""A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while." - Ebby Calvin Laloosh

The Braves lost tonight... got swept by the Phillies. I used to absolutely live and die by the Braves. But somewhere along the line I stopped over reacting to the wins and the losses. The same for Clemson. And a handful of other teams I truly root for. I think it was the NCState game a loooooong time ago where when Clemson was ranked 6th in the country they got two punts blocked and lost in Raleigh. I will never forget kicking my shako across the stands and sitting there for 30 minutes after the game while the buses loaded and someone had to come get me out of the stands. I rode the bus to the hotel in uniform and I can remember feeling so upset/angry/sad /ill that i went straight to bed despite it being 6pm in the evening.... Or it might have been the '96 World Series when the Braves had the by far better team and lost to the Yankees. I will never forget Charlie Hayes squeezing the fly ball for the final out and feeling the absolute rage inside... from that time on I still root for my teams and even get a tad annoyed when they lose. but that annoyance usually last about 45 seconds now. Somewhere along the line I realized it is just a game. And while I love rooting and following and getting a little miffed at coaching and the lack of killer instinct of teams i root for, i always feel happy when I realize that I have been blessed with so much. And that matters so much more....