Game #74- Chicago Fire

Chicago Fire vs. Montreal Impact August 10th, 2013 Toyota Park I am in Chicago with Keli for the weekend after an eventful couple of days in the Milwaukee area. I competed in the USA triathlon age group national championships for the 4th time today, but instead of staying in Wisconsin (there were no games being played, the Brewers were out of town) we drove down to the windy city. It is kind of cool to realize that my True Sports Fan-Tasy started at nationals in Kansas City way back in 2005. Well the race today didn’t go as planned, I had a great swim and bike but fell apart on the run. A hip flexor injury didn’t allow me to run for nearly two months, not a good training plan to go against the best in the country. Hopefully tonight’s game and a day in the big city tomorrow will make this trip all worth it. Toyota park is actually located in Bridgeport, about 18 miles outside of the city. It is a really nice stadium, very similar to the Stubhub Center in LA or Dicks Sporting Goods in Denver, specifically built for soccer. Once again I am not very familiar with the names on either roster but the play on the pitch was entertaining. We got in right at kickoff and by the time we found our seats, the Fire netted a goal by Joel Lindpere with a solid left footer from outside of the box following a set piece. The home team soon went up two nil with a quick right footed shot by Dilly Duka (sweet name, right!!!). At half, Chicago seemed well in control of the game.

At this point, as in most soccer games, I thought the game might be over so Kel and I decided to tour around the stadium to see if they had any cool fan stuff (plus I raced this morning and now I my legs are really sore and stiff, needed to stretch out a bit). Unlike Denver and LA, this stadium has a major flaw. You can’t easily get around the entire stadium. Because they built a stage for possible concerts on one end of the field you can’t make an entire loop around the pitch, so in order for us to get to the Illinois Soccer Hall of Fame you needed to backtrack around the outside concourse to reach it. Now we didn’t make the smartest move doing this at half because the concourse is really tight and everyone was hammered, made for a frustrating journey. But the display case was worth it, most soccer stadiums don’t have anything interesting but this one had photo’s of soccer team from the late 1800’s, an early 1900’s soccer ball, old cleats, and then memorabilia from past Chicago Fire players like Eric Wynalda. Instead of trying to venture back to our good seats we finished the game in the side corner section so we could stretch out and eat. Montreal scored to bring the game a bit closer behind Felipe Martins Campanholi’s goal, but that is as close as they got and the Fire came away with a 2-1 victory. Good times in Chi town, now I only have 3 teams to go...Bulls, Hawks and Bears.

Game #73- Colorado Rapids

Colorado Rapids vs. Los Angeles Galaxy Dick’s Sporting Goods Park July 27, 2013 In Denver with some friends for a fun weekend getaway. With Ricky Weber, Pete Oskin, Tevia Oskin, Lindsay Myers and my Bel, we hit up some white water rafting yesterday which was a blast and then drank the night away in one of the new bars by Coors Stadium. Game day a couple of us went to hike around Red Rock Amphitheater, drank at the Golden City Brewery, a BBQ dinner at a local Denver friends house, and then finally went to the park. Dick’s is a really cool sporting center. Besides the main stadium, the surrounding area is filled with 25 soccer fields used for ultimate Frisbee, rugby, kickball, and football for the local sporting groups. The stadium is only a couple of years old and is very similar to the Home Depot Center in LA (now Stubhub Center, home of the Galaxy and Chivas), with open ends for plenty of natural light on the field and really cool sunsets. The game kind of sucked, at least as a LA fan. Because of the Gold cup and World Cup qualifiers, the team had very few good players on the pitch, missing Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane, Stuart Holden and Omar Gonzalez. So it wasn’t long before the Rapids went up 1-0 with a corner kick goal by Dillon Powers late in the first half (we got the pleasure of sitting near the Rapids “Goal Cannon”, scared the crap out of me) and then he got a second goal being fed a perfect pass by Edson Buddle in the second to give the home team a 2-0 win. The funny part of the game was the fact that Herbalife is based in Denver, and because the Galaxy is sponsored by Herbalife they had an employee recognition day at the game. Turns out they must have had free alcohol in the suites because everyone was trashed (by the way, I let Lindsay use my Beckham jersey with Herbalife plastered on the front, that attracted a lot of attention). I noticed one of the reps had a cool ticket stub and asked if she would let me have one. But because it was a suite ticket, she said I could come with her to talk about Herbalife and afterward I could have the stub. I passed, but Tev and Lindsey went. The lady they went with was in her fifties, had a ton of plastic surgery, and was hungry for some man meat…no thank you… By the way, on the way back to the hotel some idiot from New Mexico cut me off and hit our rented mini-van, no fun.

Game #72- New York Mets

New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves Citi Field July 23, 2013 What a great reason to come out to New York for a game. I won a fairly prestigious award with my company this year (only 1% of all employees have a chance to win the award) and all the winners were flown out to Princeton, New Jersey for a dinner presentation. It was pretty amazing to be eating at the old Johnson and Johnson mansion, a 46,000 square foot house located on the Jasna Polana TPC golf course. I wandered around looking for the bathroom and ended up in the members locker room…all I can say is wow. I can’t even contemplate how much money you need to make to be a member. Well, the night before the presentation Keli and I stayed in Newark and drove out to Citi Field for a ball game. First, what is with all the tolls in New York? I think we went over 8 bridges, all with a toll, that totaled well over $60! That’s insane, I know everyone uses the subway system for a reason but I didn’t want to travel 24 miles on the thing. I guess I learned my lesson. Citi Field is located in Queens, and the stadium is beautiful. It is only 4 years old and took over for the old Shea Stadium that was home to the Mets from 1964 to 2009. The outside is not too spectacular to look at, mainly large columned walls and very few fan attractions. There is a brick appreciation/fan section (yes I bought another brick, this one says “Chris Costales and Keli Arnold via CA, go Mets”) but that is all I found on my walk around the park. Inside is a bit more lively. I first stepped in and saw the old homerun apple from Shea, that was pretty cool. As you make your way around the central stadium walkway there is the fan bridge, a children’s park in the park section, and as you make your way higher up in the seats you can get some cool views of Manhattan. Unfortunately I didn’t find the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and Mets Hall of Fame section, apparently it is by the front entrance of the stadium but I entered by the old Apple so missed it. When I come back to check out our brick I will definitely get some pics. As for the game, the Mets are not playing that well this year. So far they are 8 games under .500 (44-52) and are facing the first place Braves. But the home team stepped up today, behind pitcher Carlos Torres and some big bats by allstar David Wright, John Buck, and Daniel Murphy, the Mets took a 4-1 lead in the sixth inning and never let another run score. Its funny, for over a decade even though I didn’t like the Braves growing up I knew a ton of players on the team because they were always in the playoffs and often in the World Series (Chipper Jones, David Justice, Andruw Jones, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux to name a few), but on the current roster I only knew Justin Upton. I know I am not a huge baseball fan, and it shows because even with the lack of big time players, they are still in first. An interesting fact about the ballpark is that if you are a fan of the movie Men in Black, you should arrive a little early and head down to the 1964-65 Worlds Fair site. In the movie, the alien tries to fly away in a spaceship, and the towers are located just a couple blocks from the field.