Who Says It's Only a Game?

I do not think that many people would dispute the fact that baseball fans and players are much more superstitious and generally weird when it comes to their baseball team and what makes them win or lose. David Eckstein eats macaroni and cheese with chicken teriyaki every day during the season. It is his lucky meal.

I remember during the World Series in Anaheim, the usher that normally patrols my section was working the back player gate. Like many of the ushers in Angel Stadium, Bob is in his late 60s or early 70s. Someone left a large bicycle rack in the players’ parking lot. It was rather large, like the ones we used to have in front of school. The worst thing was that it was in Troy Percival's parking space.

Panic began to erupt when Darin Erstad pulled into his normal parking space. He hurriedly got out of his truck and told Bob that he had to help him move the bicycle rack right away! Bob was more than happy to help, but the thing weighed at least a couple of hundred pounds!

Ersties began to panic even further. Percy would be there any minute and would become insane if he saw it there. It could cause us to lose the series. With much difficulty, Darin and Bob managed to drag the bike rack over to the side of the building and just in the nick of time, as Percy was just coming around the corner. They never did tell him why they were both covered in beads of sweat.

Now, as a fan, I can definitely say I am just as superstitious as the players. One year, I wore an Angels jersey for months. It smelled so bad, I think it could stand up on its own. But I swore that we won every time I wore that thing to the game. When I could no longer stand the smell, I decided to throw it in the wash.

Wouldn't you know it—we had one of the longest losing streaks that season. During 2002, I made sure that I wore a player jersey t-shirt under my Angels jersey. If I forgot it, I either made the one-and-a-half hour commute back home to get it, or I just bought another one at the stadium. I have enough red t-shirts to do about three loads of laundry.

I always knew that, as a baseball fan, I did things a little differently. I really didn't think much of it because my baseball friends were all the same way. They wore special shirts or socks or jewelry as long as they kept winning. Once they started losing, then they would take the item off or change what they were doing.

Only when I watched the movie Fever Pitch did I realize that maybe it wasn't so normal. I mean, the character that Jimmy Fallon played was almost exactly like me. I swear I don't have Angels bed sheets though! I could not believe how upset the girlfriend was when he said he went to Spring Training every year for a few days. What is so wrong with that?

Well, the other night, when I was watching Game Six of the ALCS, I saw the ad banner for a large bank. It advertised that you could have a checking account with your team logo, as well as a debit card with the same logo.

Now, the ad showed the Red Sox, but the disclaimer said you could choose your own team. I didn't want to click on the banner because it had the Red Sox's logo on it. After all, the Red Sox are the Angels current rival and enemy. I went to the Angels' website and clicked every page looking for the ad. No matter how many times I clicked, the ad banner did not appear.

I went to the bank's page and only found an ad for the MLB credit card and choices for NASCAR and NFL, but no MLB. Reluctantly, I clicked on the banner with the Red Sox on it and began to fill out the information on the page.

When I was at the end, the page gave me a notice that I would be notified in a few days if I was approved. Hmm, I thought, nothing about which team I wanted. I assumed that I could choose that once everything was approved and I made a deposit.

Well, Monday morning I received an e-mail stating that my account was approved and my new Red Sox debit card and checks were on their way. NOOOOOOOOO!!! I frantically called the 800-number. This had to be stopped. My name could not appear anywhere near the Red Sox logo! The only worse thing would be if it appeared on a Dodgers logo.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, I explained to the customer-service representative my dilemma. She didn't quite understand why I was so upset. No, I wasn't yelling or anything like that, but I could sense the fear in my voice. I begged her to change everything as soon as possible and make sure that the cards and checks did not get sent out!

Though she was very nice, she just did not seem to understand why it was such a big deal. I could hear her typing on the other end as I tried to explain that the Red Sox beat my team, so I could not have anything with their name on it.

Within a few minutes, she advised me that she was not able to make any changes to my account at that time. I had to wait for an available supervisor to make the changes. She assured me that someone would call me as soon as the corrections were made. A few hours later, all was well. The account had been changed and supposedly new cards and checks were on their way. I guess we shall see.

In the meantime, I will watch the former Angel Joe Maddon lead his team to their first World Series victory. Though I don't have any Rays gear, as I did in Game Seven of the ALCS, I will wear my Angels necklace and earrings. Go Rays!!