(November 3, 2016 at 7:46 am)Brian37 Wrote: There are far more many pro sports teams who DON'T win the Championship and only one in each sport, each year, that does. Cleveland was not "cursed" in it's loss anymore than the Cubs not having a Championship since 1908 was a "curse".

I'm pretty certain "Cubs lose again" was Newton's Second Law of Motion.

I think.

Whenever my cousin trained 6 hours a day, dedicated his life to his sport, and played his hardest with his teammates supporting him, he tended to win games!

Crazy how luck works, ain't it?

I like certain numbers. I know it's just bullshit coincidence but it's fun. I associate certain good memories with certain numbers and I'm more likely to notice good things (count the hits and ignore the misses) with an optimistic bias that makes me happy if I put myself in a good state of mind by focusing on numbers I associate with good memories despite the fact I know I'm just fooling myself.

I'm rational enough to know that human irrationality is always stronger and more powerful than their rationality (and this is why we have the bullshit that is religion in the first place) and so I do the rational thing: Make peace with my rationality. But neither belief nor disbelief is a choice and as strong as my irrationality is: when I make peace with it rather than banging my head against it and trying to be more rational than I can actually be--which would be irrational of me--I end up being even more rational, ironically .

When I wrestled, I had a ritual about the order in which socks/shoes were put on. My headgear also had to be just so when I attached it to the warm-up pullover of our uniform. Not sure if that was a superstition, since I don't recall thinking of it as a lucky thing, but I invariably went through the same motions every time. Probably just pre-match jitters leading to a harmless bit of OCD.

Any thought I may have had about the good-fortune and efficacy of the ritual went out the window the first match of my senior year when I was beating a highly ranked opponent and then blew out my knee, ending a promising season.

(November 3, 2016 at 7:46 am)Brian37 Wrote: The idea that something magical, can give you luck or cause you to loose is fucking stupid. 

In a very real sense this is the same flawed logic that leads people to make god claims. In evolution what most people do not realize is that MOST ATTEMPTS at life fail. It is a false perception that because of the amount of abundant life we see, most humans who don't understand evolution, think a magic hand had something to do with it.

No, for that one sperm that gets to the egg, there are millions more in that emission that end up doing nothing. For every child born, there are far more female eggs in her lifetime that end up in a period.

Well in pro sports too, there are only two teams, say in the NBA, or MLB, OR NFL OR NHL out of 30-32 teams, only one will become the winner.

What is appealing about the Cubs win even to non baseball fans, is the concept of the underdog. Religions in our species history get started for much the same reason. You have a person or a minority group of humans whom lack the same resources as the majority. Our species empathy for the minority, is really no different than the empathy a parent has for their kid if they are a baby, or why we respond to when bigger kids bully smaller kids.


There are far more many pro sports teams who DON'T win the Championship and only one in each sport, each year, that does. Cleveland was not "cursed" in it's loss anymore than the Cubs not having a Championship since 1908 was a "curse".

Sports superstitions are as stupid to me as when a player prays for a score as if a god should be concerned with rich jocks or their owners when people die in Africa and the middle east from famine and war.

I get it, sports is fun, and that is OK, but DONT BE FUCKING STUPID about why wins and losses happen. Math, skill, and some luck(not magic luck).

Heh, you're just mad that nothing you do could ever make the Redskins good 

(November 3, 2016 at 7:47 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: The thing about superstitions is that if they help, they help.  Provided your superstitions don't involve something like a paralytic fear that all cats are familiars of Satan, most superstitions are harmless enough.

Here's mine:  I have a particular pair of socks that help me play poker better (I'll be wearing them later today, the tourney starts at 7:00).  It doesn't matter that the socks have no magic powers - when I wear them, I'm more relaxed, I have fewer tells, and I'm less likely to bet rashly.  I know precisely where this superstition comes from; I won a packet while wearing them six years ago.  If I DON'T wear the socks, I'm nervous, I make stupid bets and take stupid draws.

*shrug*


Boru

I placed second (out of 500) in the poker tournament. I was wearing my special socks. Case closed.

Boru

Nice.

I like you even more now.

I love poker.

You a loose aggressive style or tight aggressive style player?

I tend to play tight aggressive until towards the end nearer to the prize money and then I open up more aggressive, people think I'm getting a streak of good cards because I've played so tight up until the end; really I'm just bluffing my ass off and stealing the larger blinds that have drastically increased.

I don't play blinds at all. Straight draw poker, occasionally progressive on openers, pre-agreed ante.

Boru

Oh wow. Straight draw poker? That's really old school.

I play Hold 'Em.