The Curse of the Furries

[giza]

Apparently since the Brewers were in Pittsburgh during Anthrocon, they have done pretty poorly as far as winning games goes. They used to be in first place, and they have since slid down to second in their division. Here are the stats. If you look closely, they have lost 7 out of the last 10 games.

Also, if you look at their July schedule, they really got spanked in Pittsburgh. And this is coming from having won 7 of the prior 10 games to Pittsburgh. The second half of the season looks even worse for them so far.

Full article: Brewers suffer the "Curse of the Furries"

If there is anything for the Brewers team to learn from, it may be this: don't be so uptight when you're around something you don't understand. Just relax and let other people do their own thing.

Also, I'd like to thank co-worker M for explaining to me how baseball stats work. I think it's the first time I ever closely examined them. My male ancestors must be so proud of me right now. :-P

Comments

[puctiger.livejournal.com]

Pssh. They're just fizzling in the second half of the season like a lot of other teams did after the all-star break. And the Cubs are almost unstoppable. :)

[omnibahumut.livejournal.com]

I think a donation of alcohol to the AC board members may clear them of this curse!

[drleo.livejournal.com]

I don't even think you should call that an article. It's some schmuck blathering on his blog. And boy, sports fans can come up with the most mumbo-jumbo superstitious reasons for when their team does poorly, can't they?

[giza.livejournal.com]

I call it free publicity.

[danruk.livejournal.com]

A bit belated on commenting, but to you Giza, and the immediate comment above. I don't even think the article should be thought of inherrently badly written or the guy who wrote it as simply being a 'schmuck'. He's just a writer, on a blog, and had a small opinion, which when I read through it, seemed pretty tongue-in-cheek not quite so matter-of-fact. That's what makes this a little curious and fun. Our fandom gets some attention and some notoriety without necessarily the underlying negativity, and lets face it: It doesn't go into any furry sex fetishes like some other media reports and popular on-air shows have portrayed! that's GOT to be worth something more!

[electropaw.livejournal.com]

Last Saturday I was at a St. Louis Cards game, and they happened to be playing the Brewers that day. The ballpark had this nifty board that you could send a text message to (for a fee) and have it display your message during the game. Too bad that they didn't have the board facing the Broadcaster's booth, otherwise I would of sent "Watch out Brewers!! The furries are here!"

[giza.livejournal.com]

You know... I'm half tempted to snail mail some conbooks to the Brewers, along with a note saying, "Sorry you missed the con. You'll be buying memberships next year, right?"

:-)

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

I shipped a copy of Furry!/Best In Show (http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/Best_in_Show) to the writer responsible for the recent episode of Entourage earlier today. :-)

[electropaw.livejournal.com]

The day after I found out about this HBO special, I watched it. My reaction was O.o

[electropaw.livejournal.com]

I dare ya ;)

[simbab.livejournal.com]

I can't stand the sports press. The pseudo-intellectual pretentiousness drives me crazy. Dude, it's a game. Get some perspective.

[susandeer.livejournal.com]

It's almost flattering that they would think the people they consider unwashed masses would hold such power over them...

What should we wish on them next> @:D

[giza.livejournal.com]

Actually, I can't wait until the 2008 baseball schedule is published, so I can see who is playing in Pittsburgh while we're in town next year.

[rebelsheart]

I am infinitely amused that the first two commenters are yourself and greenreaper.

[giza.livejournal.com]

We're like a tag team. :-P

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

Furries suffer the "Curse of the Brewers"

I think I have come up with the reason for the Furries' recent negative media attention. We have been cursed by the Brewers.

On Sunday's episode of HBO's Entourage, Johnny Drama goes on Craigslist to hook Turtle up with a blatantly stereotyped fetishistic chick in an attempt to win an illicit bet with his brother and his brother's manager "E". Without going into how they just made shit up... let's just say the writers of Entourage had made shit up. Completely invented. The fandom isn't like that.

What does this have to do with Furries' current woes? According to Wikipedia, the team's roadtrip to Pittsburgh in early July unhappily coincided with Anthrocon 2007 (who says Pittsburgh ain't a happening place?). It did not go well. During the unfortunate trip, the Brewers made up several unpleasant imaginary experiences and disparaged the Furries who dominated the hotel they were staying at. According to the Brewers, the Furries, whom several Brewers labeled as "creepy", made loud disturbing noises including "barking" throughout the night. Clearly, being in the same hotel with the Brewers was no picnic. Intolerant and insulting Brewers announcer Jim Powell is quoted as saying "Going up the elevator is an unpleasant experience when you are packed in with a bunch of people who look like they haven't left their mother's basements since the last convention."

Is it possible these Brewers took offense to the Furries who had done nothing to them, made up stories, spread insulting statements to the media, and laid an enduring curse on our community? Let's look at the evidence. This was the biggest year for Anthrocon's attendance, there were no significant complaints from any venues in Pittsburgh, yet negative comments in the sports community spread like wildfire. The Brewers did it.

I think there is only one solution to this crisis. We must remove this Brewers curse. A ritualistic sacrifice of a Brewers fan or player during the next convention must be done. Are their any volunteers out there willing to strip to the waist, paint themselves up in Brewers colors, wear a giant foam hand, and crush a beer can against their empty head?

[giza.livejournal.com]

Holy crap that was awesome.

I say we dress up a fursuiter in a Brewers uniform next year.

[linnaeus.livejournal.com]

Well done. :)

[nikvulper.livejournal.com]

Which hotel were they even at? I think they're suffering the curse of being in town at the wrong time, check this out.

The Milwaukee series was from July 2nd - July 5th, the con didn't officially start until after their mid-day game was finished on Thursday. Meanwhile the Cubs, who were in town July 6th - 8th during the con proper, have been doing great. Zero piss & moan comments from them, but I guess Chicago just knows & loves the furries. ;)

Shame for the Bulls, they'll be out of town during MFF.

[miami-pony.livejournal.com]

I was so disappointed that this was just some schmuck loser rambling to himself on his blog. For half a second I thought an actual sports journalist was casting spite and ire in the fandom's direction.. you know, like SomethingAwful does. I had such dismay that it was not an actual paid employee of traditional mass media calling for one of us to be ritually sacrificed. There's just not enough calls for ritual sacrifice in the media these days.

To wit: I propose that when a team starts sucking infected ass like the Brewers are doing, one of their multi-millionaire players should be dragged out to the pitchers mound and ritualistically castrated.
By a lesbian.
With a bear-trap.

People would PAY to watch that shit.

[rexxwolfe.livejournal.com]

Matthias A friend of mine and myself were talking at AC the worry about such a thing. Personally i think its just a sad ploy for attention on that team. We had this horrible stay at the hotel. Though lets face it even WE Poke and and make fun of ourselves the basement dwelling Imam yiffy fox furries we come to dread. So Its not that huge a deal to me that we get a few pokes and jabs. by the time next sports season runs around the furries will be forgotten modern day media has little staying power its all fifteen minutes of fame and once some major athlete busts his body or gets caught for drugs or some other scandal the furry shit will fade into the mists. The more we act riled up and give attention to this the more lasting the damage will be we can be our own worst enemies. The bigger an issue we make of this the bigger it will become. I think the majority of the good people of Pittsburg that had furry exposure. will just scoff this off as what it is piss poor sensationalist sports journalism.

[miami-pony.livejournal.com]

but dude, this guy isn't even a journalist, he's just a fanboy blogger. Him mentioning us doesn't even count as .15 seconds of fame; it's not fame at all. Anybody who actually got riled up at what he wrote needs a serious reality check.

Besides, he used to term 'curse' and he might have actually meant it. That's just superstitious bullshit meant to scare people with tiny minds... kinda like 'religion' does.

[unclekage.livejournal.com]

Actually, they have discovered our secret. We are in league with the Pittsburgh Pirates to ensure that the Pirates will always win when we are in town!

[giza.livejournal.com]

And the pirates definitely didn't give me any Captain Morgan as payment for services rendered! Nope, no Captain Morgan made it into my possession while I was in Pittsburgh.