Don't Mention It (One Sixty-Two: Day 110)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day One Hundred Ten: Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox (via John Sterling)

When you’re on an interstate traveling a couple hundred miles, and making your way through New York City along the way, you cross your fingers when it comes to traffic. When you’re halfway there and you haven’t hit even a single brake light, you wonder how long the luck will last.

So the last thing you want to do is call attention to your good fortune. Yet, when your oldest daughter asks how long it will take until we get there, you want to give her a straight answer. So you say, as part of your answer, “Well, so far we haven’t hit any traffic, so …. ”

And your wife gives you the look. Now you’ve done it. The jinx is on. The “Road Work Ahead” signs are clearly on their way.

No one mentions that they’ve avoided traffic so far, she says. You talk about that once you get there. Meanwhile, on the car radio, WCBS announcer John Sterling is calling the play-by-play for the Yankees-Red Sox game. Boston starter Jon Lester hasn’t given up a hit yet, and it’s the fifth inning. While Red Sox players are surely following the time-honored tradition of saying nothing about the no-no to their pitcher, Sterling is running a jinx-athon on the radio. With every other sentence, he calls attention to the no-hitter.

And so it makes perfect sense that Yankees outfielder Austin Kearns knocks a single to center in that fifth inning, ending Lester’s no-hit bid. John Sterling all but guaranteed it. At around the same time, our car finds some interstate traffic that slows down our trip for a while. Just as I prophesied with my no-traffic comment.

Jon Lester lost his bid for the second no-hitter of his career yesterday, but he did pitch a fabulous game and picked up a much-needed win for his team. We hit our patch of traffic, but we still arrived at our destination in plenty of time for dinner. So all was fine in the end on both accounts.

It’s just that when you want perfection, and you think you might get it, there’s no need to bring it up. Just keep driving, or pitching, and let the rest take care of itself.