Rabbit's foot

Update (May 3): Add two more wins for baby, now 14-1-1 in baseball, 1-0 on the road. Plus it turns out Mom is a hex upon Baylor, as they gave up 31 runs (against this rather baaaaaaad Texas offense) and committed ten (ten!) errors in the two games we were at. That makes Texas 2-0 against Baylor in Waco on my birthday in games attended by me. Warning: Sample size is not statistically significant.

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The better you know me, the more you know that I am an anthropomorphic pox on the fortunes of my favorite sports teams. I single-handedly count as -3 points in any game I attend, Vegas would be wise to track my movements. There was a streak from the early nineties until I got to Mizzou that my teams did not win a single game I attended (I am convinced this is true).

Oh, there have been some highlights since 1992. I attended the Mizzou-Iowa State basketball game over winter break in 2000-2001, a 3OT thriller when Clarence "I think I'll just jack another three" Gilbert jacked uncountable threes... and actually made some of them. I was at the first Mizzou football win over Nebraska since (literally) before my birth. That was possibly the best game I have ever attended, and was made even better by the fact that I was able to run onto the field with thousands of other students without being one of the baker's dozen who actually got arrested, like my friend Boner did. Plus, the next day we were able to spot Snots in the background of the picture on the front page of the paper by locating the V pattern in his hair caused by his early male-pattern baldness, which was awesome times a million. And the first college baseball game I ever attended was a Texas win over Oklahoma in which Adrian Alaniz threw a no-hitter (only one I've ever seen) and occurred in the same season that UT won their sixth title.

But good god there have been serious stinkers, more than wins. I remember going to a Blues game for one of Zack's friend's birthdays when we got to sit in a box. Problem was they were playing the Devils back in their neutral zone trap days, and the next day the Post-Dispatch referred to the game as the "most boring Blues game in years." So that was awesome. Every Stanley Cup playoff game I ever attended was almost certainly a loss to the Red Wings, although luckily I didn't attend the hockey game that made me sicker to my stomach than any game in any sport I have ever watched (Game 7, Overtime, Yzerman, Blue line, Casey; you know what I'm talking about). And I am trying to forget the Mizzou Homecoming win over Kansas where supposedly the players ran to the goal posts after the game and began tearing them down and the student section begrudgingly joined in. Kansas!

But all of that is changing for Ol' Luke, and there's only one possible explanation: My baby is such good luck that it overtakes my bad luck. Consider this: from 2004 to mid-2008, my teams* in games attended by me were (as best I can recall) 5-8. Altogether, that's not such a bad record compared to my past, but it's 2-2 in football (two Mizzou losses to Texas, Texas wins vs. Rice [oooooh!] and North Texas [aaaahh!]; obviously we weren't springing for football tix before Ariane enrolled) and a bad 4-6 in baseball.

Since last summer? An astounding 25-4-1, which breaks down as 6-1 in football (Mizzou lost to Texas in Austin for the loss), 3-1 in basketball (Mizzou beat Texas in Austin for one of those wins, plus this includes how Texas somehow beat UCLA in December), 1-0 in women's basketball, 3-1 in softball, and (here's the big one) 12-1-1 in baseball so far this season.

Odds are we won't get football tickets this year. It's too hot/loud/busy/terrible all around to bring a baby. Baseball baby can go to. Everybody else brings their babies. I think Disch-Falk Field may contain the highest number of Baby Bjorns per attendee in the world.

That baseball record has me convinced that she'll be a softball player, probably a pitcher, driving her mother crazy with the windmill motion. All I know is that I need to start gambling on the outright scores.

*Oops, forgot to explain that my teams are Texas in everything unless they are playing Mizzou in football or basketball. There are no other teams because there is no one else to watch down here, unless I finally decide to pony up about $20 to go watch the Austin Toros of the D-League just to heckle Quin Snyder.