Ignorance would have been bliss

Wednesday night, I wanted to watch my recording of the UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan. The problem was that I was scheduled to play volleyball with my friends. Not that I wasn't enthusiastic about the start of our little coed league playoffs, because I was, but I was worried that I would learn the result before getting a chance to watch it if I didn't watch it Wednesday night. My fears were realized in a bar located, in all places, in the shadows of Wrigley Field.

As we were starting to warm up, my friend Tom asked if my team were playing in the Champions League final. I cut him off quickly, "Oh, no, and don't tell me what happened if you know the score." He laughed. After we lost our match two games to nil, we headed up to Murphy's Bleachers to have a few beers. The Cubs, playing the San Diego Padres on WGN, were on most of the televisions. One big TV mounted on the wall behind us had Comcast Sports Net. They were the next to try to spoil the result for me. I caught sight of what I thought were highlights of the match out of the corner of my eye, so I asked Tom, "Is that the soccer match on the highlights?" (Yeah, I used "soccer." It sounds very affected to say "football" in the U.S. among those who don't really follow the game.) Yes, he said, so I turned my head to the baseball game till Tom told me it was safe.

After the Cubs game, the local news came on, and even they showed highlights of the match. I did not anticipate this at all. Comcast was easier to avoid because the sound system in the bar had the Cubs telecast on, but now that sound remained with the newscast that followed. This time, most of the televisions were showing the highlights, so it wasn't easy to find a direction in which to look. I must have looked ridiculous with my hands over my ears, too.

That made it all the more frustrating when I learned, inadvertently, that AC Milan had beaten Liverpool 2-1 in Athens. Eventually, most of the televisions that had aired the Cubs game and the late local news were switched to ESPN. The Four Letter has the American rights to the Champions League, so European football is now important to the Four Letter. I was on the lookout for a highlight package, but I wasn't quick enough to avoid seeing the score of the match on the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

Wednesday night's experience made me appreciate the second item in the Thursday column by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times. He couldn't quite coin a term for what I was trying to accomplish Wednesday night, but otherwise, I thought he hit the right notes. For example, I was watching a baseball game last season on a slight delay of about 20 minutes. My cellphone rang, and I saw it was my friend BT calling. I answered and rapidly said, "Hey, don't tell me what's going on in the (White) Sox game because I'm two innings behind." Deep breath. "How are you?" Well, he was calling to tell me about a play that I would see a little later. I called him the next morning and agreed that the White Sox middle infielders had turned a spectacular double play.

As for the Champions League final, I watched it Thursday night. I wished that Rafa Benítez had inserted Peter Crouch into the game a little sooner, as the Reds didn't look to threaten the Milan net much, especially in the second half. Kaká had moments of brilliance, such as a deft 360-spin move while retaining possession of the ball in the first half. The Brazilian also set up Filippo Inzaghi's second goal, which put AC Milan up 2-0, late in the second half.

Despite the loss, I chose the music I listened to while writing tonight's items with a nod to the Kop: the Pink Floyd song "Fearless" includes a recording of the Anfield faithful singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" as the song fades out, something that I never knew until tonight, even though I've had that CD for many years. I also learned a bit more about Scousers and the rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United thanks to a great article on the rivalry in FourFourTwo that I read today.

(Music to write by: Pink Floyd, "Meddle," and Blur, "Modern Life Is Rubbish.")