sports in general.  I was also running an NFL suicide pool at the time.  One Monday, I get the following email, pretty much verbatim, cause it cracks me up to this day:

"My fantasy baseball team lost in the playoffs, my fantasy football team lost, and I just lost in the 2nd week of the suicide pool.  I can't think of anything else and this whole week is going to suck because of it.  Thanks a lot."

Old school and awesome

I love sports.  And I love beer.  Our "Lists of Lists" tournament preview got a lot of love, and I realized I left a beer-related list off.  So here it is, cause I know you all missed it SOOOOO much!

Top 5 Guilty Pleasure Beers

5.  Lion's Head - once a year at the Phils tailgate.  $16/30 pack.  Yummy.

4.  Leinenkugel Summer Shandy - delicious on a hot day or Comerica Park.  Or Comerica Park on a hot day.

3.  Labatt Blue - reminds me of home

2.  Miller High Life - go to cheapy.  And fun to drink with J.B.

1.  Allagash White - its only a guilty pleasure for a beer geek, and I finally realized my obsession with it, even though I rarely drink it anymore.  You know when you were young, and you had that crush on some TV girl?  In my youth, it would be Winnie Cooper, Topanga, Sam from Growing Pains, etc.  They were your "first love" when you're like 10.  And you always remember them as those child stars, not as they are now.  Yeah, you might watch an old rerun, and kind of laugh, but you don't sit and watch a marathon of it.  So Allagash White is my first beer crush.  I rarely drink it, and I've found many more better ladies in my life, but I'll always remember her as she was and occasionally indulge in one.

Thanks to all of our new Twitter followers for their support and all the great feedback on the "Detroitness" piece.  Share on or check it out if you haven't read it yet.  Please keep praying for those in Boston, they will need us all, near and far.  Contact Logical Betting at logicalbetting@gmail.com and twitter.com/logicalbetting.  Hasta.