Saturday, August 18, 2007

Superstitions and baseball...

It was probably about 10 years ago when I first heard him say..."Where are my lucky underwear?". Had I known then what I know now about the great American tradition of baseball and all that it comes with, I might not have exchanged those rings...

Over the last 10 years or so of our marriage I have been able to learn, firsthand, the way that these little superstitions work. Usually after I break one or ruin the luck or jinx the team or whatever the catch phrase is.

One year it was the Hershey t-shirt. He wore that shirt under his uniform every game. I washed it the same way each time, until one night when it wasn't in the pile with his uniform. I put a different white t-shirt in the pile of clean clothes and when he found it...well I was not so politely informed that he ALWAYS wears the Hershey shirt and nothing else will do.

It may be a pair of undershorts or even a before the game ritual, or the cheek I kiss him goodbye on. But usually it is something that is completely beyond my female comprehension. So today, when I saw his filthy, dirty hat lying on the floor I popped it into the washer with the rest of the blues... I didn't dry it, left it nice and shaped to be air dried by the lucky baseballs trolls and their tiny, invisible hairdryers. When my husband woke up I tentatively asked him, "So, would you, had you a choice, choose to wash your hat or leave it dirty?" The look that came from his eyes could have bore a hole in my head. "I take that as a 'leave it'?" I nervously giggled. Just an FYI to anyone out there. Never and I mean NEVER wash a hat during a winning streak.

I politely reminded him that there was something else that he hasn't done the entire winning streak and if he pushed it, I could go a year or better without it. End of conversation.

Play Ball!

DISCLAIMER*** I will take complete responsibility for any loss to the team because I a: washed the dirty hat and b:told the world about it.

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