I need a break

[SeriesFinale]

So, I threw a chair at door tonight after stewing a few minutes after Blanco's RBI PH and smashed the door. It's gonna cost an arm and a leg and my wife is extremely upset with me on a number of levels.

 

That's not like me, and I don't want it to be like me. Obviously the Brewers aren't responsible for any underlying temper problems I discovered I apparently have, but getting wrapped up in these guys obviously isn't helping. Following this team is not reality and I shouldn't be letting it bother me this much.

 

Anyway, as such, I'm packing it in the rest of the regular season in hopes of avoiding the irrational causation of what's obviously an anger issue (I mean, normal people don't toss furniture, no matter how long they've been disappointed by a team). I hope there are playoffs to come back for, but I'll most likely see you guys in a couple months when I get a grip.

 

Have fun--that's what it's supposed to be.

[thablingster]

Sad to see you have to take a break, man. I always enjoy your insights.

 

I definitely know that between all of life's regular stressors life can be stressful enough, but when you add in the stress and frustration from something that is supposed to be recreational and fun things can tend to boil over. I know during our collapse last year I took my share of long walks and just tried to put it out of my mind every time I got extremely angry after a loss.

 

The way I've rationalized the rest of the season is this: the pain is already over with. We've blown our entire lead. We are no longer entitled to anything. If we win the wild card, great. I will root for the Brewers every step of the way, but if they don't, while I will be disappointed I'm not going to let myself lose sleep over it or get overly upset. It just isn't worth it.

 

In any case, hope to see you back soon man.

[And That]

I'm taking a year off from the Packers for the most part. After the 4th & 26th play a few years ago, I lobbed a bar stool against the wall. And then after last year's loss to the Giants in the Championship game, I chucked (and I mean chucked) a laundry basket hard enough to leave a foot long break in the wall in my room. I realized that that was enough. I have more important things to direct my emotions towards.

[Fike85]

I threw my tv remote at the wall as hard as I could after Bush gave up a grand slam to Jim Edmonds back in July. The remote did not survive.

 

I am not a person that has temper issues, but it is very difficult to control yourself when you get wrapped up in something that can be very frustrating and is also totally out of your control.

 

Short story, I have felt what you have felt when you smashed your chair. Taking a break from this team is a good idea and perhaps I should follow suit.

[Gobias Industries]

That's probably a good idea SeriesFinale. I have a terrible temper though I'm usually a pretty reserved guy. But it has caused me to do some terrible things mainly because of sports and poker.

 

I've uprooted poker tables, broken remotes over players getting unlucky (JJ's rookie year), and threw a shoe through my wall in protest of a call. It sounds ridiculous, but with time I have somehow managed to become very level-headed.

[trwi7]

Well aren't you guys macho. If you want to be a real man, punch the soft couch like I do. Relieves frustration and saves money on band-aids!

[danzig6767]

I used to get crazy pissed off during close losses of sports teams i follow, particularly Packer games. Then i had a very bad injury happen in my life and then later someone i knew had her 5 or 6 year old son die, i have a daughter and couldn't fathom the pain she and her husband had to go through and still go through from that. On top of that, i had to spend quite a long time in the hospital and in rehab. During that time i came across many either sick kids, kids in a wheelchair, and their parents having to deal with a child with severe medical issues.

 

After these things happened, it put a different perspective on many things in life. I'm not going to act like i no longer get extremely tense during close games or don't get bummed out when the Brewers/Packers/Badgers have things go bad, i do get angry or bummed at times. I'm just able now for the most part to shake the losses off because i experienced up close things that are really really painful. Things that made me realize that many of the things in life that people get super stressed over, not just sports stuff, are issues that people with real problems wish they had instead.

 

Now thankfully for my nerves, i'm able to have great passion for the teams i follow, but not on the insane level it was years ago where i'd throw things and a tough loss in a crucial game could linger with me for days.

[DougJones43]

I've been strongly considering doing something like this. I want to de-emphasize the amount of time and emotion I dedicate toward sports. This is particularly true with baseball, because it's EVERY SINGLE DAY. Even with the best teams, you're looking at 60 days a year where you're going to be disappointed -- and then the stress of the playoff race on top of it. With football, at least only one day a week is affected.

 

It's tough though. Obviously, this is a big time for Brewer baseball, so I can't just ignore it. Starting next season, I'm really going to have to find a way to force myself to become more of a casual fan. Maybe attend a few games during the season, watch only a handful of games a month, and just kind of keep and eye on the box scores and standings. The ups-and-downs of intently following the Brewers this year have just been too much.

[JimH5]

It's great to get emotionally involved in sports. We want "our guys" to beat "their guys" and it's fun to pour our hearts into their successes and failures.

Part of the reason baseball became the nation's sport years ago was to numb the pain of the great depression, and to serve as a diversion.

 

But when the diversion becomes more important that our regular lives, or when it gets out of hand with violence, or drinking, or gambling, or creating a wedge with our families, then it's time to step back and reassess.

 

Congrats on your decision to step back, and I hope to read your posts after your hiatus.

[Invader3K]

I think I need a break from the Brewers, but I can't stop watching, no matter how bad they're struggling lately. Fortunately, I've never thrown or punched anything. I did yell quite a bit after Fielder struck out last night, though.

[brewers4eric]

"Serenity Now..."

 

I think we've all been there at one time or another. I took my time off from the Brewers and baseball altogether after each of the strike seasons. The time off helps you to appreciate the sport even more when you eventually do come back.

[fondybrewfan]

I usually start swearing profusely if something goes against the Packers or Brewers. I don't know what I'll do once I have kids.

[Fatter than Joey]

I usually start swearing profusely if something goes against the Packers or Brewers. I don't know what I'll do once I have kids.

 

Gain weight

[Patrick425]

I have a pretty bad temper at times that I'm not very proud of. However, I pretty much never get overly heated over sports. I get frustrated and angry but I keep it at a reasonable level.

 

Now, if it's rush hour and a guy wants to ride in a lane that is ending, then expects to cut in front of me at the last minute.....that's more of a situation where I'm going to loose my cool.

[burniebrewer]

Luckily, I had decided to chill out and lay in bed listening to the game last night. However, as soon as I heard Blanco's name I just KNEW he was going to get a hit, so I was prepared. Sure enough, base hit. All I could do was laugh a tortured laugh and realize it is not meant to be this year.

[hawing]

Being the passionate, knowledgeable and creative part of the Brewers' fanbase that we are, we should probably be the ones to name the law that decrees that whenever an ex-Brewer has the opportunity to bite the Brewers in the butt, he will do so - whether in the field, at the plate or on the mound. (And someday, maybe even from the dugout. I know - ouch - but in a world where Wes Helms can do it and Henry Blanco can do it...)

We need the equivalent of a Murphy's Law name.

 

Anyway - SF, I applaud you for realizing when you need to step away (even if it's maybe a wee bit later than you 'should' have). No one is immune to having his or her perspective get out of whack. We'll be here when you're ready to return.

[SeriesFinale]

Just wanted to pop my head in real quick and say thank you all for your kind words.

 

Looking back at tossing the chair it's kind of funny since it's so ridiculous but I'm mostly embarrassed that I let something affect my emotions so much that, while a big long-time enjoyment and passion of mine, is ultimately inconsequential in most ways to my life.

 

That said, there's no way I can go cold-turkey on the ole Brew Crew and I probably shouldn't try (heck, I'm looking at a framed print of the Pollard Portrait of the 1987 team on my office wall as I write this!). I'll still be checking the scores after the games, and lurking here now and again the next couple weeks or months, but for a while anyway I'm backing away from suctioning in as much news and opinion I can about the team, much less watching the games themselves on pins and needles.

 

My grandpa tapes the Packers' games on his old VCR--if they win, he watches them, if he doesn't, he tapes over it. He gave up treating it as life-and-death a long time ago. Not the worst idea.

[davego]

I tossed some stuff around after the late July sweep by the Cubs. However, going into the Phillies series I sort of knew at a gut level what was about to happen. I have found an odd serenity in what is now occurring. It feels 'normal.' Not good, but like things are suppose to be...I also did a 5-mile run last night after the game was done.

[Bikeage77]

I'm just so accustomed for the city's dirtiest trick that is the Milwaukee Brewers, that I have just sit and wait for the ship to sink. But they really pulled a fast one on me this year, giving me hope until about 14 games left in the season. On a side note, I had 2 wedding to attend on Friday and Saturday or I may have broke something. Sunday I watched the Packers to get away from it, and decided not to check the score of Sunday nights game until Monday morning. At my place of employment where I couldn't break anything if I wanted to keep my job.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Despite having a famously bad temper (so I'm told......I don't see it), I don't get violently angry at ridiculous crap that my teams do.

 

During this meltdown, however, I did stop watching and listening to the games. I check the score at the end. I did watch most of the game last night however.

[jason21nl]

I like most in this thread have a huge/had a temper. 4th and 26 was the nail in the coffin for a long relationship I had. I flipped the ex girlfriends coffee table across the room, took my autograph footballs and threw them about 50 yds into the snow. I have broke many remotes, playstation controllers, and my broke my hand probably about 5 different times. I just hated it when the Packers or Brewers lost. Id get so pissed that I would get light headed. Last season I fought with my most recent ex girlfriend every time they lost, and even many times during wins. She wouldn't watch football with me because how pissed I would get.(if you have ever seen me in an IGT on lambeau leap I kinda freak out) She wouldn't come to watch me play softball because I would get mad during the game, and it was embarrassing for her to go. The fighting got so bad that it contributed to me losing basiclly the love of my life. After the break up, things didn't make me as mad anymore. Just wasn't worth it to me. So I stopped throwing stuff, breaking stuff, punching things, yelling and screaming(for the most part). Don't get me wrong, I would still get mad at Ned and the Brewers but I handel it much better than I used to do. With the Packers, I'm more nervous than anything, up and down up and down. I guess after you do something so stupid, or lose someone in some sort of fashion things get put in perspective and its just not worth doing the things I used to do.

[TooLiveBrew]

I threw my tv remote at the wall as hard as I could after Bush gave up a grand slam to Jim Edmonds back in July. The remote did not survive.

 

Are you right-handed? Have you handled a relief workload before? If so, Gord Ash would like to speak with you. He's heard good things about your velocity.

 

 

That's not like me, and I don't want it to be like me. Obviously the Brewers aren't responsible for any underlying temper problems I discovered I apparently have, but getting wrapped up in these guys obviously isn't helping. Following this team is not reality and I shouldn't be letting it bother me this much.

 

I'll echo blingster -- I'll look forward to catching your takes whenever you feel like dropping by to post. It's good to see that you can take a step back & kinda re-evaluate. I still have hope that the Brewers will reward your/our patience. I know I've stopped checking out Brewerfan as much this season. It's led to much more enjoyable games in general. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[mothershipconnection]

I get pretty mad as well, but my anger pretty much only comes out as a long line of really loud curse words. I think I broke some things when I was young and regretted it so I learned to keep it all vocal.