night and day//day and night

There are always surprises. Just when you think you have a finger on the pulse, your enterprise can be rocked.

Last night after a USTA tennis match, the cluster of very amateur players were sitting near the courts nursing beverages and discussing the nuances of what passed for tennis during the evening. Just before I left the facility I glanced at a television screen in the clubhouse and noticed that the Red Sox were beating the Orioles by a score of 10-1. Victory in hand I drove the 15 minutes back to my home all the while contemplating whether it would be pizza or some other edible that would satisfy my hunger. I stopped for some sandwiches, pulled into the driveway, put on the game, and was comfortably in my chair in the process of bite number one in time to see the last out: the Orioles had come back to defeat the Red Sox 11-10.

Today I had the day off, but the Red Sox and Orioles did not. They played a matinee to conclude their three game series. When the Sox fell behind 5-1 in the 8th I went upstairs to make a phone call and take care of some correspondence. When I completed the tasks, I checked the score of the ballgame and saw that the Sox had scored 4 runs in the 9th and another in the 11th to beat the Orioles, 6-5.

In sport and in life when you think you are really sure of something it might be wise to reconsider the apparent certainties.