Vinko Bogataj is on my mind today. You know who I am talking about even if you think you don’t. Here is Vinko and his claim to fame. After you watch this, I’ll explain just why he’s been on my mind.
That is why Vinko is on my mind today – that whole agony of defeat thing. And I am specifically talking about the Orioles as in the Only-score-1-run-in-two-games-Orioles. They were eliminated from the playoffs yesterday losing to the Royals 2-1.
But adding insult to injury, or in this case to agony, I also have another fella on my mind today – a Weis check out clerk whom I had talked to earlier in the day yesterday.
As I paid for some items that I had picked up in Weis, the young check out clerk noticed my Orioles good luck shirt and said:
“Hey man, I like that shirt. Are the Orioles playing today?”
“Sure are” I said, “playoff game against the Royals.”
He responded “Cool, but I hate to tell you that the Orioles are not going to win because they never win in the playoffs.”
I started to correct and tell him that the Orioles have been to the World Series six times and won three of them, but before I could do so he continued:
“Trust me man, I been a fan of theirs’ for 40 some years and they just don’t win in the playoffs. That’s a natural known fact. They ain’t winning no playoff games because they don’t.”
He was starting to piss me off not only because of his crazy logic, but also because he was so cock sure of himself and his opinion. However, it dawned on me that with him only being 40, and the Orioles last winning in 83, as far as he was concerned, he was correct. I paid for my things and left.
However, his words stayed with me throughout the rest of the day and through my time spent watching the game. They especially rang true when Gunner Henderson struck out for the final out last night and I thought “Damn, that asshole was right.”
The whole “agony of defeat” then was on my mind through another sleepless night. At this point in my life I have pretty much kicked most of my addictions and learned to live with things that I either can’t or don’t want to change, but my sports addiction may just have to go too. This agony of defeat just isn’t worth the thrill of victory anymore.
Good article here on this subject of dealing with your team losing (click here.) Ironically, one of the interviewees in this article makes several references to his 49ers team losing to the Ravens in that 2013 Beyonce Super Bowl. He makes this statement in his overall assessment of coping when your team has a crushing loss:
I don’t think that my teams’ losing really impacts my “overall daily functioning” other than not sleeping (but then again I don’t sleep much anyway.) That said however, I have come to the conclusion that the agony of defeat is just not commensurate with the thrill of victory. Accordingly, I am thinking of pursuing some sort of 12 step program that will help me decrease the amount of time and attention that I spend on sports things.
Ah, who am I kidding? I’m already looking foreward to the Ravens playing the Bengals this coming Sunday. Should be some points scored in that game, so I.m taking the over at 50.5.
Ok, since I quoted this a couple times above, here is an Ian and Sylvia tune that got We Five nominated in 1966 for a Grammy as Best Vocal performance. (Just one last note – in 1966 I was at Memorial Stadium when the O’s beat the Dodgers for their first World Championship. Now that was a thrill!)
P.S. Lead singer Beverly Bivens is the only living member of the original We Five. More trivia for you, We Five’s original name was the Ridgerunners. And here we thought that that was exclusively referring to South Countians.