Your Day 12 Extravaganza: List 3 of 12

On the twelfth day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe gave to me

Twelve Lists of Twelve
Eleven Months of Magic

Top Ten Reasons to Read a Book

Nine More Questionable Predictions

Eight Amazing Quotes from Barbie (A Shlara Joint)
Seven Weeks of Sobriety*

Six Random Items

Five Golden Auctions

Four Teams for Bitching

Three Tiny Scrappers
Two books for your Gheorghemas wish list
And a doofus to lead this country

List #3: 12 Outcomes of My Sports Rooting Interests Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Losing, Because That's What Every Team I Root For Does

It's become a Day 12 classic to review the sporting teams for whom I cheer and how bad they've been for yet another year. (That's lyrical.) 2023 was impressively more of the same. Let's dig in!

1. Washington Commanders. Oh how I root, root, root for the home team. If they don't win, it's the same. But they won their first 2 games! They were 3-3, then 4-5, then lost 8 straight. Whooooooa. I took the missus to the Bears game at FedEx for her birthday. (I mean, the Bears were 0-4.) Washington went down 27-3 by halftime. Lost 40-20. Next year I'll just take her to Applebee's and leave her there for that kind of disappointment.

Final Record: 4-13, last place

2. New York Mets. As Timmy chronicled, the Mets not only could have been contenders in 2023, they

were Vegas favorites.  And then... it all broke down. Old guys looked decrepit, young guys looked lost. Veterans traded. Manager fired. Team rebuilt. I gave my nephew a Mets Verlander jersey shirt for Christmas 2022. I hope he actually wore it before he gave it to Goodwill. Stink.

Final Record: 75-87, 4th place

3. William & Mary Men's Basketball. Ah, the Fighting Wrens. The miles-long legacy of losing has entered a new, weird, post-Shaver era of crud. Add in the portal problems that a team of WandM's stature bring... oy. Lost our last game of the season, 94-46. Stank.

Final Record: 13-20, 8th place

4. William & Mary Football. We were ranked 5th preseason! We finished tied for 6th... in the conference. After a 4-0 start, the Tribe dropped 5 of 7.  Stunk. 

Final Record: 6-5, 6th place

5. University of South Carolina Football. Now here's some real football -- the SEC! After a banner 2022 (beat Tennessee and Clemson!), the Gamecocks were poised to make some moves. Downward, as it turned out. I went to the Florida game; the Cocks were up 10 with 5:00 to play, and the Willy B was rocking. They lost, 41-39. Eh. at least I got to hang with Mark and Greg and Marls. 

Final Record: 5-7, 4th place in the East, no bowl

6. University of South Carolina Women's Basketball. At least we can count on Dawn Staley and Gamecocks hoops, right? Well... despite an amazing season, when the hopes are this high, nothing less than the mountaintop feels right. The ladies lost to Iowa in the semis, who lost to LSU in the finals. Bummer.

Final Record: 36-1 

7. Washington Wizards. If there's one forever terrible team, it's the Wiz. Les Boulez. I started rooting for the Bullets when I moved to Arlington in November 1993. Since then, they have a 41.6% winning percentage overall. Only seven (7) of 31 seasons have seen them sport a year-end winning percentage north of .500. Seven! Finished first in their division once. Once! For two-thirds of that time, the division has only had 5 teams. Come on. Never made it past the semis. In a generation-plus. Egads. They are currently perched at 9-37 in perhaps the 15th rebuild of the last 31 years.

Final Record: 35-47, 4th place

8. Washington Capitals. I am a part-time hockey/Caps fan, but enjoyed when they were great. Especially their Stanley Cup run and the parade afterwards.

Final Record: 35-37-10, 6th place

8b. Norfolk Admirals. Fun to attend. A win would be nice.

Final Record: 21-46-5

  

9. US Rugby. The Rugby World Cup was held in France. Big doings. Exciting. Couldn't wait to see how we'd do.  The US did not qualify. 

Final Record: N/A

10. Scotland Rugby. We went to Edinburgh! As you know! Scotland v Ireland!  Super fun, no matter what. But let's get a win!

Final Result: Ireland 22, Scotland 7

11. Leicester City FC. Did I mention I finally starting rooting for a Premier League team?? Leicester, for obvious reasons.  Yes! Oh... I guess I'm not longer rooting for a Premier League team.

Final Record: 9W, 7D, 22L, Fucking relegated

Pretty terrible. Up and down, top to bottom terrible. 

And it would all drive me deep into sports depression and malaise... except for 2 amazing things!

Number one... Daniel Snyder sold the Washington Commanders!!!  Unreal. The deep exhale cannot be overstated. He has taken us to Hell for 25 years. It finally happened.

rob gave me one of these

Also...

12. Norfolk Tides. Hallelujah part 2. The AAA Tides were the Mets' farm team for 37 years, but now they're part of the Orioles organization, which for some years has been a curse. With the O's ascending against all expectation over the last couple of years, though, so did the Tides. I attended 7 games last year, several businessperson's specials and a few night games to include playoff games. Super exciting for just a few bucks. (plus beers.)

Final Record: 90-59, 1st place, International League Champions, and Minor League Team of the Year

Go Tides! Amen, brothers.

I'll keep rooting. Here's to 2024.