The Bruins were on the ice in Toronto taking practice after their 2nd game shellacking by the Leafs when a kid in a Kindergarten room and I had a conversation about the upcoming game. He predicted a shut-out. I predicted a 6-1 Bruins win because Toronto is that hungry to get past the first round.
The final score of game 3 was 5-2 Bruins.
Yesterday he looked at me and said, "Ms. H, you had the right answer but the wrong number sentence."
This is how he viewed it: 6+1=7, 5+2=7; therefore, I had the right answer (7) BUT the wrong number sentence. He then asked me a serious question. He asked if it was possible he was a hockey fan before he was born because he felt like he had always been a Bruins fan.
I told him my theory that being a Boston sports fan is genetic. It's written into our DNA which is something you get from your parents that helps make you you. He thought for a minute and said, "That makes sense."
He asked my prediction for tonight's game. I thought for a moment and said, "The Bruins win by a goal in OT."
He predicted the Bruins would win 100-1.
Yep, he's a Bruins fan.
I often refer back to a quote I saw on the wall of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It read, "It was as if something took me by the hand and whispered, 'I am baseball, come with me.'" I think than an angel whispered that in my ear before I was born. Maybe that's why I stood in the playpen chanting my favorite player's name over and over when he was at the plate (even if it came out "Eddie Soo! Eddie Soo!" instead of Eddie Bressoud.)
In all seriousness, I do believe being a sports fan is somewhat genetic. Why is it two people from the same family are so radically different in their perspectives? The way one can be a total nerd that locks themselves inside to read comic books, play video games and is into sci-fi and anime while their sibling is the kid outside playing every sport (well) and can instantly calculate batting averages, ERAs or other complex statistical analysis of players? It is something that psychologists study all the time, but I have to believe that there is something written in invisible ink on our DNA code that allows us to be interested in certain things.
For example, why is it I follow the Sox and Bruins but not the Celtics or Pats? Why is it one of my siblings has the full-blown Boston sports fan genes and another has barely a polite but passing interest in sports at all while the rest fall in all shades in between?
So the next time you look at a sibling or relative and wonder where the hell they're coming from, ask yourself this, did perhaps they get some genetic trait - dominant or recessive - from someone way back when in the family tree... or maybe they are just an apple that didn't roll too far from one side.
Perhaps, like me and my kindergarten friend, some angel whispered in our ears and took us by the hand to lead us to the sports we love.
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