Mets Win, Chinky Showed!

The minute the Mets clinched last night my husband and I gave a loud "yeah!" followed by "See, chinky showed!" You're  probably wondering what the heck that means. Well, my husband picked up the expression from me, who picked up the expression from my mother. When I was young anytime we were playing a game and someone wasn't playing "fair" or "cheated," or someone thought someone "cheated," and the "cheater" denied it, my mother would say, "Chinky'll show." So if the accused lost the game, my mother would proudly state, "Chinky showed, chinky showed!" as if the universe was watching that person and karma came back to bite them. We never really knew where the expression first came from -- I'm figuring somewhere in Italy -- and my cousins, from my mother's side, and I used it throughout our lives. It was like our secret code since most people didn't understand what we were saying.

Whenever I said it to my kids they would look at me like I'm crazy and ask, "What does that even mean?!" I told them how it was an expression from my Brooklyn youth that meant if you cheat, you are not going to win. The boy asked, "Why don't you just say cheaters never prosper?" My response was, "Chinky showed sounds better." He'd get exasperated, "But what the hell is chinky, there is no chinky!" When I would smugly say, "Sure there is, it shows" he'd shake his head at me like I was crazy.

Anyway, back to chinky showing on the Dodgers. When Utley from the Dodgers performed a dirty slide, well, really a tackle into the Mets' shortstop in game 2 breaking Ruben Tejeda's leg and ending his post-season baseball days, and basically "got away with it" (that two game suspension was probably more for his protection from Mets fans on their home field) I pronounced, "Don't worry, chinky will show. The Dodgers are going to lose this series."

Although I had hoped the Mets would have clinched it in game four on their home field, I was still convinced that they would win the series. It was a nail-biting game for us. Utley wasn't in the starting line-up but was brought in to hit in the 9th inning. The Mets were on top 3-2 and I felt he was brought in for psychological reasons more than anything else. He popped out and I could practically hear the roar of New Yorkers all the way to Virginia getting louder and louder until that final out when the Mets prevailed.

Chinky showed! Chinky showed! Bring on the Cubbies...