My March superstitions

By JDS/Staff Writer
OLD TOWN — As I walked out my door Tuesday morning with my cup of coffee in hand, I caught a glimpse of a snowflake falling from the sky and sticking to my truck. At least the day’s little storm rolled in with much wind but little snow, but the first thought I had in my head walking down my steps was, “I knew I should not have taken those sandbags out of my truck bed this weekend.”
That’s right. I jinxed us, and I wanted to apologize for that. I did it the last time we got hammered by snow as well, because I pulled my golf clubs out on a nice day and practiced in my back yard and Mother Nature was not going to let us enjoy the warm weather too soon.
I’m not a terribly superstitious man. My folks own a black cat, I’ve walked under ladders before and I’m fairly certain I broke a mirror once before and so far I think I’m doing alright.
When it comes to sports, however, that’s when I get a little strange. If the Green Bay Packers win one week, I’ll make sure the next week I wear the same hat or same Brett Favre jersey (the Packers version and not that pitiful Jets jersey that he wore last year) to aid the team along.
I’m 1,500 miles away from Lambeau Field, but I still feel like somehow me — through the TV set — can help the team move that extra yard.
Strange. Yeah, I know.
Despite the fact that I understand how little influence I have on a game by watching it through at TV set at home some seven states away, I still can’t get over the fact I have to do my part as a fan to help the team out. That’s exactly what was going on Friday night as the 12th-seeded Wisconsin Badger took on No. 5 Florida State in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, otherwise known as March Madness. I had my “Sconnie” T-shirt on, my beaten-up red Badgers cap adorned and was there squinting at the big-screen TV at the local pub to see what the score was in the upper corner of the screen.
Any time the Badgers were falling behind, I would unconsciously start twisting my cap around. Any time they started to do well, the cap would stop moving.
Somehow as a fan I’d like to think I had something to do with Wisconsin coming back from 12 down at halftime to beat the touted Seminoles in overtime. I know better than to believe that, but it’s what fans do. They always want to believe they can help the team.
One of my friends, Kristin, is a huge Boston Red Sox fan. Last year during the postseason, my wife and Kristin watched two playoff games together and both times the Red Sox lost. When we asked if she would like to come watch the next game with us, she said no because she would not jinx the team by watching another game with my wife. As Kristin put it, it was bad karma. Everyone can laugh about it, but Kristin was not going to do anything to jeopardize the Sox by watching the game with fans.
It’s simple fanboy superstitions. No matter where you go in the world, these superstitions manifest themselves in a whole slew of different ways. It’s one of the ways we as fans find a way to connect with our heroes in the sports world.
Superstitions only go so far, however. Despite watching the games pretty much by herself, Kristin’s Red Sox did not do so well in the playoffs last year. And despite me wearing my same beat-up Badger hat and Wisconsin Sweet 16 T-shirt on Sunday afternoon, Wisconsin fell to Xavier during March Madness.
That doesn’t mean dressing up in jerseys, throwing on the Red Sox cap or even the iconic foam Cheesehead for Packer games and getting all geared up for sports is one way that we can all forget about the struggles of life for a few hours and get lost in a game. That’s part of the reason I get into March Madness so much each year — well that, and the fact football and baseball are not on TV and I need something to give me my sports fix.
However, when the games end, I’ll be right back outside throwing my sandbags into the back of my truck again and waiting impatiently for spring to arrive.