My Worlds Collided

Since Josh is a Cubs fan and I am a Cards fan, we had to draw up some guiding principals to live by to maintain order in our house. They are simple but critical:

1. When the Cards play the Cubs, we watch it quietly without smirking and/or trash talking. We gloat silently in our heads, except the one time Josh lost control and covered me with a Cubs W flag while I was asleep.

2. Our children will be raised as Rangers fans. They will not own a single Cards or Cubs item of clothing.* Neither of us is allowed to try to convince the children to join our side.

These guidelines have worked out pretty well. We are united when we root for the Rangers, and it's nice to agree on a team for once.

When I first moved to Texas, I couldn't imagine my life in a non-baseball town. The Rangers weren't very good and attendance at games was low. I missed the atmosphere of baseball in St. Louis. I was shocked when we could go to opening day here without any trouble getting tickets. Now that they're good, we have to try to get opening day tickets via a lottery (never works out). I even consider myself a bigger Rangers fan than most who call themselves a Rangers fan these days, because we went to games when they stunk and the stands were empty.

But now, we are going through some trying times in our marriage since my worlds collided and the Cardinals are playing the Rangers in the World Series. I thought it was my dream World Series, and that I couldn't lose. I thought I would be happy no matter who won. I thought I could be neutral. But I guess you just can't reprogram someone after all those years as a fan, because I want the Cards to win. Bad.

Supriya, Josh and I had so much fun at game three. Two of us more fun than one of us. We saw Dirk throw out the first pitch, and Ronnie Dunn sing the national anthem.

Pujols hit his historic three home runs. Supriya and I were so excited, but my excitement was tempered slightly by Josh's creepy silent rage. It summed up Josh's night when, on the way to the car, he stepped in poop.

He perked right up at game four when the Rangers won, though. We saw Dubya throw out the first pitch, missing Nolan by quite a bit. The best part of my night was Zooey Deschanel singing the National Anthem. We stuck to the sidewalks this time, to avoid "the path to dookie," as Josh called it.

I can't wear the hoodie I wore to game four ever again on game day. I wore it once to Wrigley for Cards/Cubs, then to game four of the World Series when the Cards lost. It is out of the game day rotation now.

*I reserve the right to wear whatever I want when I'm pregnant, though, to include those shirts that say "Future Cards Fan" and have an arrow pointing to your tum.