I hate to be the one to break it to you, but wearing the same shirt five days in a row just because your favorite team won the first time you wore it, isn't going to cause the team to keep winning.
Neither is turning the TV off when your team isn't doing well and then turning it on again hoping that their fortunes have magically changed.
You can sit in the same place in the living room to watch the game for 14 straight days and it's still not going to yield 14 straight victories for your team.
No matter what you do, no matter how much you believe it, no matter how often it appears to work, there is one thing for certain:
You have no effect on your favorite sports team.
I know, because I've done most of the above and several other tactics, including drinking "magical" potions and watching the game upside down (I've probably done both at the same time). And it doesn't work. Your favorite team is going to screw up ... eventually.
Yet, we persist.
Not too long ago, I received a package from Adam of ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession. I'd like to say he sent it out of the goodness of his heart. But his note blew his cover. It said:
"Here are a few Dodgers I need to get out of my house -- hopefully this might turn around the NL West as the Giants tanked around the time you sent me cards."
AH HA! So he's trying the old "I'll send a fan of my team's rival some cards in hopes that the good karma will be felt by my favorite team and they'll suddenly start winning again" trick! I'm wise to that one.
It's true that the Dodgers did start winning about the same time that I sent some Giants to Adam. But actually that had nothing to do with cards. That had to do with the fact that the Dodgers are sort of good, and that the Giants are built on pitching and pixie dust. (I could see that Michael Morse implosion coming in March).
And that's why I haven't quickly sent some Giants back in return. There's no need. The Giants are continuing to fall apart, while the Dodgers are doing OK -- until they blow up their farm system in some spastic effort to get a No. 4 pitcher.
So, I'm going to take my time. I'm not going to send out a karma package of my own. I'm not going to eat the same kind of sandwich for three days in a row while the Dodgers play the Braves. I'm just going to show some cards that Adam sent, all rational like.
Here is my favorite one out of the envelope. Topps is doing the Spring Fever thing at the card shops again this year and I had no idea until I saw this card. The design is a little different this time, but still tropical. I like it.
The Dodgers' horrible set-up man and impressive closer, all in their cherry cola glory. I now have almost as many Series 2 red parallel Dodgers as I do base card Dodgers. How about I put up a want list one of these days, huh?
Panini Prizm is out again this year. Did you know that? I barely did. Can you tell it apart from Prizm '12 or Prizm '13? I can't. You seen one guy in a medical worker jumper surrounded by a silver border, you've seen them all.
Here's more Panini of the Donruss variety. Donruss saved its best-looking cards (by far) for the inserts, or the short-prints, or whatever these are. (Can you tell I'm losing interest in modern cards?). The Gibson is fantastic given my recent infatuation with '89 Donruss.
We rational Dodgers fans still like Matt Kemp. We don't want to see him traded. We don't like media people who keep trying to trade him. But we're resigned to something terribly awful happening very soon.
So let's distract ourselves and say that this Topps Archives Kemp is very similar to last year's Topps super short-print Kemp.
Now don't all of you who ran out and bought the SPs at crazy prices in 2013 feel silly?
I think Topps doesn't have enough photos to go around for all the things that they do, but I guess that's just me.
A shiny, numbered Greinke. I thought he was weirdly pumping his fist when I saw this card, but I think he's just adjusting his uniform. Excitement.
More night owl befuddlement here.
This is one of those buybacks that appear in hobby boxes. I don't know what the purpose of putting a beat-up, creased 1977 Manny Mota card in a hobby box is when you can go online and buy this same card in terrific shape for probably 30 cents.
I suppose this is only a mystery that could be figured out if I shelled out money for a hobby box. I guess I'll just have to remain ignorant -- and put this card in my Dodger binder, because I'm a stupid team collector, too.
I'll end this post with one of those large-sized cards that Pinnacle and other card companies liked to do in the late '90s.
That's some good stuff, as always.
But it didn't work, Adam. The Dodgers swept the Giants last weekend, which I'm sure you know.
It never works.
Except when I refuse to check the results of the Dodgers game when I'm at my job until an hour-and-a-half after the game starts.
That always works.
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