The World Serious

It was a beautiful day at Fenway Park . . .

The sun shone brightly on the ballfield . . .

. . . until the shadows moved over the infield . . .

. . . and the . . . Wait a minute, something looks weird . . . Is that my ottoman?

Oh, it’s just Mistah’s silly Fenway Park pop-up book, which he opened up just before Game 5 of the ALCS, hoping to bring them luck . . .

Fat lot of good that did them.

Anyway.

The World Series starts tonight.

And all that matters is the score.

That’s right. The Philadelphia Phillies – aka the Mets' National League East archenemy – against the Tampa Bay Rays – whom I can’t think about anymore without thinking about a funny comment a reader left on my previous baseball post, about the team dropping the “Devil” from their name: “just ‘Rays’ makes it sound like a team made up of 50-year-old orthodontists: Please welcome the Rays, everybody!”

Lisa S and Ted are Phillies fans, Chrissie and Beth’s mom are Rays fans. Lovely peeps, the lot of them. Both teams are playing well, it should be a good series, blah blah blah. But really? Deep down inside? Who cares, really?

No, the only thing that matters now is the score, because I’m in a pool.

No not this pool:

Although that was a really fun day and a really fun pool (when Jacquie’s then-6 year old daughter, who was hanging onto my neck and screaming into my ear like a screech owl the whole time I was throwing her 8-year-old brother, famously yelled, “Uncle Bill, put down your booze and get in the pool!”)

And not this pool either:

Although I have nothing but oddly nostalgic feelings when I think about our 8 nights and 9 days at Motel 6 in Nogales this past spring.

No, this pool:

This World Series Pool. $5 a square, 100 squares, winner takes all. Which in this case is $500, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Gesundheit!

This is a great pool, because it is completely random. Here’s how it works:

First, sell all the squares on a blank grid, for $5 a piece.

Next, randomly select the numbers zero through 9, using a deck of cards. Well, ten cards from the deck, actually.

Finally, fill in the 2 loser winning teams.

Each team’s score from every game gets added up, and the last digit of that final number is the winning number.

For example, say this pool had been in place for the Rays/Red Sox series. The scores were:

Game 1: Boston 2, Tampa Bay 0
Game 2: Boston 8, Tampa Bay 9
Game 3: Boston 1, Tampa Bay 9
Game 4: Boston 4, Tampa Bay 13
Game 5: Boston 8, Tampa Bay 7
Game 6: Boston 4, Tampa Bay 2
Game 7: Boston 1, Tampa Bay 3

Totals: Boston 28, Tampa Bay 43

So. Boston’s number would be 8, and Tampa Bay’s would be 3.

So in this pool, we’re looking for:

Phillies 4, Rays 0.

.

Or, Phillies 0, Rays 8.
.

Or, especially and most hopefully, Phillies 5, Rays 9. Because this square is mine, all mine. I got this square as a tip from my friend Johnny Pink Slips. This square has winner written all over it.

It’s a tough pool to win. I’ve never won, but I did choose the box for the eventual winner one year, and got $10 for my efforts. I know! I should have gotten at least 10%.

I’m feeling lucky this year. I think I’m going to win.

.

But if I don't win?

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Beth? Did you say something about football season?