She passed me the money in two wads of cash, each having a blue band wrapped around the middle. One was slightly bigger, that must be the one with all the twenties. I saw her pass all the money through the counting machine but I still wanted to go to my car and count it. I felt on edge when I had that much in my hands. At any moment someone could punch me, take the money and I’d probably never see it again. Those thoughts never had gone through my head before. Now those things were the only thing occupying my mind. It is funny what money does. I wonder how Pablo Escobar felt; I had just eight thousand.
My hoodie was over my head, hands in my kangaroo pouch, with my tight white jean shorts clinging to my skin. The only difference between a normal day and today was there was a bump directly on top of my belly button bulging. This was something I wish I had a picture of. Better yet, I would like an aerial picture from a drone at a 45-degree angle from my eyeline, about 100 feet in the air, capturing this moment in my life. The image of me diligently walking the few deserted Wilmington blocks back to my car from the bank. Hoody up, head down, and hands in pouch. My heart was racing as I pulled the door open and then quickly shut. It felt like I was the only person on earth. Am I actually doing this?
I set my backpack in the passenger’s seat and kept my head on a swivel, like a wide receiver going on a pattern over the middle, constantly scanning around my car as I had these two wads of cash in my lap. Hundy, two hundy, three hundy… The counting took some time. I lost track a couple of times. Wow. Fantastic, it’s all here. Let’s get out of here! On to Dover Downs with a week to spare before the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
This excerpt from my book, “The Bet is Round”, is a glimpse into my journey of sports analytics. Over the next few weeks and months I hope to share many tactics/techniques with you that will better help you organize data and use it to model randomness in life!
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got. -Henry Ford-
The Bet is Round 