Come lately?

[muckefuck]

I must admit, despite the high geek factor among my Friends, I'm surprised that my_tallest is the first to even mention (and then only in passing) the fact that, like, there's a pennant race going on. Yeah yeah, sports are stupid, there are much more important things in the world then who wins a damn game, rooting for a team is vulgar tribalism, yadda yadda yadda. I admit that, despite being a lifelong Cardinals fan, I've been paying only half attention, expecting them to walk all over those upstart Astros. Well I'm awake now!

I stumbled into consciousness last night after Chinese class when I popped into Big Chicks for my $11.75 dollar burger (once one figures in cheese, tips, beers, and such). Initially, I paid no interest to the game being televised all around me. NY and the Sox had already gone nine innings by then. But after an hour or so, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. I was fascinated by the concentration on Loaiza's face even as I found myself rooting for each Red Sox batter in turn. I hissed when Jeter stepped up to the plate and laughed when he struck out. And I joined half the bar in cheering Ortiz when he brought in the winning run.

I couldn't find anyone who admitted to being a Yankees man; the half who didn't cheer were apathetic, not opposing. One of them was a young guy from my home town, equal parts handsome and drunk, who was outrageously flirting with me. His technique was karaokic: After some initial quips, he began warbling Erasure, Morrisey, and REM into my ear. (Or attempting to--there was a lot of *mumble mumble* in place of lyrics.) When Ortiz stepped up for something like his tenth at-bat of the night, I said to him, "How can you not root for that man?" Poor guy; with competition like that, he didn't have a chance of winning away my affections.

I may just have to pop in again tonight.

Comments

Sports = a different kind of geekery

[febrile.livejournal.com]

Speak for your own friends list, bub! I don't have to read the sports pages to know what's going on in baseball, I've had at least four people talking about it on a regular basis.

Me, I'm a one-stop shop for Oklahoma football info, too! I think it's only gotten me de-friended by one person! (And I didn't like her much anyway.)

Re: Sports = a different kind of geekery

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I think it's only gotten me de-friended by one person!

Nebraskans on lj? (I'm an ex-pat, myself.)

Re: Sports = a different kind of geekery

[febrile.livejournal.com]

No, just someone who doesn't particularly care.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Just as kayiwa is for ManU and welcomerain for the Chicago Fire.

I consider you a real aberration. Baseball, with its emphasis on statistics, is much more of a geek sport than football, with its battlefield tactics. Why aren't any of the engineers I know posting about baseball?

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I don't think that the baseballer's obsession with statistics makes it a geek sport. I think that the statistics subculture is a byproduct of being so fascinated by the sport as to find things about it to catalog. In other words, the culture of the sport brings out geekery in its own ranks. The statistics certainly don't make the game more inherently interesting to gearheads, who seem no more naturally drawn to, say, gambling than to baseball.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

The following conversation keeps happening in my house:

Kitsune: Hey, the Astros won.
Me: ARE THEY GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES?
Kitsune: No, not yet.
Me: DID THEY WIN THE PENNANT?
Kitsune: No.
Me: When's this pennant thing?
Kitsune: Next go-round.
Me: Argh! Bother me not with quarterfinals!

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Actually, the quarterfinals are over. The current race is for the pennant. Either the Astros (boo! hiss!) or the Cards (yay!) will be the Nat'l League champs. The winner will then go on to battle either the Yankees (boo! hiss!) or the Red Sox (yeah, right) in the World Series.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

It's all so confuzzling. All I really want is a hot dog.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

The winner will then go on to battle either the Yankees (boo! hiss!) or the Red Sox (yeah, right) in the World Series.

Who's your daddy? :-)

[bunj.livejournal.com]

Keep talking, smart boy. The Cards don't have a reputation for choking in the World Series. The Red Sox are just prolonging the pride before the fall.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I think you meant to say, didn't have a reputation.

[my-tallest.livejournal.com]

I only mentioned it in passing because it's pretty much omnipresent in Boston. Like mentioning that you took a breath the other day.

Also, it's not that we're tired of the talk so we aren't talking about it. We're just tired. It's been a crazy 48 hours of baseball. And those 14 hour games at Fenway mean my section of the city has near-daylight conditions from the Fenway Lights on the cloudy sky until earl-aye in the mornin'.