Last night I was watching the UConn-St. Joe's game while I thought the Wife was doing something on her IPad, when I noticed she was intently watching the game and looking a little nervous. She looked over at me and said, "It really makes a difference when you do a pool." Funny thing is, the only "pool" she did was to pick games so she could compete with me and Middle.
She is, of course, correct. The more you have invested in a sporting event, the more it matters. Eldest's tournament championship in basketball was irrelevant in the overall scheme of life, but we had our child invested, so that game was one of the most stressful I have ever experienced. A Cowboys football game always means more to me than any other, except maybe a Redskins game, when I am rooting for someone to lose, rather than to win. I quit Fantasy Football because I was tired of caring about irrelevant games solely because they impacted my fantasy team. I had money invested in that. Too much money.
This year, I found a new level of stress with the NCAA Tournament. There has always been some stress, whether to win a pool or simply to have bragging rights. I just watched Duke lose their first round game and now have a sinking feeling in my somach. I did pick Duke to reach the Final game, so that hurt, but that's not the source of my stress. I am not a Duke fan, so that's not the source of my stress. No, the source of my stress is Middle. Fatherhood has now impacted my enjoyment of the NCAA Tournament.
About 5 days ago, I asked Eldest and Middle if they wanted to do an NCAA pool. Middle had spent two weeks asking me about March Madness, but he references it in a way that is a little different. Every time I watched a college basketball game, he would ask "Is this part of the March madness?" I have no idea where he learned this term, but he really enjoyed it. "When does the March Madness begin?" "Has the March Madness started?" "Is William and Mary in the March Madness?" "Is Miami in the March Madness?" "Did LeBron James play in the March Madness?" I think it was the constant use of "the" in front of "March Madness" that threw me off.
Initially, both boys wanted to do the pool. Eldest seemed interested for fun, Middle wanted "to win money." When it finally came time to do the pool, Eldest bowed out. Middle jumped in with both feet. I gave him the games and he pondered the choice and gave me an answer. In many cases, he did so with great enthusiasm, such as yelling, "AMERICAN!" with a great deal of national pride. As he progressed through the picks, his enthusiasm for UVA, his uncle's alma mater and his father's favorite team, was evident. He was almost literally bouncing off the walls when he selected UVA to win the title game...over Duke.
I have never had as much fun filling out an NCAA bracket as I did on Thursday morning with Middle. His joy and enthusiasm were contagious. His reasons for picking particular teams were genuine and, in some cases, very sweet. He picked American because he is a proud American. He picked Oklahoma to make the Final Four because he did a school speech on Oklahoma a couple months ago. He picked Delaware because they won the CAA (the conference of dad's alma mater, William & Mary). He picked Syracuse to make the Final Four because his brother's teacher went to Syracuse. He picked Milwaukee to pull the first round upset because Youngest loves the Milwaukee Bucks, thanks to NBA Jam for X-Box. Sadly, things have not gone well. AMERICAN! suffered a 40 point defeat to Wisconsin. Oklahoma was upset by North Dakota State. Delaware failed to even scare Michigan State. Milwaukee suffered a 20 point loss. Middle was in 26th place in the pool. Out of 26 participants.
I haven't said anything to him about the pool. I don't want to destroy his excitement for "the March Madness". I don't want his first experience to be crushing defeat. I keep hoping he will fight his way at least to the middle of the pack. Then, the Duke loss. Middle lost one of his two finalists, and his second Final Four pick in the first round. I'd rather I lost two Final Four teams.
In a conversation with my Volleyball Insider yesterday, he lamented talking his son out of taking Dayton over Ohio State, and bragged about his son's choice of Harvard over Cincinnati. We no longer stress over just our picks, we stress over the picks of our boys. We probably stress over those picks more than our own.
As I was typing this, Stanford won, putting Middle one point out of second to last, rather than two points. He picked Stanford because a local boy in our area, whose mother teaches second grade at our elementary school, is a track runner for Stanford. At least Stanford is working for us, along with Harvard. Maybe this is a sign that Middle is going to a really good, and even more expensive, college.
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