…on the seventh day, God rested
…on the eighth day, God created sports
…after that he created good friends, understanding wives and alcoholic beverages (not necessarily in that order) to go along with the sports thing
I turn 50 this year.
I haven’t gotten caught up in getting old and I haven’t exhibited any of the mid-life crisis warning flags that an almost 50 guy has to watch out for…no little red sports car…no desire for a trophy girlfriend/wife…
But, just the same, 50 does merit some note, if not reverence.
So, I got to thinking. I always toyed with the idea of going to a bunch of the major sports events over the course of one calendar year. Things like the Super Bowl, the Masters, Wimbeldon, the Tour de France… That was a good start, but it seemed sort of empty to just start booking flights and buying tickets.
Then it hit me…..
For one out of every million people, sports is a platform for super-human athletic ability and a way to get rich. For the rest of us, sports are a way to waste away a summer day; our first and maybe only exposure to being part of a team; a chance to push ourselves until we hurt; probably the only time any of us have a chance of getting a trophy handed to us; and, most importantly, the mother of all male bonding rituals.
Sports for me are a connection to every other average Joe across my city (Philadelphia), state and country. I don’t play football, baseball, hockey or basketball anymore, but I sure do spend a lot of time talking about them, watching them and rooting for the guys that do.
Whether it’s going to a game, playing a round of golf or watching Sports Center, sports provide guys like me with a reason (excuse?) to hang out with the buddies, talk trash, drink adult beverages and spend some quality time without any worries about political correctness, work, money or the wife/kidz. I probably spend more of my free time with my friends doing or watching sports than anything else (Note: large caveat…drinking is also usually involved.)
Voila! If I was really going to enjoy working through my list of events, I had to do it with the guys I typically share sports with….doing the list would have to be as much about spending time with the friends I have assembled over 50 years as it would be about the events we would be going to.
The List
I put together my starter list to try to cover all of the major sports. Never intended it to be exclusive or absolute. Any good other ideas welcome. Anything that didn’t end up working out…so be it.
Super Bowl
Winter Olympics
Final Four
Masters
Kentucky Derby
Wimbledon
Tour de France
British Open
World Cup
USC v Notre Dame football
Sent out an invite to about 20 of my best friends to join me for whatever and whenever they could to celebrate our years of maleness together. The response was immediate and hugely supportive. Count me in! Whatta fabulous idea! Spouses invited? Suggested additions…the Winter Classic (Flyers/Bruins)… and the Daytona 500, in respect of Nascar Nation.
Now the Hard Part – Herding the Cats.
My friends and I are lucky enough to be able to afford some extravagances that others might not, so it didn’t figure that money was going to keep any of the plans from working out. Forgot about kidz spring vacation schedules, mother-in-law visits, etc. It also became apparent as planning commenced that most of my friends can’t plan a trip to the bathroom without a secretary or a wife, or both, checking conflicting plans.
Event No. 1 – The Super Bowl (Miami, FL)
Turned out that the Super Bowl ended up being the first event anyway, since decent tickets to the Winter Classic were harder to come by than water in the Sahara (not to mention trying to find hotel rooms in Boston…or anywhere within 50 miles… over New Year’s Eve).
-Thursday, 2/4 Early a.m. Philadelphia area
How’s this for a start…having my wife, Tracey, drive me to the airport to fly to Miami on the Thursday before the game as KYW blasted warnings of the “Storm of the Century” coming Philadelphia’s way on Super Bowl Saturday. See ya later dear. Have a good time navigating that 130 yard uphill driveway. 44 total inches later…after not just the Storm of the Century but a follow on major dump during the week after the Super Bowl while I was still in Florida…we’re still married. Much whining, but she survived just fine. That’s what 20 years of living on Valley Forge Mountain will do for you, I guess…
-Thursday, 2/4 Philadelphia airport
Not a great first flight for the YIS kickoff. No sooner do we taxi away from the gate and into the line for takeoff than the guy in front of me signals the stewardess to tell her he feels sick and needs to return to the gate. Ugghh!. Bad enough that they take him back, but then someone else on board reports that the guy who they took off was pulled aside at security for extra scrutiny. So, they decide to go through all of the checked luggage to get his bags off before we can leave. Another ½ hour. Then it’s back in line…a line which is twice as long as when we first taxied out. Oh well, better safe than sorry. No further problems and we arrive in Miami only about an hour late.
-Thursday, 2/4 afternoon Miami
Now we’re cooking. I end up with a minivan, of all things. Great vehicle for a couple of middle-aged white guys to cruise the Miami and Lauderdale strips in, huh? The automatic sliding doors will definitely impress somebody. I head over to Miami Beach to check out the pregame hoopla. The weather all weak has been beat, so people are jonesing to get out and about. Quite a scene even though it’s only Thursday afternoon. I park myself on the patio at “Fat Tuesday” with a bunch of …what else?...New Orleans fans decked head to toe in Saints garb. Saints fans outnumbering Colts fans by a wide margin everywhere you look. I’m wearing an Eagles polo shirt and get stopped by a couple of other Philly guys who have to share an Eagles high five even though our team didn’t come close to sniffing the Super Bowl this year. Loyalty goes a long way but it didn’t stop us from joining the Indianapolis / New Orleans party.
While I’m sitting there sipping margaritas, I get the dreaded email from my buddy John, one of my best friends from college, who is supposed to be flying down from Connecticut to join me. His flight got cancelled as he taxied out to takeoff…the dreaded undefined “mechanical problems”. They’ve rebooked him on a flight the next morning. Plan was that I would be picking him up in Lauderdale and then staying at his condo for the duration of the trip. Quick plan revision required. Luckily, the other buddy joining me for the Super Bowl festivities, Raul, my best friend from law school, lives in Miami. He’ll put me up.
-Thursday, 2/4 evening Miami
Dinner at a famous old Cuban restaurant on Calle Ocho with Raul, his father and his brother, Eddie. Brings back memories of my trips to Miami during law school to visit with Raul’s family. I was like their adopted fourth son. Too bad Raul’s son couldn’t have joined us to extend the tradition.
Despite my pleas to sleep on the couch, Marie, Raul’s wife, won’t hear of it and I end up kicking Raul’s daughter out of her room for the night. Thanks Danielle.
-Friday, 2/5 morning
After getting the kids off to school. Raul, Marie and I go to a local breakfast joint before I head up to Lauderdale to fetch John. I swear Raul could run for mayor in Miami, at least in the Cuban area. Seemed like he knew everybody that walked into that restaurant…not just know them to say hello, I mean know them to the point of having kids at the same school…know them from the old neighborhood…know them from business, etc. Unbelievable. Not a lot of Super Bowl hysteria in this neck of the woods. The Dolphins had a worse year than the Eagles.
- Friday, 2/5 afternoon
-Friday, 2/5 evening
Thought we might have wrangled free invites to the Commissioner’s party thanks to a friend of John’s from Connecticut, but that didn’t work out. Ended up bouncing around some clubs around Lauderdale area. Fine dining at a KFC in the middle of a rainstorm. So much for acting our age. Never did get around to selling the Official Tailgate passes that Raul scored. Full report on the night to be given only verbally. What happens in Florida, stays in Florida. Gotta leave some mystery. Suffice it to say, we drank too much, spent too much and stayed up too late. Raul, whether you lost it or spent it…you did owe John the $400. BTW - replace that navigation device in your car. It’s worthless.
-Saturday, 2/6 morning/afternoon
The late night definitely took a toll. Made our way out to a late breakfast at a great local joint in downtown Lauderdale. The grits sucked, but the rest definitely hit the spot. The wind was pretty harsh, but the sun was up so we hit the beach in front of John’s condo. I’ve never gotten sand-blasted so hard at a beach. Minimal eye candy. Walked down to the area of the Lauderdale beach where there will be a big free Super Bowl-related concert featuring the Bare Naked Ladies tonight. Quite a set-up. They are expecting huge traffic jams. We’ll be heading in the opposite direction to the big Super Bowl charity shindig, “The Taste of the NFL” at the convention center.
-Saturday, 2/6 evening
Raul drove up and met us at the convention center for the ToTNFL party. Late as usual….Some things never change. I’m just saying… (inside joke) This is an annual event to raise money for the food banks in all of the NFL cities. The basic idea is to have each NFL team represented by a couple of alums and/or current players and each NFL city to be represented by a restaurant/chef. Each city/team/chef has a stand where they are cooking up some dish for everyone to try along with a wine to match the food. They also sell some basic memorabilia and auction off the more expensive stuff…signed jerseys, pictures, etc. Stuff like that. Clear from the start that they do this shindig the right way. No overcrowding and plenty to eat and drink. Food was great. I guess they should do it right for $600 a pop. Also lots of former players from the era when I/we were kids. Took a lot of pictures of Raul getting autographs of old Dolphins players from the undefeated team, etc.
Night ended with the Bare Naked Ladies coming over after their beach concert to do a long set for the crowd at this party. Can’t say I knew any of their music, but they were very entertaining. After last night, we made sure we got to bed a lot earlier. Yes. We are pushing 50.-Sunday, 2/7 morning
Weather report was for a threat of rain with a lot of wind. The wind wasn’t bad and the rain held off so we got our round of golf in at a course that John often plays at while he’s in town. A mixed bag of borrowed clubs were my excuse for my poor scoring, but we had a great time. John played his steady eddy game. Played with a couple of guys from Canada. They didn’t complain about the wind/temp…They were even in shorts.
-Sunday, 2/7 afternoon/evening
We made the decision very early in the planning process for this trip NOT to try to get tickets for the actual game. Everyone we spoke to who had attended in the past reported that the game was the least part of their fun. The only exceptions were situations where the attendees’ home team was actually in the game. Consensus was that, because the crowd is populated largely by “corporate” types, the fervor of a playoff game etc never materializes. Add, on top of that, the huge number of TV stoppages etc to accommodate the famous Super Bowl commercials and the fact that you have to be in the stadium like 2 ½ hours before game time for security purposes and it wasn’t a hard decision at all not to pony up five grand for good seats. We concluded that we would watch the game somewhere on the Miami Beach strip.
-Monday 2/8 morning
Dropped John off at the airport to fly back to the great white north for a quick turnaround before he flew back down for the 500 the following weekend. I headed west to spend the week working out of my in-laws house in Naples before driving up to the 500 with my father-in-law.
All in all, a blast. Great to spend time with John and Raul and to introduce them. Even though I’ve known each of them for over twenty five years, they had never met before. Part of the whole theme behind this YIS thing. Couldn’t have had a better time…mini van and all.
Event No. 2 – The Daytona 500 (Daytona Beach, FL)
-Friday 2/12 late morning Naples
-Friday 2/12 early evening Central Florida
My bro-in-law, Murry, was able to leverage a business trip to Orlando and joined us early evening for a ribs, wings and beer dinner. Good kickoff for the 500. More travel problems for John. Plan was for him and his family to fly down to Lauderdale on Friday and then for him and his son to drive up to Daytona on Saturday morning to meet us for the preliminary race on Saturday. His flight got cancelled, this time due to the weather brewing in the Northeast. But, get this…he goes to the airport with his wife and son to attempt to get on a flight as stand-bys late Friday. When it’s their turn there is one seat is left and his wife says “Go ahead, you take it.” Yeah, Machelle! John’s son, Chris, didn’t make it, but he still got a hat. John wins the great wife award for this one.
-Saturday 2/13
I guess my wife had some pull with all mighty who gave us weather more like what you would expect to have in the Northeast in November rather than Florida in February. Thirty degree wind-chills under a cloudy sky. Didn’t exactly pack for it, so four tee shirts, two windbreakers and my Mountain Dew Dale Earnhardt, Jr. hat would have to do.
On the way out we stopped and did a bit of Nascar shopping for the wives etc. I’m sure Tracey will love her itty bitty Nascar tank top…rhinestones and all .-Sunday 2/14 Morning
Did the obligatory big breakfast at Bob Evans with sausage gravy and biscuits, grits, etc. We’ll need it because the temperature isn’t supposed to be any warmer than yesterday. Clearly we weren’t the only 500 fans fueling up for the race. Lots of driver hats, etc all over the restaurant. The route to the race clogged up real fast and we bailed and put our faith in John’s Garmin to get us there via the back roads. Our faith was rewarded with a smooth trip to within a couple of miles of the track. UNTIL, some young kid in a pickup truck rear-ended us at a stop light. After an hour’s worth of swapping insurance info etc and getting a police report for John to submit to the rental car company, we were back in action.
-Sunday 2/14 at the race
Sun was shining, so even though it wasn’t any warmer than yesterday, at least it felt better. Lots of crashes and cautions throughout the afternoon. Then, the mother of all delays. Caused by a pothole of all things. Perfect for four guys from the northeast. Damn thing took a total of over three hours to get fixed. As they neared the end of the first attempt to fix it, the sun was going down behind the stands and the temperature had dropped WAY down. We, like many others, bailed and headed for the car. Right move. A second delay shortly followed the first as the pothole reopened. We were comfortably seated in some chain restaurant almost back in Lake Mary watching on TV as Junior almost pulled off the victory with a dash from tenth to second in the last two laps of the race. Not your classic Daytona 500 experience, I guess, but great fun just the same. The power of the cars etc is unbelievable and the spectacle is worth the price of admission.
-Monday 2/15 early morning
Pete is taking me to the Orlando airport for an early flight to Philadelphia. Low thirties and no heater in the car and its still dark out. What does that add up to? Foggy windows with the glare of oncoming headlights to deal with. Great. We spent the thirty minutes to the airport wiping the windshield down and driving with the side windows open. BBBBRRRR! Got there somehow or other as the sun came up. The switch from dark to sunlight made for a better situation, but I’m glad I wasn’t going to be driving all the way back to Naples with Pete. Said he planned on stopping at every rest stop to warm up with the hand blow driers in the men’s room. Whatever it takes, I guess. Flight home was a breeze. Can’t wait to see how much snow piled up while I was away.
Event #3 - The Winter Olympics
Week and a half to regroup and get ahead of the game at work before heading for the Olympics/
-Thursday 2/25 PHL airport 7:00 a.m.
Getting out of Dodge just ahead of another big snowstorm. Cutting it a lot
closer this time than when I flew to Miami for the SB, but flight seems to be on
time, etc. From what they are saying, flights this afternoon are going to get
screwed. Hopefully no issue with PHX connection.
Based on overheard chatter at gate, other Philly folks using same flights to get to the Olympics.
the Para Olympics which take place after regular Olympics.
How is it that, in this economy, every flight I get on is full?
Looking forward to seeing my father-in-law trading pins from the other Olympics
he has attended. He will strike up a conversation with anybody at anytime, so
this will be perfect. I hope he made it through security with all the metal he
had with him. Maybe we'll be able to leverage his pin trading into some tix.
Would love to see some of the speedskating...the refined version as well as the
roller-derby version.
Wore my Russian olympic team jacket that I got in Moscow in 2006. Maybe I can
trade it?
-Thursday 2/25 Mid-Flight (first leg to PHX)
Sitting in front of three people who won't shut the ?/-.*# up.
Each has an opinion on everything from Andy Reid to global warming; and each
seems intent on divulging every facet of their personal lives in voices loud enough for the pilot to monitor the dialogue . The woman feels compelled to
recite a portion of each article she is reading in the Inquirer to reinvigorate
the conversation every now and then.... Now she's reading aloud her calendar
entries for the day for each of the kids she left at home. Like fingernails on
a chalkboard at this point. I'm ready to pull the emergency window open and
jump. Is the Olympics worth this? At least there aren't any wailing
infants/whining kids...The worst part is that I ended up sitting here because I
agreed to change seats with a guy so he could sit next to his friend. So much
for being a good Samaritan.
Wait...what's that sound? Quiet at last.
-Thursday 2/25 PHX airport
No probs so far with my connecting flight. Ready to depart on time. Lots of people talking Olympics as we boarded. Starting to worry about the strategy of looking for event tix once we get there. Everybody I overheard, seems to have tix in hand. Could be a problem. But we'll have a fine time in any event soaking up the atmosphere, etc. Hope the weather cooperates...raining in Van at the moment from what they are saying.
BTW - word from others on the PHL-PHX flight who called home when we landed is
that the snow was already coming hard in Philly area. Go figure...isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
-Thursday 2/25 mid-flight (2nd leg to Vancouver)
Jinxed myself
1) We were delayed at takeoff due to some paperwork glitch; and
2) The whining kids are on THIS flight
Little girl behind me decided to take an ill-timed dump in her diaper as we
prepared to pull back from the gate. Then decided to squirm, wriggle and whine
about it just to make sure everyone knew and could share the aroma. Brings back
memories of my fraternity's bathroom on a Sunday morning. I think I’ll hold off
on eating my lunch.
Once on the ground, my suggested plan of attack will be to try to score some
speed skating tix for tomorrow and to get the lay of the land re good TV-viewing
bars, pin swapping locales, etc.3 hour plus flights are never fun, but two back-to-back completely full ones
really blows. (Excuse my French). At least I didn't have to share my seat with an oversized slob on either flight.
I need a Red Bull or something. 5 hours of sleep, up at 3:30. Large coffee and
two cokes hasn't done the job. Gotta get a second wind so we don't waste the
afternoon.
I hope the line at Immigration isn't long.
-Thursday 2/25 Vancouver
Funny how Immigration still felt obligated to ask every person going thru the
line why they were coming to Vancouver. You'd think the Olympic and national team gear would have given it away.
Turned out that the weather was very nice when we arrived. (Al Gore must be
celebrating. The weather has been so mild here this winter that the cherry trees
are blossoming.)
We were able to score tickets for USA v Finland semifinal tomorrow. Bought them
from a guy on the street...Vinny, a middle-aged ticket broker from New York.
Hope they are legit.
My Russian jacket seems to be attracting a lot of attention. The only other
people that I have seen wearing similar jackets are clearly really Russian.
Walked into Chinatown for dinner. Expected to have tons of restaurants to choose
from. NOT the case. Got lucky and ended up having a fabulous dinner at a
place called Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie. What a meal! Met the owner and a couple
of Vancouver natives who each gave us some good recos for meals for the rest of
the stay. Very nice people the British Columbians.
-Friday 2/26 Vancouver Morning
Met a guy staying at the hotel who says he can get us tix for short track tonight. Hope he comes thru.
Met two families from Montana checking out of the hotel. The kidz were way into
the pin trading thing, so Pete hit it off big time with them. A perfect Olympic
moment as they bargained. A seventy something and three pre adolescents. I think
Heading to Canada Hockey Place for the semi. The building is normally called GM
Place or something like that, but since GM didn't pony up for the Olympics, they
covered up GM on all the marquis. I guess that's the way things work these days. Call it the Jerry Jones syndrome.Big difference from 1980 Lake Placid games etc.
Those tix we bought for semi game....apparently not the best buy I've ever made. Just
got rejected at the door. Invalid. Called the guy we bought them from and he at
least says he will bring valid tix over to us. We'll see if he shows.
My faith in mankind has been restored. The guy came over and gave us valid tix.
"Lenny from NY", my new best friend. Part of the whole "Olympixperience", I
guess. He said he will also get me a ticket for closing ceremonies, if I want one.
-Friday 2/26 USA v Finland Men's Hockey semifinal
4-0 USA - ten minutes into first period. Can't beat that for a start.
Crowd is balanced between Americans, Finns and Canadiens, so it is a great
atmosphere.
Make that 5...no 6-0. Go USA!
How's this for small world?...sitting next to a woman who lives ten minutes from us at home. AND she's friends with one of my best friends. Unbelievable.
Final score 6 -1.
other celeb that they made a big deal about at the game was Vince Vaughn...wearing a USA team jersey.
-Friday 2/26 post-game
The tix guy from the hotel hasn't come thru with speed skating tix so we are
going to go over to the venue and try our hand at game-time scalping. There were
plenty of guys selling tix at hockey game today, so we should have a good
chance.
-Friday 2/26 Short Track Speed Skating
Not as easy as we thought, but we got tix from a scalper outside the arena. This
should be way cool! Despite fairly heavy drizzle, there had to be 1000 people waiting in line at ticket booth for the last minute tickets they release. If they get tix, they'll pay $45 face for what we paid $275 for.
In the US, clapping, whistling and yelling dominate in a sports crowd. Here
Can't quite figure out how they can go so fast around such a tight course. Seems like it would be physically impossible. I guess that's why there are so many crashes. Skating on the edge.
Apollo Anton Ohno DQ'ed in the 500 meter final. For a second, it looked like he
Overall this event was very exciting. Crowd was raucous...as load as any sports
crowd I've been a part of, especially when the Canada men won the 5000 meter relay
race.
-Friday 2/26 evening
Cabbed over to restaurant right after last race to beat the crush from the CAN v
Latvia hockey game. Got there just in time to see CAN hold on for the win. Crowd
was in an uproar
Had another great dinner at Chambar, one of the restaurants recoed to us last
night. Moulles Frite and Chimay. Not a bad combo.
All in all a GREAT day.
-Saturday 2/27 Morning
Rain, rain go away. Come again some other day (when we're not here.) Forecast is
for rain all day. We were planning to go over to see the Olympic flame, but that
won't be a great thing to do in this weather.
Maybe we'll head over to Long Track Speed Skating instead and see if we can score some cheap last minute tix.
Gray, dreary day. Our energy levels are
45 minute train ride and a mile walk in the rain. Call us whimps.
-Saturday 2/27 Afternoon/Evening
Need some down time to recharge. Definitely used up my stores of adrenaline
yesterday.
We ended up lazing around our hotel room for the better part of the afternoon
watching events on TV, given our lack of get-up-and-go and the bad weather.
Walked around downtown Olympic area before heading to dinner. Still amazing how
many people are wandering around the entire city.
Headed for dinner at the same place we enjoyed so much on Thurs night. It was
that good. Once again, it didn't disappoint.
Even though it was 9:30 when we got back from dinner, Pete decided to walk over
to the Hudson Bay store to try and time it so he wouldn't wait in line to get
into the Olympic SuperStore. Time for bed for me. (Pete's plan did NOT work. The
line was just as long as when we went over yesterday morning.) My choice of
sleep over shopping was the right one.
-Sunday 2/28 Morning
Raining AGAIN.
Big miscalculation on our part. We figured that we'd go to a bar and grill late
morning, have something to eat and then stay to watch the gold medal hockey game
and drink some beers. WRONG. Based on what we have now learned, people (mostly
twenty somethings) were lining up at bars around the downtown and arena areas at
6 a.m. this morning to watch the game. We ended up buying a six pack (even had
to wait twenty minutes in line to get into a beer store to do that) and watching the game in our hotel room.
Game was great. Pete had to leave for the airport midway thru the third period,
so he didn't get to see USA come back from 2 down to tie it up with 24.4 seconds
left in the 3rd period. CAN won it in overtime. Wow! Very appropriate way for
the competitions to end.
Looking out the window, I think I'm better off not being out and about right
now. Quite a celebration.
Couldn't just sit inside with the party going on outside. Had to go check out
the scene. My God! This dwarfs the Phillies World Series celebration by a
factor of 10. Majority of the crowd is twenty somethings but there are plenty of
families, couples (young and old)...even a lady in an electric wheelchair
high-fiving everybody in sight as she rode down the street. Coolest thing is
that there are no drunk assholes breaking things, fighting or puking. The sun
finally broke thru after 2 and 1/2 days of rain/clouds just as the celebration
got going. Very neat.
Should have worn earplugs. The car horns are deafening.
Six hours after the game and the hooping, hollering and beeping of horns
continues unabated ....and my hotel isn't close to the real epicenter of the
celebration.
Heard car horns thru to 1:30 a.m., a good 10 and 1/2 hours after the game ended.
Hard core.
-Monday 3/1 EARLY morning
Major warnings from all fronts about how crazy busy the airport will be today.
Got up at 3 for a 4 a.m. cab for a 7:45 flight.
Saw one of the US snowboarder chicks and Kathryn O'Hare (the mom in Home Alone, etc) at the airport.
-Departing Observations
It was truly amazing to see the unifying effect of the Canadian team's efforts
at the Olympics. In particular, the Canadians were really obsessed with Curling,
speed skating and, of course, hockey. It was clearly more than just rooting for
a sports team. Way more. But sports were at the heart of it.
Very cool experience all around.
Next up....the Final Four
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