The Power Of The Rally Cap

"Indians erupt late to cruise past Yankees in finale."

-- Indians.com

Self portrait 7-11-14

All I'm saying is, before I put my rally cap on last night, the Indians were down 3-0 to the Yankees and the game was flat-lining after six scoreless Tribe innings.

Immediately after I put my rally cap on, Cleveland scored 9 runs in the 7th and 8th innings and the Yankees didn't score any more all night.

After rookie catcher Roberto Perez slammed his first big league homer in his first big league appearance, the guys in the row behind me said I should wear my rally cap to every game.

No shit.

In a post game interview, Indians DH Nick Swisher said "Regardless of what's happening early in the game, it kind of seems like we always find a way to fight ourselves back into a game."

That's right, Swish. You found a way alright.

I proudly take full credit for the win. It was me. All me.

Never, ever underestimate the power of a good rally cap.

That's all I'm saying.

Anticipation

"The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting."

-- Andy Warhol

Beans and Jack and the Beanstalk, 7-9-14

"When I think something nice is going to happen

I seem to fly right up on the wings of anticipation ..."

-- L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

"... that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself ..."

-- Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

I love that feeling when, during a regular old ordinary nothing special day, I remember that something really good is going to happen tomorrow, and a little wave of happy expectation ripples through me.

It doesn't have to be a big thing.

Maybe it's reservations at a really good restaurant.

Maybe it's a visit from a really good friend.

Or maybe, as in the case of tomorrow, it's really good seats on the right base side, just behind the New York dugout, for Derek Jeter's final game in Cleveland in game four of the Indians' homestand against the Yankees.

Anticipation can be awful and torturous. But it can also be the perfect thrilling antidote to a stubborn case of the summer ho-hums. 

I feel like Jack laying in bed all wound up like a spring waiting for the beans to sprout.

This is going to be good.