Weekend Sports Disasters
At least once about this time of year, all my favorite teams go down in flames over the weekend.
It started Friday, when my newly adopted high school football team, the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks, lost yet another squeaker, this time to Bridge City.
I root for the Hawks because that's the sole high school for the school district in which I live. I haven't been able to root for my high school alma mater, Westchester High School in Houston, because the evil Spring Branch school board closed it in 1995.
The Houston Astros, for whom I committed my loyalty in the late 1960s, went into Friday only a half game out of first place. It was a remarkable late-season run, winning game after game while the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals kept losing game after game in what sports experts were saying could be the greatest meltdown in baseball history.
However, the Astros lost Friday, and the Cardinals won, so that put my team 1.5 games out going into Saturday, when both the Astros and Cardinals won.
So it boiled down to Sunday. An Astros win and a Cardinals loss would have forced the Cardinals to play a makeup game with the San Francisco Giants. A Cardinals win over the Giants would have given them the pennant, while a loss would have forced a one-game playoff with the Astros.
It was an exciting prospect, but the Astros lost. The Cardinals lost, too, but it didn't matter.
Another sports heartbreaker came Saturday, when the Texas A&M Aggies, my favorite of all sports teams, narrowly lost to the Texas Tech Red Raiders thanks to one of those last-minute, white-knuckle offensive drives ending in a bomb to a receiver in the end zone.
I've seen this too many times before when the Aggies play the Red Raiders, and this loss particularly hurt, because the Aggies were undefeated and had such high hopes for a successful season.
But at least there is still plenty of football ahead for the Aggies.
On Sunday, the Houston Texans, for whom I have luke-warm loyalty, won their first game, which was nice but didn't make up for the combined pain of the Hawks, Aggies and Astros losses.
Going into Monday Night Football, my fantasy football team is down 20 points, with my hopes pinned on Donovan McNabb of the Eagles and Donald Driver of the Packers. My opponent has wide receiver Reggie Brown of the Eagles. That means that every time McNabb throws to Brown, it's points for both sides. However, quarterbacks get only 1 point per 25 yards throwing and 4 points per touchdown, while a receiver gets 1 point per 10 yards and 6 points per touchdown.
That means McNabb throwing passes to Brown actually hurts me.
Either one of my players could score 20 fantasy points in a game, but after a weekend of endless sports disappointments, I fully expect my fantasy team to follow suit.
Oh well, I guess there's always next weekend.
It started Friday, when my newly adopted high school football team, the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks, lost yet another squeaker, this time to Bridge City.
I root for the Hawks because that's the sole high school for the school district in which I live. I haven't been able to root for my high school alma mater, Westchester High School in Houston, because the evil Spring Branch school board closed it in 1995.
The Houston Astros, for whom I committed my loyalty in the late 1960s, went into Friday only a half game out of first place. It was a remarkable late-season run, winning game after game while the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals kept losing game after game in what sports experts were saying could be the greatest meltdown in baseball history.
However, the Astros lost Friday, and the Cardinals won, so that put my team 1.5 games out going into Saturday, when both the Astros and Cardinals won.
So it boiled down to Sunday. An Astros win and a Cardinals loss would have forced the Cardinals to play a makeup game with the San Francisco Giants. A Cardinals win over the Giants would have given them the pennant, while a loss would have forced a one-game playoff with the Astros.
It was an exciting prospect, but the Astros lost. The Cardinals lost, too, but it didn't matter.
Another sports heartbreaker came Saturday, when the Texas A&M Aggies, my favorite of all sports teams, narrowly lost to the Texas Tech Red Raiders thanks to one of those last-minute, white-knuckle offensive drives ending in a bomb to a receiver in the end zone.
I've seen this too many times before when the Aggies play the Red Raiders, and this loss particularly hurt, because the Aggies were undefeated and had such high hopes for a successful season.
But at least there is still plenty of football ahead for the Aggies.
On Sunday, the Houston Texans, for whom I have luke-warm loyalty, won their first game, which was nice but didn't make up for the combined pain of the Hawks, Aggies and Astros losses.
Going into Monday Night Football, my fantasy football team is down 20 points, with my hopes pinned on Donovan McNabb of the Eagles and Donald Driver of the Packers. My opponent has wide receiver Reggie Brown of the Eagles. That means that every time McNabb throws to Brown, it's points for both sides. However, quarterbacks get only 1 point per 25 yards throwing and 4 points per touchdown, while a receiver gets 1 point per 10 yards and 6 points per touchdown.
That means McNabb throwing passes to Brown actually hurts me.
Either one of my players could score 20 fantasy points in a game, but after a weekend of endless sports disappointments, I fully expect my fantasy team to follow suit.
Oh well, I guess there's always next weekend.
posted by Brian Pearson at 9:53 AM
1 Comments:
Well, what can I say.
McNabb came through!
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