Wasn't there a mathematician who was convinced that "god" was out to get him? When he was travelling by sea he would write a friend a letter claiming that he had finally proved a difficult theorem (even though he hadn't). His reasoning was that he would always reach his destination safely since god couldn't stand to let him die on the dangerous voyage while leaving the rest of the world thinking that he had actually come up with the proof... There was also some story about rainy days and sports games, but I can't remember.
Who was this? I tried searching with Google, but couldn't find anything and didn't know exactly what to search for...