I am a jinx when it comes to sports: if a local team (e.g., Anaheim Angels) or a favorite team (e.g., the ROK or USA soccer teams in the World Cup) is doing well and I start paying more attention, that team will eventually choke.
And this is why I can't pay any attention to the Anaheim Angels (like most other OCers, I refuse to call them the "Los Angeles Angels"), who are now tied for first but finding their lead is in doubt. If I do, they will lose. It's an immutable fact.
I first discovered this jinx in 1986, when the Angels looked close to winning the American League Championship, but then choked toward the end.
It has been reinforced from time to time, so when the World Cup came to Korea and Japan, I actively avoided watching Korea's soccer games. Whenever I stayed away, they won. If I started to watch, they started to lose, and when I turned off the TV, they would start to do better again (I knew this from the text-message updates I was receiving from LG Telecom).
At the urging of a couple friends, I gave in to temptation and went to a Shinchon dive to watch the USA-Germany game, and naturally the USA team lost (in the ROK-USA game, though, I was hoping for a ROK win simply because I have long felt that most Americans didn't give a rat's ass about any soccer that wasn't little league; when the 1994 World Cup was in the U.S., most Americans had no idea it was even there! I have a different feeling about women's soccer, though.).
Sure enough, the USA team lost. I felt responsible. I stayed away from USA and ROK games from then on, except that I inadvertently caught a glimpse of the first few seconds of the ROK-Turkey game that would determine third and fourth place. That was the moment when Turkey scored the fastest goal in World Cup history, some twelve seconds.
Even when the Angels made it to the World Series for the first time in 2002, when I caught part of the game, the Angels lost.
No mas! I won't be watching. Hopefully the Orange County home team will be winning.
So were you watching the semi final between Korea and Germany? Is that your fault?
ReplyDeleteFor the German game, my friend and I drove to the Han River Park and parked very close to the stadium where we could hear everyone cheering. I might have caught a glimpse or two of the game on the car's TV. The loss may in fact be my fault.
ReplyDeleteDarn you! I was in the stadium at the time... If I had known...
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I had to keep my little peek at the game a secret: I had mentioned my "jinx" in passing on the air at our mom-and-pop network early on in the Cup, and some of our listeners/viewers took it very, very seriously.
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