On Friday, June 10th, I sat in my seats at AT&T park, unable to look towards home plate. Two outs in the 9th. Game tied. I'd seen too many of these games... Extra innings. One run games. I was exhausted from all the extra innings games, and just wanted the game to be over - preferably with a giants win. So I invoked the Baseball gods... I shouted to the world, "Nate If you get a walk off hit here for the win... I will..." I had thought about saying 'Get your face tattooed on my ass' but there was a chance that he might actually get an RBI. So I finished by saying "...get your number tattooed on my ass."
Sure enough, Nate got the walk off hit. RBI. For. The. Win. My baseball buddy Michael looked at me meaningfully and said "you had better get that tattoo."
A week later, I'm at the Twins/Giants game. Michael asks me if I've gotten the tattoo yet, and I answer no. "I plan to get it. I just haven't gotten around to it yet." Seconds later, Mad Bumm gives up a single to the leader off hitter. Then a double. Then a single... then a double. The line looks like this... 1... 2... 1.... 2... 1... 2... 1... 2. MadBum gives up 8 runs in the first... and it is 12 12 12 12. Nate's number. 4 times. The baseball gods are clearly sending a message to me... and ruining Madison Bumgarner's ERA in the process. I promise Michael that I will "get it taken care of." That line of 12's of the score board was freaky.
Not freaky enough, appearently, because I put off getting the tattoo. I mean... I've got to find the right FONT and everything. It's a lot of WORK.
The month of July speeds buy, and the giants seem to be doing Okay... Botchy coaches the NL to a win in the All Star Game. But all is not well. July ends badly and the first week of August is a disaster. The Reds beat us 2 out of three. The Phillies come in and beat us in our own yard, taking 3 out of 4. And... the Pirates take 2 out of three, and Nate ends up injured. The baseball gods have SPOKEN. CLEARLY. I need to get 12 tattooed on my ass.
On Thursday, August 11th, I got number 12, tattooed on my right cheek. Giants Jersey font. Black, outlined in orange. Let the winning begin.
