Here's a little light hearted fun as we tire of spring training and wait for the games to start to count.
If you’re a “true” fan for a particular team, there is a good chance you have something meaningful you do, that you are convinced affects the outcome of an important game. It could be an unwashed jersey, or a specific tee shirt you have to wear on the day of an important game. Or it can be something you do before or during a game like using the same escalator to get to your seat or eating peanuts to start the top of the 3rd inning. Even if you don’t want to admit it, I am sure you have done this at least once. Whatever it is, you can’t argue with success. So despite listening to Michael Kay rant on occasion about how ridiculous it is to think that what we do as fans somehow affects the outcome of the game, if it works, we keep doing it. If it doesn't, we try to find something else.
Along the same type of thinking, there is also the occasional correlation between certain historical events and your team’s success, which we happen to stumble on as fans. Kind of like the stars being aligned a certain way, which makes us feel more confident about our team. Here’s something I have stumbled on recently. Let’s call it some March Madness.
Did you know that the Kentucky Wildcats have won 7 National Basketball Championships (second most all-time)? Guess who won the World Series the last six times that happened? Correct, the 27 time world champion New York Yankees (the most all-time). The years were: 1949; 1951; 1958; 1978; 1996; and 1998. In 4 of those 6 years the Yankees had 97 or more wins, including 114 in 1998 (by arguably baseball's best team ever). Of the 7 Kentucky championships, the only year that both teams didn’t win, was over 50 years ago in 1948 when the Yanks disappointed by having “only” 94 wins and finishing 3rd in the American League.
So far this year the Kentucky Wildcats have made it to the Elite 8. So on Saturday let’s watch intently and cheer the Wildcats on to victory over West Virginia and eventually their 8th National Championship. Maybe that will later translate into number 28 for the Yanks! Sure can't hurt.
If you’re a “true” fan for a particular team, there is a good chance you have something meaningful you do, that you are convinced affects the outcome of an important game. It could be an unwashed jersey, or a specific tee shirt you have to wear on the day of an important game. Or it can be something you do before or during a game like using the same escalator to get to your seat or eating peanuts to start the top of the 3rd inning. Even if you don’t want to admit it, I am sure you have done this at least once. Whatever it is, you can’t argue with success. So despite listening to Michael Kay rant on occasion about how ridiculous it is to think that what we do as fans somehow affects the outcome of the game, if it works, we keep doing it. If it doesn't, we try to find something else.Along the same type of thinking, there is also the occasional correlation between certain historical events and your team’s success, which we happen to stumble on as fans. Kind of like the stars being aligned a certain way, which makes us feel more confident about our team. Here’s something I have stumbled on recently. Let’s call it some March Madness.
Did you know that the Kentucky Wildcats have won 7 National Basketball Championships (second most all-time)? Guess who won the World Series the last six times that happened? Correct, the 27 time world champion New York Yankees (the most all-time). The years were: 1949; 1951; 1958; 1978; 1996; and 1998. In 4 of those 6 years the Yankees had 97 or more wins, including 114 in 1998 (by arguably baseball's best team ever). Of the 7 Kentucky championships, the only year that both teams didn’t win, was over 50 years ago in 1948 when the Yanks disappointed by having “only” 94 wins and finishing 3rd in the American League.
So far this year the Kentucky Wildcats have made it to the Elite 8. So on Saturday let’s watch intently and cheer the Wildcats on to victory over West Virginia and eventually their 8th National Championship. Maybe that will later translate into number 28 for the Yanks! Sure can't hurt.
