SIGNS

As he presses the start button he hears the door behind him close. He thinks “what kind of nonsense today?” Checking the blog, no comments and so he types in the USCL home page. With no one else awake he will be left undisturbed to read the other blogs and discern their mistakes. His thoughts as his only companion he begins. “Ah, the Commish has pointed out my ranting again” this causes him to feel a bit of pride and his back straightens in the chair. He reads further. “Oh my, the Wavemaster has written this weeks predictions. He surely has Boston and the Mechanics, I wonder who else” As his eyes pass over the words a spark tingles deep in him, near his feet. A sensation that something is near, yet unapparent. “What?” he whispers. “The Wavemaster has mentioned me in his predictions?” His thoughts raced as if chasing cheeseballs with legs. “A mere comment from the Wavemaster is as sweet as praise from Jupiter himself” he thought. Just as quickly his mood returned to the standard flatline of daily life. “… never picks his own team, Seattle, to win!” This was certainly not praise of any form and he knew it. “The fool” his words spattered from his lips “the proof is right in front of him and he dismisses it like so much lint.” Yes, it was true. GM Benjamin had commented that picking your own team was bad luck and how could the Wavemaster question such thinking. “Not to accept a superstition is one thing, to openly question it is certainly bad luck” Now he knew, there was no way back. “He passes it off on me, trying so cleverly to get me to blindly pick the Sluggers, the fool” Considering the situation he turned his mind to the superstition. How could Wavemaster appreciate it? He didn’t live in the northwest where the rain is so prevelant that the only homes without a “waterview” are those that are also windowless. How could Wavemaster understand. “Well” he thought “unlucky for him, he picked New Jersey and his Scorpions won the match. That will come back to haunt him. Hah!” There was a satisfaction in knowing that Wavemaster would be gratified with a single match victory, while the gods would certainly be appeased later with larger gain. “Time to move on, there are matches on Wednesday to consider. Who wins?” He clicked over to the lineup sheet to review the matchups for Wednesday. Carolina against Boston appears to him a sure mismatch, though the Cobras would like nothing more from their season than to bite the Blitz, without a heroic effort from 2 of Carolina’s players it surely won’t happen this week. How about Tennessee and Dallas? Easiest would be to pick the Tempo with 2 GM’s, but Dallas has the advantage on the bottom 2 boards. The complexities melted away from him as his mind approached the problem more distinctly. Yes, on the bottom two boards Dallas is better and it is likely that one of the IM’s on the top 2 will play a game like no other. Everyone else will either pick the Tempo or just conclude a tie based on each side having 2 good boards, I will do what Warren Buffet would do , go contrarian and pick Dallas! The next match for review was San Francisco and Miami. His eyes focused on the lineup “Ah, the Mechanics have let the Wolff out of the bag!” This was certainly a ploy to garner positive predictions. Miami was commonly under estimated by some, but they did rely on their first board. This could be too much for the Sharks to overcome, yet it might not be enough to guarantee the Mechanics a victory. That was it, he knew it in his feet. A tie was the sure result! Finally, he had come to the Queens versus Seattle lineups. The names danced in front of his eyes as he tried to weigh the pros and cons. Checking rating differences, the boards where Seattle had black were much closer than the white boards. Each team had a certain rating advantage on one of the even numbered boards. “If the boards with black are about equal and the boards with white tilt one for each team the result looks even?” he wondered. Still, Slava on second board was quite possibly the most under appreciated player in the league and sould easily tilt the match toward Seattle. No, that thought was countered easily by wondering if Sinanan would lose that bit of magic he had recently been privy to? This is Seattle after all, a place where the qualitative properties of apples and oranges give way to the differences between toxic mushrooms and poisonous toadstools. Seattle, where weather forecasts have “showers, giving way to rain”. Seattle, the only city in America that could lose its basketball team to… Oklahoma City! “No!” his fist slammed the counter. “No, something will go wrong. This match is no more than a tie at best!” He sipped his coffee slowly, 3 day old Folgers was certainly not as good as Starbucks, but also much less expensive. With his predictions in order he once again reviews the lineups to make sure there hadn’t been a late lineup change sent in just to cause his failure. “The fool” he thought, “no way back!” He set down his cup and placed his fingers on the keyboard and began to type…



Submitted with admiration to the memory of the late Victor Mollo and respect to Dean Wormer, Wavemaster, all 9 of my readers and anyone else who happens to stumble onto this by accident.
Ttyl and have a nice day