My Friend Jarrod is a Bad Influence

I played one year of organized baseball when I was growing up. My team was the Charles Todd Pirates. Because of that affiliation, my favorite MLB team was the Pittsburgh Pirates. 1984 rolled around. The Cubs won their division. My family was made up of Cubs fans, so I decided it was easier to join them than try to beat them. That was about the time I started hanging out with Jarrod. We went to our first baseball game together about that time, so I’m going to blame my Cubs habit and subsequent related heartbreaks on him.

It was the fall of 1988, and we were both freshmen in high school. It was at one of those drug free dances at GCHS where I saw him kissing a girl (on the lips no less) for the first time. At that point, I knew life as we knew it would no longer be the same. It was later that same year I kissed a girl (also on the lips) for the first time. I hope that would’ve happened on its own, but I’m going to blame, or credit depending on your viewpoint, that on Jarrod, too.

Fast forward several, several years to 2007. He and I are discussing our changing figures and the topic of diet soda comes up. He fills me in on a new little drink called Coke Zero. We all know how I feel about that.

Finally, I’ve never had a favorite college football team. I guess I liked Florida State when they were so successful back in high school. The Racers gave us one good year under Houston Nutt. I developed a fondness for Auburn after seeing them smoke Samford at Jordan Hare Stadium. I started getting familiar with the Big 10 in 1998 after moving to Milwaukee. All the fans seem to be very loyal, but no team really jumped out.

I was at Jarrod’s house for the Morton Pumpkin Festival four weeks ago. That Saturday night, UK beat Louisville. It was quite a game capped off by a UK comeback in the final minute. I was glued to the tube for their win at Arkansas. I was working when they got beat by SC, so I didn’t get to see too much of that. Today, they welcomed the top ranked LSU Tigers into Commonwealth Stadium. Our railroad line passes right behind LSU’s stadium. I always wanted to go to a game there but never got the chance to. Working with all those coon-asses made me a quasi-LSU fan by association (Their recent success didn’t hurt either). Back to today…..

I’ve got the girls this weekend, so I planned our day around being back home in time for the game at 2:30. We were home for kickoff. It was a back and forth game until the UK defense got tired. LSU took a 10 point lead that UK cut to 3 at halftime. LSU opened their lead back up in the 3rd quarter, and it looked like the Cats might be in for another heartbreaker. UK tied it up and needed to stop LSU on the final possession to force overtime. I hate OT, and was hoping LSU would win so it would be over. I would have no such luck as the game went to overtime anyway.

It was typical back and forth OT stuff. Woodson threw a touchdown on third down in the 3rd overtime to take the lead. They missed the 2 point conversion but shut out the Bayou Bengals on their next possession to take the lead. The game was over just after 7 PM. 4 and a half hours of my day……gone. Yeah, I played with the girls, helped them with their homework, and fixed supper while the game was on. However, I was otherwise useless for that time.

They welcome Tim Tebow and the Gators next week, and it’s going to be the CBS SEC game, so I’ll be right back on the couch taking it all in. Thanks Jarrod….it's all your fault.