Wishy-washy.
This short story by Irwin Shaw reminds me a little of the Raymond Carver story from a few days ago except this one, instead of being about a group of guys in a barber shop, is about a group of guys bull-shitting about baseball while watching their team come "close" to a win. You sense the excitement...you feel the characters holding their breaths despite their nonstop chatter as they hope against reason, despite the stats stacked against the possibility of a win but it's there...and sports fans know that feeling and it's packed perfectly into this 5 page story.
Again, this was a nice snapshot sort of story that still makes one think about what Shaw was saying. One of the fans, as the story concludes, switches sides, changes teams, deciding it's time he root for a winning team. Shaw captured in a concise and clever way the notion that no one likes to lose...and sometimes, reputation or history be damned.
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