Living a life of Disappointment

Welcome to being a Baylor Bear sports fan!

I have never experienced such continual sports depression as I do when I try and follow Baylor football or basketball (this is a sexist men's sports only rant, the Lady Bears are great).

I stood in the bleachers in 1999 when Baylor was 3 seconds from winning their first home Football game of the year against UNLV. Instead of downing the ball at the UNLV 2 yard line, we decide to punch it in for a decisive victory. Alas, the Baylor curse hits, we fumble into the endzone and a UNLV player runs 101 yards for the winning touchdown with no time remaining as 40,000 fall deadly quiet. Such is the life of a Baylor fan.

I went down to San Diego a couple weeks ago as Baylor was charing in the Big 12 and was playing Texas for a second time. After blowing a 17 point lead and losing the first time, I was cautiously optimistic that we would win this game. We made an impressive and inspiring comeback at the end of the game, giving me great hope, then we proceeded to call a timeout when we had none and lost the game. Such is the life of a Baylor fan.

Still we have a chance to make the tournament. We are 3rd in the Big 12 and get to play Colorado in the first game of the Big 12 tournament. Colorado has 3 wins in conference this year. We have already won. Of course, I am pessimistic but hopeful. We play terrible in the first half, fall down by 15 before staging a comeback. Then we miss 2 freethrows that would have won it at the end of regulation and go to overtime. We fight for a second overtime. Then more missed freethrows and the heroic effort is spoiled. We lose. We might not make the tournament now. Such is the life of a Baylor fan.

Maybe we will make the tournament. There is nothing in me that believes we will survive the first round. Maybe we should move Baylor to Chicago and start playing next to Wrigley Field.

Then we would have fans that understand disappointment.