When You’re Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

2 02 2010

A weary traveler checks into a hotel late at night.  He lays on his bed and drops his shoe, banging loudly on the hard floor; realizing how loud and rude he was being, he softly takes off his other shoe and places it on the floor.  A few minutes passed and a man below can be heard shouting, “Drop your other shoe already!  I can’t sleep waiting for it to hit the ground!”  For the man on the floor below the traveler, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop on the floor; the inevitable conclusion of the man’s anticipation of the undesirable thud.  Cowboy fans have witnessed the shoe drop after 1996 and their third Super Bowl of the ’90s.  Bulls fans witnessed it after Jordan-era.  Meg Ryan dropped the shoe after You’ve Got Mail.  Now, the fans in/(of) Boston are witnessing it happen right before their eyes.

These are the years of the last championship seasons for the teams of The Hub – with the Bruins in 1971.  In a decade, no city has enjoyed more championships than Bostonians in the Aughts.  (Please send refuting emails to Dwight Schrute at beeswax@notyours.com).  2007:  Celtics win their league-leading 17th championship, the Red Sox win World Series for the second time in 3 years and the Patriots win their 4th Super Bowl in 7 years; undefeated, no less.  (It happened.  Yes it did!  Just leave me alone!).  Okay, fine:  2004, Patriots win their 3rd Super Bowl in 4 years.

Since then, fans have parachuted in on the Bandwagon of Beantown from all over the country.   Well, I for one don’t mind all the bandwagoners seeing as how in this day of universally on-demand media anyone can follow any team no matter where they are.  I guess what I’m saying is, there’s nothing you can do about them so we should just live with it.  But I do have a message to those that may choose to stay:  ”Things are about to get rough, so buckle up or get off.”

2010:  the Patriots have expired their 5-year grace period for winning Super Bowl XXXIX.  2007 was definitely good year for the Pats but the first-round debacle of this year’s playoffs to the David Tyree Ravens combined with the humiliatingly, flukey loss to the David Tyree Giants in 2007 can swiftly lead to loss of good faith for their prosperity.

The Celtics are old.  The Big Three can’t hold the team together any more.  Leads aren’t preserved down the stretch without the intimidating defense of a truly healthy Kevin Garnett.  The general manager actively tried to get rid of Rajon Rondo on two separate occasions before giving him an extension this year.

The Red Sox.  I’m holding on to hope that last year’s sweep from the ALDS was an aberration, too.

Despite disappointing finishes the Pats did go undefeated during the regular season and won 18 games in a row, the Celtics and Bulls gave NBA fans an unforgettable 7 game series without KG in 2008 and the Red Sox…well the Red Sox added John Lackey to the rotation.  (I can’t honestly think of something I’m excited for about the Red Sox this year or last year).  The Bruins made the playoffs and lost to the Hurricanes in 7 games.  Silver linings are everywhere.  But how long will that hold?

Spoiled, like the cast of Jersey Shore getting paid to drink and fight.  New Englanders just expect good things to come, easily forgetting hardships that came before this decade.  You’re the father of a kid that will inevitably lose a game of basketball in the driveway because you’re getting older, fatter and slower and your kid is getting more agile, stronger and figuring out your weaknesses.

So what can you do?  I can’t say whether or not I’m handling the situation very well.  Every Celtics game I see, I have no reason to believe that they’ll win the game even with a 20-point lead in the 4th quarter.  I didn’t even predict the Patriots to be in the Super Bowl (but there’s no way I predicted the first-round piss-fest) this year.  The Colts have figured the Patriots out.  The Chargers would have beat them too.  (In hindsight, everyone in the playoffs could have beaten the Pats).

If you’re a bandwagoner and want to jump off, be my guest; you are entitled to your decisions and what makes you happy.  If you’re a die-hard, you can join me and prepare yourself to endure the inevitability that the shoe is getting closer and closer to the ground.  Take the insight of the late sportswriter Dave Halberstam, “If you need a victory by your favorite sports team to give you some kind of enduring emotional upgrade, then you are, I suspect, in real trouble.”

Go out and enjoy life.  No lovable losers here.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Albie87, Sports

Why Naming Dogs after Sports Athletes is a BAD Idea

9 09 2009

If you’re a twenty-year old kid that wants a dog, do NOT name it after a young sports athlete. Especially if they’re only in their second year and had a great rookie year.  Because three years later, after the sophomore slump and after two World Baseball Classics, you’re going to wish Dice the German Shepherd was named because of your craps gambling addiction instead of the $50 million pitcher that can’t go more than 5 innings without 10 walks.

Over Labor Day weekend, I went back down to my parents’ house to pick up my dog that they were holding on to for a year because of roommate and small-living space issues.  Now that I live alone, I find myself bored late in the evenings during the week and am too worried I’d become crazy if I talk to myself (so I’d rather talk to a dog.  Better?).  As I haven’t lived with him for a year, I look back at him and remember our time together and of the day I went to pick him up at the shelter.  With two friends, we looked at all the animals that needed to be adopted.  I did two loops; I don’t know how I missed him the first time.  He was perfect.  Just sat there in the cage and looked at me instead of acting like…well, a dog in an animal shelter.  Probably more importantly, there wasn’t a stream of his marked territory running out of the cage and into the hallway’s drainage hole (honestly, why put it there so people have two choices:  step in it and let it trace your footprints every time you step, or cautiously step over it so you can get the look that says, “I hope you’re ready to step in it ’cause you’re going to have to if you take one of these home”?).  Another tip for adoption:  they make you give the animal a name.  That’s an understatement.  They don’t let you out the door until you pick a name.

We sat at the counter for about 15 minutes while the workers were getting ready to close for the day.  You just think of words and say whatever comes to your mind, like:  Yawkey.  Fen.  Or…Way, Papi? Eh, I’d rather it be a pitcher. So, Pedro?  Knuckles, Knuckl–er, Knuckleball, knuckleball.  Gyro?  What’s a Gyro?  Dice-K throws it.  Dice!  Dice?  Yeah, Dice…that’s it.  How do you spell it?  Hmm….Daisuke or Dice-K?  Well 5 minutes later, I brought Dice home and he became my little mascot.  Fast forward two years and your awesome, cool pet that has attached so close to you (and vice versa) has the name of a three-year washout that will probably be a fireballer in the National League a la John Smoltz and Brad Penny.  Yes, Brad Penny (after he asked and was granted release from the Red Sox and signed with the San Francisco Giants, then pitched 8 shutout innings in Philly led me the most used but most passionate text message from Sox fan to Sox fan, “Brad Penny! WTF! Really?!”).

The lesson is, if you have to name your pet after an athlete, don’t name it after one that is virtually untested.  Now give me some credit, Daisuke has pitched in his relative big-leagues before.  And constantly threw 150 pitches per game in Japan, so why would I have thought that he would have had a tired arm after last year’s WBC?  Probably because I didn’t know the WBC would still exist by now.  Be smart and name your pet after a Hall of Famer, or a washed-out retiree (purely for comedy, not patheticness.  No Bledsoes, please).  You could go with Yaz, or Pudge.  Madden, or Csanka and Butkus.  Me? I’ll stick it out to the bitter end.  And it will be a bitter end.  However, if Real Life Daisuke ends up on the Yankees…I’ll have to reevaluate the origin of the name.  Like how it’s ironic that his name is Dice and he has no dice?  (Thanks to Bob Barker for controlling the pet population).  Or maybe I should just call him Buddy.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : Albie87, Family, Sports

Why I Knock on Wood

3 04 2009

No amount of Friday-the-13ths or full-moon Halloween nights can get me nervous about superstitions as much as the baseball season. I’ll admit it, I’m superstitious. Especially when it comes to baseball’s bizarre eccentricity. As hard as I try to detach myself from the slippery slope to crazyville by deciding to not knock on wood at the slightest possible jinx or to consciously decide to not wear the lucky t-shirt with a massive hole down the left side of my armpit underneath my work clothes on a clinching game of an important series, I can’t seem to shake the self-destructive addiction that is baseball fandom. Is there a 12-step program out there so I don’t have to stop cold turkey?

Last post-season’s ALCS had probably solidified my fate even more than Harrison Ford in Empire Strikes Back (yup, Star Wars). While in Fayetteville with the Sox down 3 to 1 against the Rays preparing to head to Philadelphia for my sister’s wedding without giving any thought to baseball, I was to land in Philadelphia during Game 5 and would fortunately miss the Rays pop champagne in Boston’s visiting locker rooms and prepare for the World Series. Yet, that was not to be. The effects of air-travel/sickness that night and with the game on mute because my parents were sleeping in the other bed (I honestly didn’t plan on revealing I shared a hotel room with my parents in the same paragraph as a Star Wars reference) became way too much, I managed to stay awake until the top of the 7th inning but then decided to call it a night. Blame me? (Well, you will). Sox hadn’t scored a run yet and showed no signs of life in the post-season whatsoever. At least my sister’s wedding would be a nice distraction. Hey, the Phillies clinched the NLCS so there would be no chance Manny, D-Lowe, and Nomah would be able to play the Red Sox for a shot at redemption no matter what happens. Maybe I can just immerse myself into the local talk of Philadelphia and be exposed to the Phillies hype.

Dozing in-and-out of consciousness I had to ignore the constant vibrations of my cell phone as to not wake the aforementioned parents in the room. Surely it was from all my friends consoling me. But more probable, all my friends sending me their virtual jeers. After the 5th buzz stirred me awake I finally opened my eyes to see a text I never prepared to receive, “OMG! JD DREW!” And wouldn’t ya know it? Sox won and I missed it. It was happening. I was having the Jimmy Fallon complex in Fever Pitch when the Red Sox came from behind to beat the Yankees but Jimmy and Drew Barrymore were at a Great Gatsby birthday party. Then Jimmy finally said what I’d been wanting to say to someone for a long time, “Clearly it’s not JUST a game!” At least he was saying it to his future ex-girlfriend [spoiler alert!]. The only person I’d get to say it to would have to be my sister, ’cause it was her fault I missed it, right? Had I not had to drive two hours to get to Tulsa airport, fly 6 hours all the way to Philadelphia and then stuff myself with food because I hadn’t eaten all day I probably would have watched it in the comfort of my own 3 year old futon. She was the reason I was in Philly. Maybe. Just maybe, Fayetteville was just bad-luck.

Wedding Day was Saturday, also known as Game 6. Sox still in it. Beckett slated for the start. During the reception I have my iPhone turned to ESPN’s Gamecast while trying to continually give the perception I was mingling. Through all the festivities I kept a rather good track on the situation. Close game and Beckett’s still on the mound through 5 innings. Tie-game no less. Holy crap. (I hope Karen isn’t reading this, but during the first dance – I glanced at the box score. Continually.) But yup, the good ‘ol boys win and I’m on the dance floor doing the Worm. Then run to watch the highlights from the hotel room. It was as if moving to the East Coast was my calling. Being there, closer to my team I was giving them support to win, support they didn’t have before. I felt narcissistically controlling and magically I was the key to success. Well, as much as controlling I could be without going “Celtic Pride” and kidnapping David Price or Evan Longoria.

Fayetteville’s charm that has deprived the Razorbacks with years of average mediocracy has been transferred to the Red Sox. My hometown was punishing me for spending time elsewhere, wishing I lived there instead of here. Arrived Sunday night just in time for deciding Game 7. Loss. Pack it up fellas! What would have I given to jump on a Concorde to get back in Philly post-seventh inning stretch? I still kick myself because I should have just left Fayetteville; drove to Missouri or Oklahoma. Hell, it’s only an hour away and surely there’s a sports bar somewhere and since I’ve already angered Fayette-nam’s wrath, that’s where you can find me in October 2009.

Knock-on-wood.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Albie87, Family, Sports

The End of Sports

22 03 2009

I can’t stand the advertisements strategically placed on my favorite websites:  ESPN and Facebook.  Why do I care what Eli Manning and George W.’s IQs are?  Do I even think to ask why they’re magically the same?  Even though I’ve yet to click on the link, I know that it’s going to send me to page-after-page of  flashy advertisements that have the Close button blended in to the background which if you were to miss it by as much as a pixel, you’ve just clicked on the ad itself – and then get sent to yet another page that will try to get money out of you!  (breathe, 1…2…3 – way to go, pop-up blocker!).

Sad thing is that you can’t go to a baseball/basketball/football/[other sporting venue] game anymore and not be hounded by advertisements and messages from sponsors.  Even Bud Walton Arena has a brand new border-marquee that wraps around the entire arena which occasionally has its sponsor displayed, which undoubtedly helped the University pay for the new high-tech addition: Game On Promotions; the Arvest Bank banner, and even the Bank of America banner.  Two different banks.  Can you even do that?  I guess in the end BofA doesn’t really care about Arvest, seeing as how Arvest is pretty much the Pittsburgh Pirates to them – a year ago I would have compared Arvest to the Rays in this analogy.

The killer of sports’ purity:  business.  The very thing that drives a franchise and the sport will inevitably kill it.  When John Henry and Tom Warner bought the Sox in ’02 they dumped millions of dollars in to Fenway; building new seats and then filling them, promoting new…promotions to keep the fans giving money back to the franchise.  But you look at them and you see two championships, so who can complain?  And seeing as how the Sox were in a 86-year drought before they came into Boston, Nobel Prize for Championship-making could definitely be in the conversation with the ownership (no, I’m not THIS much in love with the Warner/Henry duo).  But now it’s gone too far, guys.  All new uniforms for this season?  Why?  So fans can rebuy their favorite player’s jersey in a different color-scheme?

All over the country – admission prices are rising at a geometric rate.  Then even if you can get into the game – you can’t afford more than two beers and a hot dog.  The only souvenir you can get is a foul-ball.  Because it’s free and that’s if the big burly dad in front of you mishandles the ball while trying to catch the ball with his bare hands because he couldn’t get the kid’s glove on in time.  Then who goes to sporting events anymore?  

If fans can’t afford to enter the game and buy their kids (or the kids in them) a t-shirt/jersey/hat of their favorite player where will the revenue come from? Who will support a franchise that pulls every cent possible?

Where’s our bailout?


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Albie87, Sports

Tests + Finals = 2003 Red Sox

9 12 2008

This past week I had two tests on Friday, less than a week that finals officially start at the University of Arkansas.  Not a night went by when the last thought of the day wasn’t, “Albert, tomorrow is going to be fine.  You can get through it.”  Not a morning started when the first thought of the day was, “How am I going to get through it today?!”  I could just feel the insurmountable stress piling up on top of me.   I couldn’t breathe because everywhere I went, my nemesis was laughing in my face; telling me I couldn’t beat it.   Berating, condescending, in a word – dominating.  It was as if I was cursed and the same way I yell, “F— the Yankees!” I was yelling, “F— School!”  

Wait a second.  Beratement?  Curses?  F— the Yankees?

I texted my friend as soon as I had this epiphany.  Like a vocab question on the SAT, “School is to me as Yankees to the Sox” (well you know, pre-2004 Red Sox World Championship era).  

What I love about sports:  it’s symbolism to life.  Like the light at the end of the tunnel finally opening up, I remember:  the underdog will overcome.  Maybe not glamorously and with all limbs in-tact but eventually the tides will turn.  Not one thing in this world dominates forever.  The dinosaurs died.  The Ice Age melted.  

I will graduate.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: ,
Categories : Albie87, Just Me, Sports

Waiting Till Next Year, Again

6 10 2008

I should have wrote this before game 3 of the Red Sox/Angels series, but since I didn’t I’m going to try my best to keep my focus while the game is going on (1-0 Angels, Bottom 2nd).

While I watched last night as the Cubs went down to the Dodgers to continue their centennial World Series drought, I couldn’t help but think about what Seth Mnookin wrote in “Feeding the Monster.” He mentions the way the sport is played out to its fans as poetic in nature but of course in terms of the 2004 Red Sox. The “Original Sin” started when Babe Ruth was sold to the “Enemy” – the Yankees in 1918 (or 1920 by other sources). Year after year since then, the Yankees have dejected the Red Sox organization, players, and fans by not only beating the Sox, but in heartbreaking fashion (e.g., as in the 2003 ALCS when they rallied from a 5-2 deficit in game 7 to win) He continues on to say how fitting it was for the 2004 Red Sox to face the Yankees the very next year in the ALCS and started down 0-3 in the series. As we all probably know what happened afterwards as the Red Sox came back to win the American League and go on to win the World Series, my stance on the Sox, Cubs, and pretty much sports in general, is that every team has to have a defining moment in which everyone involved has to commit themselves to winning. No matter the cost. And put the “Curse” to rest.

The defining moment of the 2004 Red Sox clearly being the rally from an 0-3 deficit to beat the “Evil Empire” as the clear underdog. Once that happened, the door to the World Series trophy was opened to be claimed by the Sox by a sweep of the Cardinals. But would it have been less significant had the Sox not gone through the Yankees? I’m willing to bet that it would have. Hell I’m willing to bet that the Sox wouldn’t have beaten the Cardinals if they hadn’t gone through the Yankees. Every story has to have conflict and at that point, there was no conflict for the Sox that didn’t involve the Yankees.

So take note, Cubs fans. Who is your main antagonist? As far as this drought has gone on, there hasn’t been one team in the way. The Cubs have been eliminated by about 15 different MLB teams so as far as I can tell, the Cubs have been their own worst enemy. The clubhouse has to change its personality dynamic in which the players believe that they are in control of their own destiny as the “Idiots” of the Red Sox had their “Fuck ‘em All” mentality.

This philosophy continues on to the Tampa Bay Rays now, which worries me and should worry every Red Sox fan. The Rays have just continued to fight against all oncomers while being counted down and out. It appears that the Rays are the team this year that doesn’t pay attention to outside pressure from the media and fan-base (since they don’t have much of one). I view that as the most dangerous weapon any team can have.

Oh and if the Red Sox DO beat the Rays and the Dodgers beat the Phillies, Derek Lowe, Nomar Garciaparra, and most of all, Manny Ramirez who all play for the Dodgers have at one point, played for the Red Sox. So the Dodgers then wouldn’t just have the “Fuck ‘em All” mentality, but “Fuck the Red Sox” mentality.

Should be exciting.

EDIT after Game 3: I don’t know why I didn’t mention the Angels before, maybe I was hoping they wouldn’t be in this whole category but after they beat the Sox in extra innings to FINALLY beat the Red Sox in post-season play after losing 10 straight they totally fit the equation of everything I mentioned above. The ALDS is pretty much playing out the way the Sox rallied against the Yankees, the roles are just a little different. Crap.


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Albie87, Just Me, Sports

Ready for October

30 09 2008

Okay, I might not ever write anything about the Hogs for a while.  I had a post ready to go earlier, welcoming Petrino and the new season, however I let a couple games go by to really get a good grasp of what I would be involved with and after the ‘Bama and Texas games, I’m pretty satisfied with leaving the Razorbacks out for a while.

Tomorrow is officially the start of the MLB playoffs and the Red Sox are in the AL Wild Card spot.  I didn’t have the best weekend last week when they only took 1 out of 3 games from the Yankees while Tampa Bay was equally floundering with the Tigers.  I wasn’t a big fan of the fact that the Friday night game continued after a 10+ hour rain delay in which Daisuke got scratched from the start (and in turn, pitcher Pauley, decided to pitch with his eyes closed – or he pitched underhanded – I can’t tell) but then to have Saturday’s game postponed to have a double header on Sunday to finalize the season?  The Sox can fight against a lot of obstacles but let’s face it, Mother Nature can’t collapse like the ’04 ALCS Yankees or the ’07 ALCS Indians – so good bye AL EAST Division and hello Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  I maintain that if Friday’s game didn’t get delayed and Dice-K still started, Friday’s game would have been ours and since Tampa had already lost to Detroit even before the Sox/Yankee game’s scheduled start – Tampa would be looking up at the Sox from the Wild Card (correct, I continue to assume that the Sox would have swept the embarrassing Yankees and Detroit would have swept the nervous Rays — no, I’m not kidding).   Alas, it was not to be.

Yes they owned the Red Sox during the regular season but the Sox – just like every other team that didn’t make the playoffs was injury-filled.  I have to believe that a healthier team (hopefully 87%?) in the playoffs is better than the team that was barely 70% healthy all season long.  So bring on the Angels and here’s hoping they continue their best to be the Cubs of the American League.

Hang on.  Who would I want from the American League to go against the Cubs in the World Series?  Do I want the Red Sox to elminate the Cubs from their bid for a championship after 100 years?

Eh, I’ll live.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Albie87, Just Me, Sports

Home Away from Home

11 08 2008

When you’re a fan of a big-market team and the Team With the Most Bandwagon Fans Winner — I think ESPN had a extremely high percentage (greater than 75%) of Sportsnation agreeing that Boston has the most bandwagon fans (…ahem, Cubs fans anyone?) — it’s easy to be target of the worst insults of sports fan-hood…Bandwagon and the worse yet, Fair-weather.  I’ve yet to unleash those two-words of fury towards some people I find myself surrounded by but it has found itself on the tip of my tongue from time-to-time.

How have I avoided being cursed for so long despite my heralding of the recent Boston sports success (how is it that Boston didn’t win TitleTown USA)?  I was lucky enough to be acknowledged for my apparent “non-bandwagoning” but made me realize that Boston’s recent dominance has opened the flood gates for so-called fans that don’t know Big Papi’s real name even though they have a #34 jersey on, or don’t know why we hate Johnny Damon so much (alright, us kids today have used the word so much it’s lost all meaning, taking a line from Dr. Cox, I’ll substitute hate with mega-loathe from now on).

What should I have expected from living here?  About 1,500 miles away from Boston, am I not subject to the same scrutiny and judgement that I am putting others through?  I know that if I were to ever run into a Boston fan at some sports bar I’ll subtly take them through the “True-Fan Test” just to make sure I’m not wasting time by rehashing our favorite Boston moments.  It’s kind of like the time I was at a Naturals game and during pre-game a guy wearing a Boston t-shirt and hat looked my way and gave me the Cool Guy Nod (the kind of nod a guy gives to another guy in which he doesn’t want to seem overly excited) and I acknowledged with a Cool Guy Nod of my own because I was wearing my Papelbon shirt and Boston hat, but as he turned and walked down to his seats I questioned his fan-hood then decided that he wasn’t a bandwagoner because anyone around here can buy a Boston Red Sox hat from Wal-Mart but NO WHERE sells t-shirts — you have to really try and get those (he got an A from the True Fan Test).  A guy I saw weeks before was wearing a leather Red Sox jacket – he got an A plus.

There’s a part of me that finds solace in the Patriots losing the Super Bowl, because now when I see someone wearing a Patriots jersey (no matter how clean it is) I have absolutely no doubt in their loyalty.  That poor soul has gone through thick and thin with the Patriots last season and still displays their loyalty (automatic  A++ from the True Fan Test).  And even during the season up to the Super Bowl, every Pats fan was sitting in front of their TVs watching the Pats try and do what’s only been done once (and despite SpyGate ’07) everyone was collectively pushing for the Pats to come through.  After we didn’t go 19-0, the silver lining is that you knew who was a real fan because anyone that DID root for the undefeated Pats did so with the whole nation betting against, and every week when they got closer and closer, the bets started rising and the fans started becoming more invested in this team.  The other silver lining is that there’s room to top what happened last year, to be Undefeated Champions without SpyGate ’08 looming over our heads (I can dream, right?).

So does that mean that I wish the Red Sox hadn’t won in ’04 and are still looking for their first World Series championship for 88 years and still counting?  Absolutely not!  If the Razorbacks finally won their first NCAA title since 1964 and Hogs t-shirts start selling all over the nation, would I care that there’s a sudden rise in our fan-base?  Hell no!  My sisters asked me if Boston were to start the decline from their apparent peak in sports dominance (knocking on wood), if I were to still want to move to the New England Area, I said yes I would but I never really gave a reason why.  My reason is that even if the Sox, Patriots, and Celtics start tanking year after year (I just dented my coffee table by knocking too hard) I would be surrounded by fans that still continue to loyally support their team through the hard times (while of course vehemently cursing management and players out) and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, because there’s nothing sweeter than a group of people rooting for players and coaches to break out of their respective slumps and emerge victorious.  And that’s something that I would never get to enjoy by living 1,500 miles away from home.

…I was just administering the True Fan Test to myself.

I passed.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : Albie87, Family, Sports


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.