Game #58- Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs vs. Milwaukee Brewers Wrigley Field August 28th 2012 Not sure which ballpark is more prestigious, Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, but it is awesome that I have now been to both. I finished my horrendous comeback to the triathlon game (too hot, too humid, missed my wave, and am still out of shape after my surgery) and for the past two days have been exploring the city. I went on a river architecture tour, checked out Sears Tower (Willis now), Navy Pier, biked the entire stretch of park systems, and now am finally at the crescendo of my trip. I met up with an old college friend from Tri Delt, Kat Ochsner, who was a perfect guide tonight. She has been in the city for a couple of years as a bar tender and not only new all the cool bars but also most of the bar tenders. We hit up several pubs in Wrigleyville before ever setting foot in the stadium. Not sure if that was a good or bad thing because by the time we got inside I was pretty tossed. It was cool to walk around the park and check out the statues (favorite was Harry Caray), saw all the rooftop bleachers, and got a picture in front of the most famous billboard in the country if not the world. After a six pack of various beers we made our way in and didn’t even try to find our seats. I wanted a couple pictures from the bleachers but since you can’t sit there without a ticket we got as close as we could. Not being satisfied with the view we soon made our way to the first base line and shacked up there for a couple of innings. Now I am not going to lie, by the time we sat down I could not pay attention to the game at all. I do remember a couple of plays but that was it. Maybe because the Cubs were already down 3-0 in the second and never had a chance to get back into the game, or maybe because I should have stopped drinking about 2 hours before, but the time in the park was a haze. Kat and I decided that the game was not worth sticking around and another beer at her bar (Crossroads Public) was a better idea. Cubbies lost 4-1, I didn’t know a single player on the field, and it sucks when the home team is getting booed. Next time I am here I hope for a win…I also got to find the bar with an indoor batting cage!!!

Game #59- Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets Sun Life Stadium September 24, 2012 Now I understand why they call Florida the armpit of the US. I am in Miami for one of my best friends bachelor party, Danny Inouye, along with my other best friend Danny Givertz and DI’s little brother Ivan. We rolled into town on Friday and hit up Brickell Street, then completed a 13 hours drinking binge on Saturday before heading to the game (with a horrific hangover) on Sunday. I have felt humidity before, Boston and Gaithersburg are fairly miserable in summer, but Miami is a sauna. Let me put it this way, I think I sweated more sitting at the game then during the entire Arizona Ironman. What can make this situation worse, oh how about a horrific game. Both teams played like crap. I really didn’t care who won and honestly would have done anything to have stayed in bed in an air conditioned hotel but DI loves Mark Sanchez and had to cheer on the Jets. It wouldn’t have been so bad if there was anything exciting to root on. The passing was piss pour by both Sanchez as well as rookie QB Ryan Tannehill, all the running plays went right up the gut with no break outs (in fact the best rusher, Reggie Bush got injured and was taken out of the game), and did I mention the reffing was atrocious? The NFL refs are in a labor dispute so the back up judges are from arena leagues and division II colleges. Honestly they do not know what they are doing! When there are so many flags thrown that a 16 minute quarter lasts over an hour it is ridiculous. Well what can I say, we didn’t want to be at the game, and were grateful to get out of there a bit early. Thank God because it went into OT which made the game last nearly 5 hours. The Jets pulled out the victory with a 33 yard field goal by Nick Folk to take the 23-20 win. Woopty doo…

Two more memorable parts of the game, one good and one bad. The good…the kiss cam. Everyone knows the kiss cam but rarely is it this funny. The final two people they showed were Tim Tebow and Clyde Gates, at the last second Isaiah Trufant pushed the players heads together to the delight of the crowd. The bad, the insanely loud and drunk guys in front of us. Imagine the Ying Yang twins screaming “Fuck ‘em up” about a thousand times…f-ing annoying.

Game #56-Stanley Cup finals

Los Angeles Kings vs New Jersey Devils June 11,2012 Staples Center 45 years…45 years!!! That is how long the Kings have been in the NHL, and in all that time they have never won the cup. When I was 4 years old I went to my first Kings game back when they were playing at the Fabulous Forum wearing the Forum blue (purple) and gold. Since then I have been to at least a hundred games and have watched/listened to thousands, each year ending in disappointment. We got close in 1993 but Montreal had three overtime wins and won it in five. But 2012 was a special year for my favorite team. The Kings really did have a good team all year. With Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, Drew Doughty, and Jonathan Quick I thought for sure the team would be able to make a serious run in the playoffs, but scoring was a huge problem all year long. They ended the season with the second lowest goals per game in the league, were the last team to make the western conference playoffs, and ended the year on a two game losing streak against the San Jose Sharks (if they won the last two the Kings would have been a third seed). But LA made a very smart late season move acquiring Jeff Carter from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jack Johnson, that final piece to the puzzle made a huge difference in the playoffs. As you can tell I am pretty excited about the Kings run. I probably could write a book about all the games I watched (went to the game four sweep of the Blues, game four loss to the Coyotes, and then game 4 and 6 of the Stanley Cup) but instead I will give just a couple highlights of the final two months of the season. As an eight seed, LA was assured to have no home ice advantage. That being said they took out the number one seed Vancouver Canucks (they also were the presidents cup winners for the best record during the regular season), the number two seed St. Louis Blues (in a 4 game sweep), and the number three seed Coyotes before heading to the cup finals. In all three series the Kings won every road game and went up 3-0 versus each team. This brought a serious hockey buzz to southern California and everyone was amped for the finals. In the Eastern conference all the experts were convinced the New York Rangers were not only going to the Cup finals, but would take the world championship. They couldn’t be more wrong. Even though the Devils had a tough run with the Florida Panthers, the team ran through the Philadelphia Flyers before knocking out NY in 6 games. With arguably the best goalie ever in net, Marty Brodeur was going to make this series interesting…at least that was what everyone thought. The Kings won game one and two in New Jersey 2-1 taking both games in overtime. Game three, the first Stanley Cup game in LA in 19 years saw a complete route with a 4-0 win. Like I mentioned above, I attended the game four loss (1-3) and watched the game five loss that took place in New Jersey (luckily I was in Yosemite with Keli because my buddy Shannon Whalen traveled to the east coast too see the possible Cup win, I would have been with him if I was in town). On to game six. Last time I was in LA, there was a party atmosphere outside Staples Center. Between the bands, the Kings Ice Crew, Jim Fox and Bob Miller out on the street, everyone was positive the Cup was going to be won. After game five and two losses in a row, the fans were much more subdued. I walked around for a bit before the game and you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Prior to the game I went to the lower bowl to take pictures of the players and you could see the seriousness in their faces. No more chest bumping, no more laughing and telling jokes, you could tell they were there for business. For the first 10 minutes of the game the Kings were on the attack having several great chances to take the lead but Marty was a wall, but with 9:50 left in the period Steve Bernier slammed Rob Scuderi from behind into the wall behind Quick giving the Devils a 5 minute major penalty for boarding as well as a game misconduct for Bernier (and no matter what the Devils fans say, it deserved to be a major since Scuderi was laying bleeding on the ice with a broken nose and needed over 30 stitches to his mouth). That hit lit a fire under the Kings who quickly pounced on the opportunity that presented itself. Dustin Brown scored a tip in goal from Drew Doughty at 11:03, Jeff Carter tipped in Dustin Browns shot at 12:45 and to top it off Trevor Lewis powered in a backhand shot at the 15:01 mark. To say Staples Center was loud is a complete understatement. For ten minutes we were screaming our heads off, high fiving strangers, hugging those next to us. The hardest part at the end of the first was the knowledge that there were still 40 minutes left in the game. In the second period Jeff Carter tallied the fourth goal for the Kings after only a minute and a half on the ice. From there the game slowed down a bit and the Devils tallied their first goal by Adam Henrique with assists from Sykora and former King Ponikarovsky at the 18:45 mark. But even with that blip on the radar the home team had a serious advantage going into the final 20 minutes where LA never looked back. In fact, when the desperate Devils pulled Brodeur with five minutes left in the game rookie Dwight King stole the puck and passed to Trevor Lewis who tuck the puck down the ice for an open net break away goal giving the Kings a 5-1 lead. The final blow came at the hands of defenseman Matt Greene at the 16:30 mark and at that point the arena was in complete pandemonium. Everyone was standing, cheering, and screaming there heads off leading to the 10 second countdown for the win. The Kings players went nuts charging the finals MVP (Conn Smyth trophy winner) Jonathan Quick throwing helmets, gloves, and sticks in all directions. Not until the Stanley Cup made its way around the ice did the arena finally quiet down. I think everyone was in complete awe, tears were flowing, and cameras were flashing. When Gary Bettman handed the cup to captain Dustin Brown it was unbelievable. Personally the emotions running through my body was almost overwhelming. I didn’t shed a tear, but I think that is because I was in such shock of the situation. I took several hundred pictures throughout the night highlighted but the team skating around the ice kissing Lord Stanley’s Cup and eventually passing it to Luc Robitaille and Bernie Nicholls. I know there are still three championships I need to go see, but nothing will top this game and this moment. I have looked at my pictures no less than 20 times already and I can’t get the smile off my face. The only thing I am worried about now is the money I am going to be spending over the next couple of months buying all the championship gear. I can only hope to see this moment again in the future. The final take away from the game is the friend I met sitting next to me. He was a Swiss exchange student studying English who just happened to be in LA for the historic playoff run (by the way, the Kings are the only number 8 seed to win the Cup). We were laughing and slapping high fives all game long. My only regret was that in all my excitement I forgot to get his email before I left. I know I will probably never see him again but I was glad to share that moment with such a hockey lover as myself.