XXVII

Greensboro, NC -- Twenty-seven is just a number. Some people consider it old; some people consider it young. It's on the wrong side of 20, but it's on the "right" side of 30. Is it considered to be "mid-20's" or "upper 20's?" In elementary school, when we were rounding by 10's, we'd round 27 up to 30... yikes! But if we're round by 5's, we'd round 27 back down to 25 (the definition of "mid-twenties").

Growing up, I attended a baseball game in DC -- DC was trying to woo MLB in 1990, but eventually lost out to the Florida and Colorado markets in 1993. The Orioles were playing the A's; starting for the Orioles was #27 Dave Johnson, who now does color analyzing for MASN (or did when I lived in Maryland). The year before the Cowboys beat the Bills in Super Bowl XXVII, the Redskins took down that same Bills team, 37-24. Joe Girardi is wearing #27 because that would be the Yankees' total number of World Series championships should they win again, hopefully not when I'm 27. 27 is also the "peak" age of a professional baseball player, as determined through some complicated formula by Bill James (So why do I have so many injuries from frivolous games, such as dodgeball and kickball? You'd think I was 47 or something.) As far as sports go, 27 is not a very popular uniform number.

27 may not be a special number, but we can all conclude that it's still part of one's "mid-twenties."