Oh ye of little faith

Beth and I chatted prior to last night's game, and we basically agreed that it was potentially a nightmare waiting to happen. Clearly the baseball gods were monitoring our Google Talk conversation and decided to show us that, in baseball, you don't never know nothin'.

The result of the game was enough in itself to bring a big smile to my face this morning, but then I read Beth's post, and the smile turned into goosebumps.

To those who find rooting for sports teams strange, those goosebumps will seem ridiculous. "How can you be moved by a bunch of multi-millionaires chasing a little ball around a field?" is usually the quesion that is asked. And it is not an unreasonable question. As Beth herself says: "There's still a war on; the gas prices are still through the roof. Etcetera." But that is precisely the reason why we watch sports - they allow us to put all that to one side for an hour, a day, a season, and root wholeheartedly for the good guys. Just like in real life, the good guys don't always win, but sometimes, just sometimes, they come through against the odds and we come away smiling.

You can talk all day about the ridiculous salaries, the juiced-up players and all the rest, but that you can't take away the genuine smile that crosses your face in moments like that. To quote Red: "Just friggin' amazing".