Flipping Off The Fickle Finger of Faith

Tiger Town.

Most people don’t know this movie, nor should they. Even the most stout fans of 1980s made-for-TV Disney movies would call it overly cheesy. The only cultural significance of this movie is to illustrate how far Roy Scheider had fallen after Jaws. For me it had an additional personal meaning. It was one of two movies my brother would rent on our weekly trip to the video store growing up – the other being Harry and the Hendersons. And his constant renting of these movies was a thorn in my side for two reasons.

1) We had one TV, meaning that one of two movies that we had already seen 500 times was bound to take over the TV for at least two hours that week.
2) His infatuation with these movies limited my ability to manipulate my two younger brothers’ selections to ensure my choices made it into my Mom’s hands.

The plot of Tiger Town is simple.

Tigers stink.
Kid goes to games with his dad.
Tigers win and aging slugger has great game when they attend.
Dad dies.
Kid becomes obsessed with Tigers games.
Tigers keep winning when he attends.

He’s delayed to the final game of the season and arrives in the ninth inning with the slugger at-bat.
You can guess how it ends… unless you’re my brother. Apparently he needed to regularly remind himself that Roy promptly banged a 2 run home run to win the game as soon as the kid ran into the stadium. And this is despite the fact that Roy had a swing that made Robert Redford’s look like Joe DiMaggio… is it that hard to cast someone who played high school baseball in a made-for-TV movie?

But on Monday night my long-held view of this movie was altered during game 2 of the Blackhawks and Canucks series. The Hawks were down 1-0 in the series at home, it wasn’t a must-win but it was pretty darn close. We walk in a bit late and get to our seats 4 minutes into the game with the Hawks down 2-0. Yikes. My immediate thought was that it was a nice run and the team will be back next year to make another run at the Cup.

As a joke, I mentioned Tiger Town to my friends and how my arrival could turn the game around. Of course, neither of them had any friggin’ clue what I was talking about so I had to walk them through the plot. But 30 seconds into my explanation of the movie the Hawks break through with a goal. Tiger Town mother#*$&er. I remained glued to my seat for the remainder of the game and when the final horn sounded, the Hawks skated away with a 4-2 win.

That’s when the genius of Tiger Town dawned on me. That movie isn’t about the kid, or the Tigers, or even the slow decay of Detroit. It’s a fantasy about having the power to fully control your own destiny. Rationally, we all know that our lucky seat or pre-game meal has no impact on a game in which we are not playing. But I guarantee you notice that your favorite team is 10-0 when you shotgun a Natty Light after the national anthem I bet you’re going to find a can of Natty Light before that first note hits your ear in game 11.

We all want to believe our path is entirely under our control, and it largely is, but sometimes shit happens. A perfectly healthy person gets sick. A war breaks out in someone’s backyard. The Oakland Raiders take you with the 7th pick in the draft. Heck, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an entire book on how there is invariably some immaculate stroke of good luck behind every success story.

That’s the beauty of Tiger Town. There’s no dumb luck. There’s no bad luck. It’s all on us. You don’t have to worry about some schmuck with Tuberculosis trying to impress the boss who ends up sitting next to you on the 9:30 United flight out of O’Hare*.

* Here’s a general rule of thumb for business travel. If you’re sitting in coach, you’re not important enough to fly sick and put everyone’s health at risk.

And it’s a great thing to have that responsibility. There’s no need to curse fate, or wonder what might have been. Everything you achieve is based entirely upon your doing. Unfortunately, we live in a world where randomization is a big part of the equation. Your success largely hinges on your ability to take advantage of the breaks and overcome the roadblocks in your path.

That being said, I couldn’t attend the Hawks’ game 5 loss at home; but don’t worry Hawks fans, I have tickets for game 7.