Up 3K, still a bad day

Saturday, July 28, 2001, was an extremely hot summer day in Southern California. The only thing hotter was my MLB picks. By this time, I’d narrowed my personal baseball betting season to six weeks, the three weeks before and after the All Star game. It was the last week in the aforementioned season and my picks were winning at an 81 percent clip, a feat I’ve not come close to since.

Normally I’d complete my daily handicapping with anywhere from three to five plays that I really liked. Every so often I’d find six, and on occasion, my efforts would only yield one or two. On this day, I came up with a total of nine. Nine bets that hours of crunching statistics led me to play. I’d taken my lumps in the past and learned to follow a sound financial betting pattern, curtail my wagering, and not give into what I refer to as “the fever”. As it turned out, I still needed work on my curtailing.

I placed my normal $250 on each of the nine picks, and a few three and four team parlays. Then, out of nowhere it came, “the fever”. I was up big this baseball campaign, so throwing caution to the wind, I began putting together random multi team parlays: five, six, seven, eight teams, for amounts ranging anywhere from $10 to $50.

Fast forward to later that afternoon, sitting at my desk, I was 7-1 on the day, with one last game still in progress. The last leg needed to cash several parlays paying a total of just under $73,000.
The game was Houston at Pittsburgh, the first of a double header scheduled that day. The Astros were two and a half games out of first place. Their lineup included such names as Biggio, Bagwell, and Berkman. On the hill was Roy Oswalt, the hottest pitcher in baseball. The Pittsburgh Pirates, on the other hand, were 20 games out and heading nowhere. I had picked the Astros, who were up by a score of 8-2, heading into the bottom of the ninth. (I’m sure it’s obvious where this story is heading.) The Pittsburgh Pirates rallied for seven runs, staging one of the biggest ninth inning comebacks in recent MLB history. They won the game 9-8. I didn’t win $73,000.

It wasn’t the miraculous finish by the Bucs that hurt. After all, I was no stranger to losing on comebacks. I had a sizable wager on Oakland in Game 1 of the ‘88 World Series, when a crippled Kirk Gibson hobbled up to home plate in the bottom of the ninth, and hit a Dennis Eckersley 3-2 offering into the right field pavilion. A few years later, my money was on the Houston Oilers, in a playoff game where their 32 point third quarter lead was overcome by a Bills team led by backup quarterback Frank Reich. Not winning $73,000 stung a bit, but like any gambler, I’d had several near wins in my past. Several “only ifs” where a missed field goal or last second 3-pointer snagged large sums of money away from me. It wasn’t the comeback or the lost winnings, rather it was a handful of situations, some out of my control, and several brought upon by myself, which led me to forever remember that day.

I’m not sure where we were in the timeline of personal computer technology in 2001, but in my home, connection to the internet was a bit slower than today. Remember the 56K modem? Additionally, there was no cable television MLB package. Scoring updates were obtained using the same online sites as today. Back then, we had to hit the refresh button over and over and over and over and over, waiting for the slow loading pages to come back with the latest result, as streaming up to the second, pitch by pitch game summary was still a few years away. Those circumstances were factors out of my control. My actions during the 35 minute half inning however, ones within my control, are what really added fuel to the fire. The following is a play by play account of that fateful bottom of the ninth:

GAME: A. Ramirez flied out to deep left
ME: Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.

GAME: J. Vander Wal flied out to center (That’s right. I forgot to mention this little tidbit before. An 8-2 lead, no runners on base, and TWO outs in the bottom of the ninth.)
ME: Refresh. Go to Priceline.com and book flight to Boston to visit some old friends. Charge to credit card. Refresh. Refresh.

GAME: K.Young hits double to left.
ME: Refresh. Book rental car. Refresh. Refresh. Hotel reservations (four star…why not?). Refresh. Charge to credit card. Refresh

GAME: P. Mears hits home run. Young scores. Score 8-4. Two outs.
ME: Refresh. Refresh. Call up company who gave me a high interest 10K business loan months earlier. Tell them that I would be paying back entire amount on Monday. Refresh. Refresh.

GAME: A Hyzdu (Who?) hits single to left
ME: Refresh. Refresh. Call mechanic. Make plans to have much needed maintenance done on work vans. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.

GAME: T. Redman walks. Hyzdu to 2B
ME: Refresh. Refresh. Make bids for several items (some needed, most not) on eBay. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Make a few more bids on Ebay. Refresh. Refresh. Few more eBay bids. Refresh. Refresh.

GAME: J. Wilson hits single to left. Hyzdu scores. Redman to 2B. Score 8-5. Two outs. Pitching change.
ME: Refresh. Refresh. Make yet another eBay bid. Close to 5K in total. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Call loyal employee who had asked for 2K advance just days earlier. Tell him, “It’s no problem. I’ll have it for you on Monday”. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.

GAME: J. Kendall gets hit by pitch. Redman to 3B. Wilson to 2B.
ME: Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.

GAME: B. Giles hits home run. Redman scores. Wilson scores. Kendall scores. Final score 8-9
ME: Sat very still and tried to be happy about the 3K I did win that afternoon. It didn’t work.

So what’s the lesson to be learned here? Take your pick. There’s at least a half dozen to choose from. The one about showing restraint when counting unhatched chickens comes to mind. Yet another involves a singing fat lady. How about the one that warns against trying to save a buck by making nonrefundable travel plans. Refresh.