The reason I was at Tabu to begin with was because there was a softball fundraiser for the Tabu Wolves. (Brief digression: my team, the Nighthawks, was also sponsored by Tabu in 2010 but the bar is only sponsoring the Wolves next year.) I've mentioned my discomfort going to bars, especially if it's crowded and I'm alone. I'm not a great socializer. I went back and forth in my mind Sunday morning when I woke up, deciding whether or not to go. I waited until the last possible minute to get out of bed and shower and get dressed in order to get there by 1 pm. I finally decided that I wanted to support the fundraiser, I figured there would be a few people I know there and, at the very least, the Eagles-Giants game would be there to distract me from the whole scene.
While it was crowded, it wasn't overly crowded so it wasn't too bad. I spent a little time now and then saying hello and talking to some of my current or former teammates (well, mostly former), so although I still had some of that awkward out-of-place feeling, it wasn't as bad as it might have been.
Besides the 50-50 raffle and sale of jello shots, to raise money the team ran one of those grid games (usually you see them during the Super Bowl) where you fill in your name in a box, then digits 0-9 are posted for each team in random order,
and the last digit in the score at both halftime and at the end of the game determines who wins the prizes. I bought a block in this game and ended up with 9 for the Eagles and 1 for the Giants. At halftime it was 24-3 Giants. I figured that my best hope was for the Giants to get one more touchdown to get to 31, and for the Eagles to end up losing 31-9 or 31-19 somehow.
At the end of the third quarter the drawing for the raffle was held. They had a few gift certificates to give away first. I had my strip of tickets ($10 for an arm's length) folded up so that I could look at the first number (519156) and last (519169) together and see if a number that was called fell into my range. I didn't win any of the gift certificates. Then the ticket was chosen for the cash prize of $170 -- and it wasn't my number. However, the person with the winning number didn't claim it. I don't know if they left early or what. So they called another number.
"519...163..."
"OHMYGODIGOTITIGOTITIWONIWONHAHAHAHAHAHA" (Or something like that...while jumping up and down too, I think. And I wasn't really affected much by the booze, either: 2-3 beers and a jello shot at that point, with one more jello shot afterwards.)
So yeah, I was a little excited. Shortly after that the Eagles fell behind 31-10, but I was still pretty happy. With my financial situation the way it is, that $170 is coming in handy.
Then, of course, came the Miracle at the New Meadowlands. You know how the local TV stations head out to sports bars and cover the fans' reaction during big games? You see all these people screaming and jumping around when something amazing happens. The Phils' division/pennant/World Series clinchers the last few years, Eagles and Flyers playoff wins, there are the fans in the bars celebrating.
I never got to experience that. I was at the Bike Stop for the Eagles' playoff loss to Carolina and their Super Bowl loss to New England. Both ended badly. Game 5 of the '08 World Series didn't even have an ending that Monday night thanks to the rain, so instead of going back to the bar two nights later, I stayed home because I decided not to risk being a jinx. It worked, but again there was the big fun celebration and I wasn't there.
That I stuck it out on Sunday and saw the incredible comeback victory and finally got to be one of those people acting like lunatics made it all the more awesome. I think the tag line from my Scott Pilgrim avatar describes it best...
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