Signs and Portents for a Bloody Thursday Night in L.A.

This is the city: Los Angeles, CA. It's a Thursday, Sept. 25, 5:35 PM. The sun is beginning to set, but it's still warm.

The night is looking to be a big one. The Dodgers have clinched the Western Division Pennant of the National League before even playing their game that day, the final home date of the regular season.

The No. 1 ranked USC Trojans are playing a night game at Oregon State, to be televised on ESPN, promising to be a great time.

I've just gotten home from work and my lovely and beautiful wife has just put a rack of BBQ pork ribs on the stove to cool before dinner. I'm setting the table with drinks and silverware; then I go back into the kitchen to load up a plate.

The ribs were cooked as two large racks, so I get out a very sharp butchers knife to cut the cartilage—a knife that needs washing before use. As I'm carefully washing it with my hands, I think, "Hmm, maybe I should be using a sponge to clean this."

Of course, as soon as I think that, I slice a good part of the ring finger on my right hand. Oh, &$#@&!!!

At least I'm at the sink so I start running cold water on the cut. My wife doesn't freak out, given she's a nurse, and runs to get some bandages. I'm squeezing my finger and holding it under the cold water, every time I release the pressure, it starts bleeding rapidly.

Of course I'm really ticked off. A great dinner is messed up. But then I remember the games that are just about to start. I think to myself, "This is not a good sign." Boy, was I ever right.

As my wife wraps the finger, I start having trouble breathing, break out in a sweat, and get real thirsty at the same time. She tells me to calm down and relax (yeah, right), so I go to lie down in the cool, darkened bedroom for a couple of minutes.

Feeling better after a little bit, I get up, go over to the table and sit down to eat. Losing the use of the ring finger on my dominant hand makes handling a fork difficult. Fortunately, with ribs being a finger food, that isn't a problem.

Eating salad is another matter. After a few attempts dropping most of the salad, I finally say the hell with this foolishness and finish eating it with my hands as well.

The USC game starts poorly, with the Trojans punting. Oregon St. and their little running back tears up yardage, all the way down the field and into the end zone, as if USC's defense was tissue paper. Damn!!

Dinner being over, I take some meds and go back to the bedroom to lie down and watch the game. I get drowsy and, boom, I'm out. When I wake up, it's near the end of the third quarter and USC is losing 21-14. What the hell?!?!

I go back to the living room, where there are two TVs, and I can watch both USC and the Dodgers. The Trojans play like crap, blowing their No. 1 status. I can already see the crowing and BS coming up from the SEC part of the nation in my mind's eye. Oh, it's not going to be pretty.

The Dodgers are trailing. They keep getting close but end up losing by a couple of runs. That doesn't really matter at the Ravine, as a big celebration breaks out, first in the clubhouse, then spilling back onto the field, as the Dodgers revel in their Division Championship.

The meds and the surreal celebration somewhat adjust my dark mood over the Trojan disaster. Now, we have to reset and concentrate on winning the Pac-10 and earning a Rose Bowl berth. A chance to play for the national championship seems next to unlikely.

But who knows for sure, as it is still September, and there may be many more strange things to come this season.

The Dodgers go up to San Francisco with a division title already wrapped up. They'll play out the schedule using mostly reserves and September callups. Giants fans will hurl their abuse, but down deep, they know Sunday is the end of their team's season, while the Dodgers will be advancing to the playoffs.

Now it's the next day, and I have to employ a modified nine-finger typing method (with a boatload of mistakes) to punch this story out. My teams might have lost the battles yesterday, but this is one fan who is not conceding any wars. Tomorrow is another day, and there is nothing else to do but Fight On!