When does the next World Series start again?

Last night I did something I had not done in front of a baseball game in 20 years.
I paced.
I also walked rapidly around the room, punched a pillow or two and said “Come ON” a few times under my breath and through gritted teeth.
My wife would tell you I act that way all the time, but only during Kansas basketball season and occasionally when the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in a meaningful game, which happens about once every five years. Yep, during a Kansas hoops season, that’s about the usual play around the house, cursing under my breath (Jayden imitates me now after all) and swatting a pillow after yet another turnover.
But last night the Colorado Rockies were swept by the Boston Red Sox, and that means a couple things. It means I owe a Boston blogger or two a Colorado beer. Worst of all, it means the fun is over.
I had forgotten how much fun that was.
I was a Kansas City Royals fan. I still am, actually. Years ago, as I grew up in Kansas City, Kan., it was good to be a Royals fan, as they won a lot and had players such as George Brett and Frank White and Bret Saberhagen. They won the World Series in 1985. Then they didn’t go the playoffs again, like, ever.
The Rockies were my national league team, but I wasn’t a serious fan until, well, that little streak. The one where they won pretty much every game for two months. That was fun. Really, really fun. And now it’s over.
Bummer.
This is not to bash the Rockies. No way. This is a love letter of sorts. They helped me rediscover my love for baseball. There’s a reason all those books sit on my top shelf and I own Ken Burns’ PBS series that made the game seem like God chose it as his own. I really used to love it.
But then economics played too much of a part in the game, and it started to turn me off. The NFL, for instance, would not have a team make the playoffs 14 straight years (although I’m starting to wonder about the Patriots) like the Yankees because all the teams share revenue and have a salary cap.
The unfairness of it all hurt teams like the Royals and later the Rockies, even if Colorado did give $374 billion to Mike Hampton, who thanked us by giving up only six runs a game. That and the fact that those two teams sucked for many, many years, while my Kansas basketball team continued to win, helped convince me that baseball was somewhat of a waste of time. I followed it always, but only the way you might follow a girl in the park with your eyes: You look, smile, linger a bit and then move on.
Well, that was then. This postseason, maybe, convinced me otherwise. The Rockies should be good next year. I’d be shocked if they weren’t. And if they aren’t that great, well, I know now to just hang in there, until August, and they’ll win 30 in a row and take the division again.
Only this time, I’ll be waiting until that streak happens, on Opening Day, counting the months until September and wondering if Holliday can win another battling title.

Edit: Speaking of Kansas, the football team, not the basketball team, is 8-0. That hasn't happened since 1908. That's right. 1908. My GRANDFATHER wasn't even born yet. Was the car around yet? I think Ty Cobb played back then. Indoor plumbing was still a dream (prompting me to never complain about diapers again; can you imagine fighting over who had to clean out the hole in the ground?).

Only getting bettah

Well, other than the fact that it looks like doctors replaced my balls with two blueberries, things are much better today. And I'm home today, by myself, for only the second time since the twins were born, to rest up. That's a nice reward for this, other than eventual sex without having to worry about having twins again.

I know all you females who had a C-section are just saying "waaaaaahhhh, deal with it," and you're right, this wasn't nearly as bad as that, but there is a unique, sickly pain with getting kicked in the junk that's hard to describe. Something like eating bad, Spicy Chinese and washing it down with five shots of Everclear, and then having to change three toddler diapers.

I played the Riverchasers for the first time last night and had a blast. I also caught some good cards and stole just enough and sucked out royally once to finish 13/104 for an incredible $2 profit. Who said tournaments aren't profitable? I ran Presto into Lucko's 7s, who managed to flop a full house just to add insult to the injury.

It looks pretty bleak for my Rockies now. They had their chances last night, but the Series isn't over. If the Rockies win Saturday we've got a shot at it, although stealing one from Beckett might be a pretty tall order, like me actually winning a blogger tournament again.

I'm hanging in there again, so you should too.

Go Rockies! At least for now

Two hours to go before the Rockies game.
Yeah, I’m watching.
Yeah, I’m excited.
Yeah, I’m on the bandwagon.
I never thought I would be a bandwagon fan. I’ve been loyal to the Kansas Jayhawks and the Kansas City Chiefs (almost to a fault there) for many years. I was a baseball fan, too, for many years, to the point where I used to be able to tell you who finished 10th in the MVP race in 1984.
But I lost interest in baseball as the Kansas City Royals continued to turn in awful, terrible, no-good-very-bad seasons. And I became disenchanted when it wasn’t entirely the Royals fault they were bad. The Royals, as a small market team, didn’t have the $893 million other teams, like the Yankees, could spend on players. Heck, the Royals could barely afford the guy flipping burgers at McDonald’s.
As I began climbing mountains in earnest and added kids to my life, I barely have time for the sports I love, let alone the ones I don’t usually follow. So I made a deal with myself. I would follow the Avalanche, the Rockies and the Nuggets by reading the stories every day in the paper, and if the team warranted it, I would start to give them more of my time.
I was, in other words, willing to be a loyal fan if the team earned my time.
Some call this being a bandwagon fan. That’s true. My good friend Jared Fiel, who is such a Rockies nut he wrote a column Monday about how the games may be causing him chest pains, calls me a “Rockies Observer.” I’m OK with that as well.
I won’t have the right to brag about staying with the team through the years if they do win the World Series. But I might buy a T-shirt.
So I feel a tiny bit funny cheering so hard for the Rockies now. But, heck, I enjoyed the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup season (as well as the many when they made the playoffs). And Monday’s game was one of the greatest baseball games I’ve seen. It was fun for me to enjoy a team in postseason play again. That hasn’t happened to me since 1985.
There were more than 50,000 at that game, too. Three weeks ago, when the Rockies started their winning streak that got them into the playoffs, I don’t think there were 15,000 at the game.
So I may be a bandwagon fan. But I don’t suspect I’m alone either.


P.S. Two links you might find of interest:

• This is PokerTube, a site I recently discovered that puts poker shows up. I missed taping "High Stakes Poker" and was thrilled to discover it in full form on this site, edited with the commercials out. I don't know how this site gets away with that, but I'm loving it. I'm probably late the game on this as usual, but I don't know if I'll ever watch GSN's poker show on my TV again.

• I wrote a story on some of my favorite bloggers for Pokerworks. Yours too probably. It's not one of my best works but I enjoyed doing it, and the guys (and it was all guys for this story) gave me some great answers to my mundane questions.