'lotta sports

My column appears in the Heart Beat of the Texas Hill Country — distributed quarterly throughout the Texas Hill Country as well as available Online.

As I write this column, I am recovering from a night of four hours of sleep. Why, you may ask? I stayed up until midnight-thirty watching the LA Clippers at the Houston Rockets for game six. Now if you are a fan of basketball and also watched that game, you will remember that at the end of the third quarter the Houston Rockets were behind 92-79. Most “normal” people would have just turned off the TV and waited until in the morning to hear or read about the results — especially if they had to work early the next morning.

There is a type that is not the “norm” who is a sports devotee such as me. I have superstitions like wearing the same “lucky” attire down to underwear. It is not usual to start yanking off clothes mid-game and substituting with might have been the “lucky” color or item. During a Super Bowl, my team was losing until I discovered after going through my checklist that I had the wrong hair holder on my pony tail. I know, it sounds certifiable, but the team made a turnaround and eventually won. There are also the rituals of “if I don’t get the dishwasher unloaded before a series of commercials ends” or “if my contact lens doesn’t get unstuck by the third try;” my favorite driver won’t get a top five in a race. How many wives would stay planted at a TV to watch the Super Bowl on their honeymoon instead of basking on the sands of the Waikiki? I also found myself setting my alarm for 325AM to watch the Medal run of the 4-Man Bobsled in the 2014 Olympics.

YES, I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the fourth quarter of game six of the LA Clippers and Houston Rockets game as the fat lady was obviously tuning up. I even found myself having doubts there was any way they could muster a comeback. Then it happened!! The comeback of the year! I did not miss witnessing the Rockets unbelievable run of forty-nine points to LA’s eighteen in the last fourteen and a half minutes!! Sure I could have watched on the morning news four hours later, but there’s something about the instant euphoria of the win and then the adrenalin that doesn’t allow one to fall asleep. Was it worth it? Sure! Could I have watched it on a replay four hours later? Sure! Would I in the future? Nah…. That’s not part of being a sports aficionado — it’s just not allowed!