Now my leg hurts badly, making it difficult for me to write this.

Last year I created a database
about a clear pattern I had noticed of things that happen
at pivotal moments in sporting events.
(for this work baseball and football, which are what I like to watch,
but I believe they are happening in many sports, even at the Olympics)

A bobbled catch doesn't look natural;
it reminds me of the things that happen to me around my house
(Cups leap from my hands; things spill; things break.)
Or a player suddenly doesn't perform as well as usual.
And I recall what often occurs when I start to hike.
I am looking forward to walking,
but the minute I head up the trail,
my whole body is attacked by muscle pains;
I can barely put one foot in front of the other.

When there is a bad call from an umpire
at the most crucial moment of the game --
a call that takes back a touchdown or a field goal
or causes a player to strike out
when clearly the pitch was a ball,
I remember that sometimes my eyes become blurry
for no apparent reason --
as if someone was controlling the way my body functions.

I observed many games over the course of a year,
entering how and when such things happened into a database,
and than I devised a way to print reports
that charted the patterns of possible interference.
These patterns were too consistent to be coincidences.

I imagined, then, that criminal gambling interests
were working with the same men who have made my life miserable.
They were tampering with our sports for their own amusement
and for financial gain.

We ask for sanctuary