Bitter Rivalry, Sweet Victory

Yesterday I did something I've only done one other time in my life.

Monday was the WCC Championship featuring the two teams everyone expected to be there-- the Saint Mary's Gaels and the Gonzaga Bulldogs. For the fourth year in a row, it was the same matchup. This time there was something a bit different. The Gaels had unseated the Zags as regular season champion and were the #1 seed in the tournament.

I've come to realize that this game is my most anticipated annual sports day. There may be a great Giants-Dodgers game in late September, or the Niners could make a playoff run. But you don't know for sure if that's going to happen. On the first Monday in March, you can safely presume the SMC and GU will square off for a title, a punched ticket, and, most importantly, a year a of bragging rights.

I made a decision to defy the laws of society, technology, and sports. I recorded the game to watch it later in the evening after I got home from work.

That meant turning off my phone, avoiding the internet, not looking at the TVs in the newsroom, and asking for some help from my roommate.

It's a phenonmenon that's incredibly rare and hardly satisfying. Just ask columnist and pop culture expert, Chuck Klosterman.

But I blocked out all knowledge of the game and watched it from start to finish just as if it were real. And I'm glad a I did. One of the most dramatic, energetic, passionate, fiery games I can remember. A game that me shouting throughout the second half, went to OT, and felt like the best in this bitter rivalry's history. Sweet victory.

Man, I'm glad I bucked laws of common sense, lived in the past, and celebrated like it was real-time.

--- ---

The other game that I did that is Stanford-VA Tech in the Orange Bowl last year. However, I fast forwarded the 4th quarter, when Stanford dominated.