Tag Archives: sports fans

To all Sports Fans: What works better — Prayer or Superstition?

Post #154 from Dr. Crankenfuss, The World’s Awesomest Raving and Rapping blogger–

I can picture the response to the question in the title. All sorts of trolls and haters are going to accuse me of going against God or something like that. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Hey, I pray too. I’m just trying to figure this out and nobody can really tell me what’s what so maybe you can.

Here’s the scene: The big game is coming up. Your team is playing. You want them to win real, real bad and so do your friends. What will help your team more: praying for them, or putting on a certain sweater or sitting in a certain seat or turning off the TV when your team gets behind because you think you have a jinx on them?

Now I know a bunch of you are going, “You idiot! Of course, prayer is better! God’s stronger than any superstition!”

Fine! But if that’s true, why do so many of you — and I put the emphasis on MANY — go through all those superstitious things. Like lucky numbers for winning the lottery? How often does that work? (Then again, how often does prayer work when it comes to winning the lottery?)

I mean I know why people pray. And I know who they’re praying to and who might grant their wish. BUT WHO’S THE TARGET OF SUPERSTITION? When you don’t walk under a ladder or you worry when a full moon’s coming up or you don’t step on a crack so your grandmother’s back stays healthy or you wear those unwashed-for-three-weeks-cause-your-team-is-still-winning socks, WHO’S THE “GUY (OR GAL) IN CHARGE” IN THOSE SITUATIONS? If your lucky underwear helps your team win, WHY DID THAT WORK? And if that didn’t work, how do people figure out which superstition WILL work?

Think about it. If you know how luck really works, you are going to be very rich… or happy… or successful… or at peace… or at least something you want to be. And if you don’t think it really works, then why do you do it?

Hey, I’m no genius — and I’m sure you all would agree with that — but don’t people see how superstition seems kind of silly? So why is it so strongly followed in so many things?

Yeah, I know I’m repeating myself, but I really would like some answers.

Good ones, okay?

From Your Dude with the ‘Tude,
a guy looking for answers
where other people don’t even see a question,
Dr. Crankenfuss

I don’t want to be a planet. I want to be THE SUN!

Humor Post #38 from Middle School’s Crankiest Curmudgeon’s Blog (and probably the awesomest YA blog too) –

Woo-hoo! Anybody see that shot by Austin Rivers to beat UNC last night? Yeah, I guess a couple million people did cause that’s all they were talking about on Sports Center afterwards. Yeah, I’m a Duke fan. Have to be since Daniel is, and without him I don’t get to post here. But I’m not really that happy for me. Hey, it wasn’t me who made that shot. And it wasn’t me who won the game. Actually it wasn’t even the school who won. I didn’t see any buildings playing out there. Yeah, I guess Duke got all those guys to come to Duke so officially Duke won, but I’d still rather be one of the Duke players or especially Austin Rivers after that game. He’s the one who did it, not the fans, not Duke, just him and his team.

Yeah, just like I said about David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals way back in October, I think it would be SO COOL to be a sports hero and have everyone jumping up and down over whatever it is I did. I can’t even imagine how good that must feel. But I’d sure like to find out.

See, the deal is Austin Rivers gets to remember making that big shot the rest of his life and even if I remember the same thing, I’ll be remembering someone else being the hero. Ya know, I’d rather be thinking about myself making that shot, being the hero in some way. Wasn’t it more fun for the New York Giants in that Super Bowl parade than it was for all the people cheering for them? That’s why I’ll keep working to be somebody so people might remember me too. Don’t know what it’ll be yet. Much as I hate to admit it, it probably won’t be sports or I’d already be a star at something. (Though I can always hope. Gotta keep working on that cross dribble.) And it probably won’t be at hip hop, cause even though I think I can write pretty good stuff, I think I’m — sorry to say — at a racial disadvantage in that career. (Again, I can hope and if I keep working, maybe Usher will notice me like he did Justin Bieber. I know lots of people hate JB, but Usher thinks he’s cool and he knows a lot.)

Somewhere I heard that you can divide everybody into two groups: the 10% that are the movers and the shakers, the people everybody else follows and goes ga-ga over. The other 90% are like the fans that cheer for Duke or Carolina. Nothing the matter with them, nothing at all. A great bunch of people, I’m sure. (Well, most of them anyway.) It’s just that they’re not the ones making the shots. I wanna be the guy making that big shot.

It’s like the way the Universe is all set up. There’s gabillions of planets revolving around a bunch of suns. The planets are like all those fans out there. The suns are like the stars that the planets follow around. I wanna be a sun, not one of the planets. You ever notice that the Sun is so cool, it doesn’t even have a name, like all the planets have. It’s just THE SUN. Like “I don’t even need a name, dude. You know who I am.” How cool is that?

Now I have only one thing left to figure out — how am I gonna be that sun?

from your “still waiting to reach his potential” dude with the ‘tude,
Dr. Crankenfuss