Sorry. Took the night off last night to mourn the loss as the Vikings do what they do best–fold late in the season.
And tonight, just don’t have the chops to crank out anything interesting or useful. So I’ll skip it for now and move on. Maybe gather up enough to make things interesting tomorrow, when we get to register Patrick for high school….
Eek!
See you tomorrow.
Fall is here. Well, such as it is, acting more like a doorman to Winter than the advance team. Where in the past it was supposed to prepare the world for the cold and snow, this year, it’s seemed to simply flip the calendar page without so much ceremony or care. Warm, then cold. Rain then snow. Twice, at least, already. Enough snow to cover the ground, however briefly.
The change of seasons has brought with it the usual suspects otherwise–football season, baseball playoffs, hockey, basketball, more politics, Halloween.
So let’s discuss, shall we?
The World Series begins tomorrow. And, unfortunately, I can’t really say that I’ll be all that interested. Given the choice between the Yankees and Phillies, I’d probably choose eyebrow plucking. I think that if you’re a Minnesotan, you’re inherently anti-Yankee. And the Phillies are this decade’s Dodgers–they’re good, but they aren’t likeable as a team. I don’t care about either team, and under any other circumstances, I’d prefer to see both lose. But I’ll offer my World Series prediction now: as much as I hate to say it, I think the Yankees are just too much this year, and even the Phillies can’t keep them down. Yankees in six. Grrr….
The Vikings have that guy who’s just a couple months younger than me at quarterback. Makes me wonder how I’ve managed to waste my life…Fans are excited because the team is 6-1 so far, easily far better than we would have been with any other quarterback, but the question is this: how long can this last? And can Favre take us to the Super Bowl for the first time since I was a child? He’s only here for two seasons, if that–remember that he’s retired how many times already? That means this year has to be the payoff, because nothing is guaranteed past this year. And by signing him, we’ve postponed any development we would have had in what supposedly are young, promising quarterbacks. So…Keep watching, but don’t get too excited–the Vikings are known for breaking fans’ hearts.
Hockey and basketball–two teams searching for their way, the Wild and Timberwolves. I heard on the radio today that the Wolves have sold only 6000 season tickets, which explains their easy ability to give away season tickets to schmoes like me who might help fill out a 1/3rd full arena on a nightly basis. Honestly, I haven’t paid attention to the Wolves for the last several years. And with the tickets, I’m torn as to whether I should start paying attention now. Probably should, at least so I can let Patrick know what the hell’s going on.
Meanwhile, the Gophers have a beautiful new stadium, but as of today, have lost their best player. Not good, when you’re 4-4 with four games left, and a good chance to lose at least two of those. 6-6 doesn’t make for very many bowl teams. Not good ones, anyway. But, I’m looking forward to going to my second game of the season coming up Halloween night. Football under the stars and lights. Should be fun.
Speaking of which: I’ve never been a fan of Halloween. Don’t really enjoy the whole package–candy, dressing up, scaring people…Just not my thing. But the kids like it, so I’ve had to adopt it on their behalf. I’ll keep their costumes a secret for now, but pictures will be forthcoming this weekend. Stay tuned.
Oh, and finally, there’s Windows 7. Microsoft savior or end of the world? You decide. Me? Meh. I’ve talked enough. Should save that up for later.
See you tomorrow.
Ah, Saturday. A day for rest, or doing things around the house, or with family.
Or one member of the family.
Patrick and I had tickets to the Gopher game yesterday morning at 11. That was kickoff time. And of course, you want to get there early, to make sure you get to your seat on time, get some food, maybe look around. Oh, and take part in the Victory Walk, just to see the team and give them high-fives. Oh…Note Patrick’s shirt here: That’s the “Super Goldy” logo. For whatever reason, you don’t see this shirt around on many people.
I tell you to note it because moments after we arrived at the stadium for the walk, this happened:
Goldy came along, giving high fives to fans and kids. Gives Patrick the high five, then stopped just past him, turned around and pointed at the shirt, then at himself…”Super Goldy!!!” Several high fives followed.
That made waking up early and leaving the house at 8 a.m. a bit easier.
Why 8? Well, parking around the stadium is, well, not to be had. So I went back to my own youth when my parents and I would take the bus down to a stop a little over a mile away from the old Memorial Stadium (which was just across the street from where the new stadium is). Patrick and I took the same bus route. Got off at the same stop. And walked a similar route.
NOTE: not a bad walk, easily do-able, but I’m not as young as I once was. I’m pretty sore as a result.
Anyway…The payoff: getting in to the stadium to see this:
And this:
Wow. So this is what $250 million buys these days.
I’d arranged for the third person in our group to be Patrick’s Big Brother (from the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, not from some tryst I’d had when I was younger). The two of them had a great time seeing each other for the first time since the end of the last school year.
Oh…And finally, our seats. This is where you end up when you’ve been a season ticket holder for 38 years:
Not as great as in the dome, but 35 yards will do that to you. But still, very nice seats. In a very nice stadium. On a very nice day.
Most of the photos are up on my Flickr site.
See you tomorrow.
Well…What a day, eh?
Favreapalooza…Favre-con ‘09…The Favreitization of the Vikings Nation…The Great Favre-coming…
When’s the last time we saw the local media falling over themselves to cover a story? I mean, they scrambled EVERYBODY, and in this day and age of cutbacks, that probably meant dispatching every intern they could find too.
Nothing was too large or too small to cover with the story. Everything from a helicopter following him from the airport to Vikings’ headquarters (probably to make sure he didn’t detour somewhere else), to stories about the media following the story, to the stories about ticket sales crashing Ticketmaster locally. It was unbelievable.
It’s like the Vikings already have a Super Bowl season in the bag. But of course, they don’t. Here’s the thing: nothing this big has happened in this town sports-wise since Jack Morris came back to play for the Twins in ‘91. Of course, he had a great season, the team had a great year, and we won the World Series. And if this plays out that way, then so much the better. This town has seen just two championships in sports in the last 40 years, and both were in baseball. Our football team has consistently been an also-ran.
It’s OK for fans to have hope and be excited for the coming season. That’s one of the wonderful parts of sports. But for cripes’ sake, we’re pinning our hopes on a 39- (soon to be 40-) year-old quarterback to be the savior of a franchise historically stuck in neutral. The problem is that we’re really only looking at two years tops with this guy. And no development of our other quarterbacks happens with him here. Sure, they might learn from him, but this isn’t baseball, where you have 5 different starting pitchers. In pro football, if he’s healthy and not completely sucking, Favre is now the starter. And the other guys are just that…Other guys. We’ll see them only in extreme situations: big win, big loss, or catastrophic quarterback failure.
So in a month that has come up with the rapid disintegration of the Twins’ pitching staff and probably loss of any hope of making the post-season, Twin Cities sports fans can now move on and hope for better things from the Vikings. But haven’t they been here before, with a past-his-prime quarterback? Oh well.
At least the whole place is in a complete tizzy over some guy wearing a “4″ on his back.
See you tomorrow.
Just when you think the world’s going to hell, you get one little nugget that restores your faith in humanity.
Earlier in the week, I had a voicemail from mom, telling me that they’d selected their seats in the new TCF Bank Stadium (that will be the last time I call it that here) for the Gopher games. Section 238, she said.
For almost 20 years, I’ve enjoyed our spot in the dome. 45 yard line, behind the Gopher bench, six rows up, lower deck. Close enough to hear the coaches scream.
We suffered for those seats. Suffered through some damned lousy teams, some truly awful games. But never gave the tickets up. Dad got them when we moved here when I was one. As a kid, we sat at about the 20 on the Gopher side in the old Memorial Stadium. Started out at about the 25 when the U moved indoors. Every year, mom and dad dutifully indicated that they wanted to improve their seating location if possible, and eventually, we ended up in the primo seats we ended up in.
So with the new stadium, the Gophers have implemented a plan whereby you need to pay a premium of $500 per seat to sit in those primo seats. That’s on top of the ticket price. In the words of Dana Carvey as George Bush…”Not gonna happen.” Thus, the best we could have hoped for as “regular” seats would have been at about the 25.
So basically, after 39 years, we’re practically back where be started out from.
I don’t have a problem with what dad chose. I have a problem with the whole process and new plan the Gophers have.
So in a fit of, well…Let’s say, pique, I wrote a pointed e-mail to the athletic department telling them how much I hated the new policy, and how much Patrick in particular really liked those seats. I let them know that it completely ignores long time fans in favor of those willing and able to pay that premium. And I did it by telling them about Patrick and how much he loves the Gophers, Goldy, and the band.
Oh, and I included this picture. Just to illustrate the child fan in question. Well, that, and to twist the dagger just a bit.
When you complain, you hope for a response, but never expect it, really. And honestly, I was just telling them how soured on the policy I am.
This afternoon, I got a response.
Shocked as I am, it gets better. No, they didn’t offer the premium seats for a non-premium price. As much as that would be nice, it’s just not gonna happen. But the rep from the athletic department actually offered to see what he could do to move us closer so that Patrick could get high-fives if he wanted–something he couldn’t do from the second deck.
It definitely restores my faith in people. At least they listened. At least someone took note and wants to make things better. At least someone is willing to do what they can within the rules. That’s the good news here. Dad doesn’t even need to take them up on the offer if he doesn’t want to, though part of me thinks that would be nice…
Oh, and the rep said that it was “a nice picture of your son high fiving[sic] the band.”
I think so.
See you tomorrow.