Just A Lot of Jealousy

By now it's been well documented. The Kings have won the Stanley Cup! They haven't won since they entered the league in 1967! Congrats Wayne Gretzky! Congrats Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer, Dave Taylor, Luc Robitaille, Rogie Vachon, and Bob Berry! Congrats long time announcer Bob Miller and all other Kings legends! What a tortured fan base this has been, it's just been kept on the down low! 


The outpour of love for the Kings franchise and fan base has begun. And it's making me sick. This movie is miscast. This script was written for the Blues.


The Blues are now the only team of the NHL's 1967 Expansion 6 that haven't won a Cup. The Flyers won in '74 and '75 with the Broad Street Bullies. The Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993 and won their Cup in '99. The California Seals never won, disqualifying them in the Expansion 6 Cup-race. However, they eventually moved to Cleveland and merged with the North Stars, so you could say they got their Cup that way.The Penguins won in '91 and '92. The Kings are now the 2012 champs. The Blues? Still 0-12 in Stanley Cup Final games. Yup, swept by the Canadiens and Bruins three straight years from 1968-1970. 

Outfield Chatter

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Attending sporting events is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Why leave your big screen HD TV to pay $15 or more for a ticket and equally as much for food? You can cozy up on your couch, watch the game, eat pizza, and stare at your fantasy team as it goes 0-24 on your laptop. 


Well last night I was reminded just how great attending a baseball game can be. Sometimes I'm hesitant to pay for the trouble of attending Cardinal games. After all, baseball can be a mixed bag of excitement, or lets be honest, plain boredom at times. Its tempting for me to stay home and yell at Jason Heyward for going 0-4 ... again. I don't have that temptation during hockey season. To me, hockey is all action all the time (besides those pesky 17 minute intermissions). When you attend a hockey game, you're so caught up in the gameplay, sometimes you forget that you actually came with friends. Baseball on the other hand is basically a social gathering. Talking with people can be most of the fun; oh and baseball is being played in the background. 


Tuesday night sitting in the outfield bleacher seats at Busch Stadium proved to be great not only cause of a 4-0 victory, but because of some great conversations. They eventually led to many questions, most of which you've probably asked yourself before, but they still need answers.

Your Guide to ESPN Personalities

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Summer is here, yo. I don’t know how many people who read this are actually employed, be it a full-time job or a few hours/week just to make mom and pop happy; but if you’re like me, summer equals unceasing unproductiveness. (Not to suggest I’m an assembly line of productivity during the school year). A few things usually occur during this elongated period of procrastination: I tempt the carpal tunnel gods with extensive nhl/fifa play, consume enough Qdoba to fund the national chain, and watch a heck of a lot of ESPN.

Naturally, watching ESPN so much you begin to gravitate towards certain personalities and look forward to particular analysts. (If you’re a hockey fan waiting for Barry Melrose, this is probably you more often than not). 

However with the good comes the bad. Before you begin your ESPN summer binge, here’s your guide of ESPN personalities to avoid:

The Few, The Proud, The Lifers

They are the ones who stayed. They are those who have known one city, one fanbase, and one arena (usually) as home in their professional careers. In today's sports' world, full of greed, free agency, and egotistical athletes who insist on clashing with their coaches, GMs, or fellow players, constant movement from one franchise to the next is considered the norm rather than the exception. The exception now is staying with a team for one's entire career. In fact, it's a down-right rarity. So this post is dedicated to those players whether they fought to stay with their team or because circumstances allowed them to.

Hey I Made It, I'm the World's Greatest

All we ever do in sports is rank things. The best pitchers of the 1960s (#1 Bob Gibson), the best dynasties in college football (obviously the 1930s Golden Gophers), and the greatest sports moments in 1985 (who knows, I'm making this stuff up off the top of my head). We make top ten lists, we argue who belongs where, we use statistics to back up our amateur analysis, and we feel indignant when someone disagrees. The internet has only made it worse with idiot bloggers who think they know something about everything, making mundane posts about pointless topics and self-serving rankings of the most unimportant things.

The Minnesota Misery

Bill Simmons loves to talk about tortured fan bases and franchises. It's actually really interesting to fully immerse yourself in the history of other cities and franchises. You begin to understand how lucky you are if you happened to have been a fan of a championship team. I consider myself lucky to be a fan of two champions: the 2000 Super Bowl Champion Rams (the most fun I've ever had watching a team and probably one of the most fun teams to watch ever) and the 2006 World Series Champion Cardinals (my favorite team on top of the world). Seeing a team raise its sports' respective trophy above their head in absurd jubilation is one of the best feelings a sports fan can ever have. It is the ultimate prize in fandom.

But there are some who have never felt the glory, or at least haven't for a generation (or two or three). There's Buffalo (1965) and Cleveland (1964) and Seattle (never). That's right, Buffalo's two teams haven't won a championship since the Bills won one before the Super Bowl existed, Cleveland's three teams have had a similar streak of futility, and Seattle has lost a franchise to a prairie town and never won any kind of professional championship. Those are definitely the three cities (if we are talking about sports cities, which we are) that currently should top the tortured list.

When In Doubt, Root For History

Not long ago Mark and I stirred the pot with a “Rules of Fandom” podcast. If you weren’t listening we basically gave our arrogant opinions on who people should be “allowed” to be a fan of. In short, if you’re born in a city, then that city’s professional sports team is yours. No hopping on or off any other teams, unless you want to become a bandwagoner and be outcast from society…or just from Mark and I. As usual it was a complicated and controversial subject that actually got more than 2 comments. Now I’m not here to get in that whole debate again, but the subject happened to creep into mind yet again due to the U.S. Open.

How so? Well that requires some background information. I’ve been a fan of Tiger Woods since I really got into golf, probably around 2006. Naturally your next question is why? If you’re gonna have all these crazy “rules” then how does an individualistic sport like golf work? In my opinion, as long as when asked “why do you like _____?” you have a well-thought out answer. For me, when it came to Tiger, he was smooth. Of course he won and was better than everyone else, but if asked that question I would have probably said something like, “his swing is aesthetically pleasing to watch, drama and excitement follow him wherever he goes, he’s humble, great with the media, from the U.S., and is well on his way towards the Golden Bear’s record.”

Now everyone and their mother knows that Tiger’s in a bit of a different situation these days. That 2009 November night changed people’s perceptions of Tiger, his golf game, and possibly his chances of reaching Jack’s record. However I still am a fan of Tiger. I have no problem with people hopping off the train because of character/moral values, but to me Tiger is still all that is golf. I have his best interests in mind and pull for a Woods victory in all Majors and rare non-Major tournaments he’s in. I even put him my fantasy lineup more than I should (yes fantasy golf is just as fun as baseball or football).

Rory McIlroy is a different story. Rory is a 22-year-old Northern Irishman that has rubbed me the wrong way since he began his rise in 2009. Why? He seemed cocky and arrogant when he first began playing. He was anointed the next upcoming star before he took a shot. He’s had Tiger comparisons after a few good outings. He’s from Europe. He has weird hair. He struts and walks like there are mini trampolines on his shoes. And he’s 22 while I’m 19, I’m straight up jealous of his skills and place in life compared to mine when we’re 3 years off, that’s right I’m not ashamed to admit it. Now you don’t have to agree with those opinions or even respect them. But know I cheer against Rory in order to cheer for Tiger. Rory winning one Major makes me worried that it’s one closer to Tiger. I’m not stupid, I know McIlroy has potential and is a great golfer.

So herein lies the problem, here is why the Rules of Fandom have resurfaced again. When in doubt, I root for history. I want to see history unfold in front of my eyes. I want to see Roy Halladay throw a perfect game in the playoffs. I want to see the historic Lakers vs Celtics matchup. I want to see Federer set the all-time record. I want to see Tiger break Nicholas’s record. And tomorrow, I want to see Rory put up a massive red number. I want to remember watching a near flawless tournament from beginning to end on one of the toughest stages. And I want to see Rory’s record breaking rounds in 10 years on a Sportscenter flashback.

The truth is Rory isn’t so bad after all. The cockiness has slowed although not vanished; it’s just about earned now anyways. The hair/strut have become his trademarks. And the future of golf remarks are beginning to look pretty accurate. I still wont cheer for Rory, there’s only room in my heart for Tiger. But unfortunately Tiger’s not playing this U.S. Open. So maybe I can make an exception for history.

So happy Father’s Day to any fathers out there. I hope you have a good one. Maybe Rory can make it one you’ll remember.

The Rules of Fandom

John and I discuss the rules of fandom, mention a Blues drought, touch on the Duke-North Carolina rivalry, and much more.