Writing's on the Wall

Returning to the subject of baseball and superstitions, I previously wrote about my experience this year with the Yankees-Red Sox games in my Ladders 'Bout to Fall post in late April. Well, as you probably know, the two teams met up again this week, so I'm going to, once again, recount my personal experience with the games.

On Tuesday night, I basically watched the 7-0 Red Sox victory in its entirety, although I, somewhat understandably, only had one eye on the game during its last few innings. I had a softball game on Wednesday night, so I only caught the end of the Yankees' 6-5 loss, and didn't witness any scoring in the process. I watched the first six innings of Thursday's game before heading out to the show in Cambridge. The Yankees trailed 1-0 when I left, but were leading 3-1 when I arrived at the bar. I then had an eye on the television for most of Boston's three-run 8th inning rally.

To recap, I watched about 18 innings of the action, and the Yankees scored zero runs. They were on the wrong end of a 10-0 score while I was watching, and actually outscored the Sox 8-6 when I was not. As I've said before, I'm really not superstitious, but I'm vowing that, when the two teams play a four-game series from August 6-9, I will not watch a single pitch.

If the Yankees miraculously win three or four of those games, I will do the same for the next series. If they win one or two, I'll probably return to watching, but if they get swept again, I'll also carry the plan over to the next series. However, that will be for an entirely different reason than anything having to do with superstition.