I Was a Good Kid

I've often wondered what I did as a youngster to deserve the torture my parents' inflicted on me later in life. I always did my homework, rarely talked back and did the dishes every night without compliant. By most accounts I was a pretty good child, who has grown up to a functioning member of society. All these things make me wonder, why as a youngster my parents felt compelled to allow me to become a sports fan. Even worse than that, they failed to encourage me to become a fair weather fan, who supports the best team year in and year out, making claims like "I've always liked the Yankees because they my uncle is from New York" or "I didn't really like the Cowboys but was a Troy Aikman fan so I supported them in the 90s." No I was raised to love the Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Bengals and the University of Louisville Cardinals. 3 teams which have inflicted untold amounts of emotional damage on me over the years. Not a single championship from any of these teams in 18 years (sorry I'm not counting the Ladybirds dance championships, if that makes me wrong I don't wanna be right).

After last nights terrible showing by our $5 bajillion closer (why you would pay good money for a closer when unless you have rivera is beyond me, but I clearly am not smart enough to run a professional baseball team as well as the Reds), the season is essentially over. This got me to thinking if kids who grew up without sports ever felt the same type of pain over what they love. Is it possible to feel completely devastated if the lead in Swan Lake tears his knee on a cheap shot by the understudy in the biggest performance since Stanley Robinson was doing lines at the Super Bowl? Do grown men dedicate entire websites and countless hours to trying to get the director of their local actors theater fired b/c he isn't following basic rules of theatre? I would argue that non-sports fans avoid the pain we in Reds nation have felt since the one game playoff in 99. Though looking back that 99 season was quite a ride.

So I guess my point is, my parents really did a number on me. Sadly I still care. Sadly I look forward to football season and read articles about Chad Johnson coming back thinking, "maybe we can sneak up on some teams this year". I hear rumblings that UofL basketball has another amazing team and this is our year. I hear Coach Kragthorpe (view his resume at http://www.firekragthorpenow.com/) has a team which could potentially qualify for the Toronto Bowl played December 5th (you will soon learn there is one coach out there that I hate far far far more than Dusty).

I guess we endure the above pain in hopes of the one moment when things finally break right and all that pain is erased by the joy of winning. I guess we like caring about something so silly as sports. The only problem is doing so leads to so much pain and frustration. Well bring it on Dusty, because I can take it. I've lived through worse and hopefully once you are long gone from the Reds organization and Dunn is being elected into the hall of fame as a Yankee we will have a team that is done rebuilding. A team which will make up for all these years of pain and for once I'll feel better than the kid who walks out of Swan Lake. I guess that is why we beat on, in hopes of higher highs, but knowing we will have lower lows than our non-sports fan counterparts.

We are still only 9 games out of the WC so if we can rip off a winning streak it isn't hopeless (yes there is still more pain to be inflicted upon me this year)