Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
But what if twins are involved?
It’s hard to say, especially when the twins involved are Canadians who play for the Philadelphia Wings of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League.
For the second game in a row, a Gait brother had to borrow a game jersey before a game from a fan walking in the Spectrum concourse wearing a Wings jersey bearing that particular Gait brother’s name and number. It happened Saturday night.
Last time it was Paul Gait who forgot his jersey before the Pittsburgh Bulls game on March 21. This time it was Gary Gait whose jersey turned up AWOL before Saturday’s American Division championship final between the Wings and the New York Saints.
Last time it was a 16-year-old fan, Craig Smith of Churchville, Bucks County, who just “happened” to be wearing a Wings Jersey with the number 19 and the name P. Gait. This time is was Jeff Waibel, 20, of Newtown, Bucks County, who “happened” to be wearing a number 22 Wings jersey with the name G. Gait on back when he was accosted in the concourse and told, “We need that jersey.”
Both times the Wings won, the first game when Gary Gait scored the game- winning goal in overtime, and more comfortably on Saturday when the two Gaits combined for seven goals in a 17-9 rout.
Now you might conclude that perhaps the Gait brothers are forgetting their jerseys on purpose for good luck, a sort of strange Canadian surperstition from their native British Columbia. If so, some one should remind them that the league championship Saturday night against the Buffalo Bandits is not a home game, eh?
It will be a lot tougher to find a Wings jersey on a fan in War Memorial Stadium.
(Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1993)