Sunday, June 14, 2009

Rally Hat to the Rescue

Many people may think that the Cubs victory today against the Minnesota Twins came as a result of Jim Hendry's bold move to fire hitting coach, Gerald Perry.

Others may believe that this is simply a potentially potent offense finally eating its Wheaties and performing even partially up to snuff.

Still others may chalk up the winning rally to a blind squirrel finding a nut.

However, I know differently.

The Secret Weapon Rally Hat made its official debut at Wrigley today in the ninth inning. This is kind of a good luck charm that I really should use for sports betting, but for now I will just use it for the Cubs.  It has traveled with me to Wrigley for a number of games, where it is 5-0 so far, but it had never been worn during a game situation since the Cubs always had the lead going into the ninth inning in its previous visits.

Today, with the combination of another clutch pitching performance by Ted Lilly and a king's ransom worth of runs (2) through the first eight innings, the Cubs managed to head into the bottom of the ninth tied up at two.

The Rally Hat proved it isn't completely all-powerful when it failed to keep Milton Bradley from hitting a weak grounder on the first pitch, but then it kicked into full force. Derrek Lee singled past third, and Geovany Soto followed with another single to left and Lee managed to advance to third on a hustling, head-up baserunning choice. The failed attempt to get Lee at third allowed Soto to advance to second.

Mike Fontenot was walked intentionally in order to load the bases to bring Ryan "Muscles" Theriot to the plate. After a big swing and miss where Muscles tried to hit the Horseshoe Casino building formerly known as the Budwesier building across Waveland, Theriot reconnected with his former "Slappy" self and shockingly did not try to pull an outside pitch. Instead he lined it through the right side like the Theriot of old winning the game and sending a Cubs crowd home happy for the first time since May 30th.

While the players certainly played their role, the only real difference between today and every other day in the recent past is the presence of the Rally Hat. It shall accompany me again to the park where it will be needed to help defeat John Danks and the Chicago White Sox.

In the meantime, I'm curious what other Rally Hats or other items with good mojo have been used to assist the Cubs over the years. I'd love to hear about it and possibly share some good stories about any lucky charms or talismans anyone may have employed over the years, be it lucky hats, socks, or underwear.

Send me any stories and/or pictures of your lucky items to Aisle424 (at) gmail (dot) com. By sending me a story or picture, you are giving me your consent to use the contents as part of this blog. I will give proper credit to the submittor if used, so sign your e-mail with whatever name or alias you would like me to publish it under (this does not guarantee publication).

Clearly, as you can see from today's picture, no item is too bizarre.

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