Sweeps, Superstitions, and the Return of O.D.D.*

*Original Dirt Dog

See, I knew it. I knew that if I started writing this post with the word 'sweeps' in the title, the Sox would blow the lead. But I did it anyway. Blame me.

Another one of my superstitions is to not talk about the l**d the Sox have in the A.L. East. Been there, done 1978. This is part of the reason why I haven't been blogging. I don't want to gloat & bring the house down around my ears.

This has nothing to do with the fatalism that seems to be a dominant gene in Red Sox fans. I'm just neurotic that way. Among my other superstitions: I never toast with plain water (evil eye), nor do I look anyone in the eye when I toast (also evil eye). I don't EVER use the word "quiet" when describing a night at work because I'm absolutely, positively sure that the moon will suddenly turn full and everyone in a 25 mile radius will have a crisis.

Strangely enough, I've always considered Friday the 13th a lucky day.

So as the Cleveland Indians pile onto their lead (it's now 8-2, top of the 8th), I resort to making up nicknames. Either that or I will have to break out the bottle of holy water that my mother brought back from the shrine in Fatima, Portugal.

(My mother apparently hasn't grokked onto the fact that her eldest is a very lapsed Catholic but that's another post for another time.)

Ahem...nicknames.
"Original Dirt Dog" (O.D.D.) - Trot Nixon (obviously). Welcome back, Trot. If it's any consolation, Wily Mo looks worse against lefties than you ever did. Speaking of the latter, he's "Wily Less" or "Big Breeze". (Yeah, I'm over the Wily Mo Pena experiment.)
"Candlepins for Cash", "Bocce Boy"- Julian Tavarez
"Doogie Howser" - Dustin Pedroia
Mrs. Potato submits the following: "WooHoo Drew" (because he's cute, slumps notwithstanding)

Well, that took me through the rest of the game. Final score: 8-4, Cleveland. Two out of three ain't bad. Yankees come back to town for the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.