College football is a game of tradition and deep seeded history. The connection with the past is one of the sports greatest strengths and one of its biggest weaknesses. It is a strength because it builds bonds between players and fans across generations. Unlike in the NFL a College team really can stay near the top of their conference for a decade at a time. However, the fascination with the past, particularly by sportswriters, hurts the game by improperly rewarding schools for what they did in past seasons, and, in the case of Rutgers, punishing them for their past ineptitude.

Rutgers has a long standing history of really bad football teams. I mean really, really bad teams. But this year they aren't really bad, in fact they are really, really good. Sure their offense is nearly one dimensional; depending heavily on the performance of Rice (RB). But their QB, Mike Teel, has only lost 1 game as a starter in his entire football career (high school and college) and that was last season to Louisville; so he clearly has the mystical "it" quality that makes someone a winner. Combine Rice, the nations third best RB averaging 150+ yds/game, with the incredibly fast and aggressive Rutgers defensive unit and you have a force to be reckoned with.

Last week, against Louisville (#3 in the nation), Rutgers fell behind in the first half and it looked as if their chances at a dream season were gone. But something happened - Rice and the Defense both stepped up and took control of the game. The Defense held Louisville, the #2 offense in the country, to just over 50 yards of offense in the second half while Rice ran for 75 yards in the fourth quarter alone (131 yards total and 2 tds).

Rutgers remained undefeated in the big East - a conference that has three teams in the top 10 of pretty much every poll. Only one other conference can claim to have 3 top ten teams - the almighty SEC; yet - somehow - three one-loss teams are ranked ahead of Rutgers in the BCS; Florida, USC, and ND.

Florida's one loss came to Auburn (a 2 loss team and one that is ranked 14th in the BCS). Auburn looked pretty good most of this year; but they have lost two really bad games. Florida scraped by in a few of their games - and they lost to Auburn. I just don't understand how they are ranked third; in the top ten, absolutely heck, maybe even the top five - but definitely not #3.

USC - Their one loss came Oregon State (a 6-4 team). How they aren't punished more for this loss boggles the mind. Nobody can justify USC being ranked this high - even compared to other 1 loss teams they shouldn't be ranked 4th! I could see them being in the top 10, but no higher than 8th.

There is, however, one 1 loss team I could be convinced deserves to be ranked ahead of Rutgers - but barely - and I must say, it pains me to admit it; that team is Notre Dame. I know, they get way too much love without doing anything at the beginning of the season, and they have won a lot of ugly games - but they have won - except against Michigan; the clear cut #2 team in the nation. Based on that one loss I can see an argument for having ND in 3rd (even though they were destroyed by Michigan). However, Rutgers still hasn't lost. They just beat the #3 team in the nation (Louisville) in an impressive come-from-behind struggle.

Even with all of this said I keep hearing sportswriters, and various fans, say Rutgers doesn't have a chance to make it to the BCS championship game because of their non-conference schedule. If Rutgers finishes the season undefeated and they aren't given a reasonable opportunity to play in the Fiesta Bowl, it will be nobodies fault but the sportswriters. The only other championship game scenario I could understand at that point would be a rematch of OSU and Michigan assuming their game on the 18th is really close. Finishing undefeated in a major conference is no small feat and it should be rewarded - even if the team getting the accolades is Rutgers.

#Sports #Commentary

My friend, Ryan Parker, is at it again. This time he has put together a song and video about why the Dallas Cowboys stink.

This is a really funny song written from the perspective of Bill Parcells.

#Music #Sports #FunStuff

This past weekend I was involved in two different Golf Scrambles. The first was a two-person scramble for the Boy Scouts council at Esquire Country Club in Barboursville WV. My friend Dallas teamed up with me for the event and we had a good time even though we didn't finish very well in the standings. Our final score was an 88. Granted, to some this might not seem like a very good score (OK it isn't a very good score) but neither of us plays much golf and an 88 was the best score I have reached in a 2 man scramble so I was pretty happy.

Yesterday Dallas and I again teamed up but this time we were inserted into a team for a four man scramble for the American Lung Association at Edgewood Country Club in Sissonville, WV. Edgewood is a private club so this was my first, and probably my only, chance to play there. Our two teammates were co-workers Ryan and Richie from a local accounting firm and both were much better golfers than Dallas and I. Our teams final score was a 64 - or 7 under par! The match seemed kind of ho-hum and Richie and Ryan were both somewhat disappointed with our final score figuring we weren't going to be low enough to finish in the top 3. It, like all scrambles, was a shotgun start and we started on the par 3 6th hole.

Each of the par 3s (except one) had closest to the hole contests. Ryan won the closest to the pin on hole 6. He also won on hole 17 (i think). Richie won the closest to the pin on hole 2 and, amazingly, I won it on hole 4 with what was close to my best shot ever. It was a 148 yards uphill into a very slight breeze. I took out my 8 iron and plopped the ball 6 feet to the left of the cup. Dallas was about 10 feet and Richie was about 11 so our team was in great shape to get a birdie even if I hadn't had a great shot. Sadly, we all missed the put for birdie and we even burnt two mulligans.

Missed putts were the story of our day. Nobody on our team ever got on track with putts. We had four different hole's lip out which would have given us a 60 (11 under). The winning team had a 59 so we still wouldn't have won and in fact, the 60 and the 64 would have amounted to the same thing - we came in second!

We each got a $50 gift certificate to the club's pro-shop (you can't get much with $50 at a private club shop). We also received golf privilege cards which gives us a discount at over 70 courses in WV. I also now have a nice ping 60° lob wedge. It is a $100 club. It's funny because my entire set of clubs only cost me $150.

Dallas and I had a pretty good time at both events. Both had pretty good food and the Lung Association even gave us polo shirts and ball mark repair tools. I had a little more fun at the Boy Scout one but I was stoked we finished so well at the Lung Association one. Plus, now that I have this crazy club, maybe I will do better on really short chips around the greens and get a sub-100 score! Watch out Tiger here I come!

#Sports #FunStuff

At work we have pretty much always had either a ping-pong table, a foosball table, or both. A healthy group of us play one or both of the games but, after a point, we get bored with the same-old, same-old in ping-pong and foosball. We don't want to stop playing but we ache for a change so we put our creativity to work and devise new games that can be played with the existing equipment. While we no longer have a ping-pong table at work (we still have foosball) we have invented some cool games for both tables whose rules I thought I would share.

Some of these are kind of complex when you read about them; however, once you play they are actually pretty straightforward.

With that said lets look at ping-pong's reincarnation as volleypong. Volleypong is an amazing hybrid of racketball, volleyball, and ping-pong with a few other twists thrown in for good measure. Volleypong can be played by teams ranging in size from 2-5 players. We haven't exceeded 5 because we didn't have a big enough area to support larget groups without risking serious injury.

The ideal location for a Volleypong game is a room that gives you about 5 feet to either side of the ping-pong table and 10 feet to either end. This provides the perfect amount of space for 2 man teams. However, most people don't have a room they can dedicate just to volleypong. Optional locations can be in a corner near two walls, build walls with cubicles, or a wide open space with no adjacent walls but where you can put some bookshelves or other objects around the perimeter to increase the excitement of play.

Once you have your court setup you get your teams together. Each team at a minimum has to have two players; the Handler and the Crusher. The Handler receives the opposing teams serve and the Crusher sends it back to the other team. If you have more than two players you pick up a Digger, a Deep Digger, and beyond that even more Diggers, Handlers, or Crushers. A Handler has to have good soft hands with their paddle, the Digger has to be willing to get low and keep the ball off the floor, and the Crusher needs to be good and overhead slams of the ping-pong ball - both accurate and with speed without hitting it so hard that they break the ball on impact. Now that you have a court and teams let's talk about how you actually play the game.

The Rules

Serving

1. Player must hit the ball so that it bounces on his side before crossing the net.
2. Serve can make contact with the net while crossing and still be a legal serve
3. Player may lean over the table as far as they want while serving
4. Player may hide the ball in their hand while serving
5. Player may serve the ball to any point on the opposition side of the table (does not have to be cross court).
6. Player must announce the score before serving or the serve is considered a bad serve and the opposing team earns the point and service
7. If you fail to hit the table with your serve at all the opposition gets 2 points and the serve
8. If your paddle touches the table while serving the opposing team gets the point and the serve
9. Every serve is worth a point and the service.
10. All players on the serving team must be behind their baseline when the ball is served
11. The opposition does not have to be watching or ready when making the serve
12. You can't introduce any foreign objects into the field of play to distract the returning team
13. You can try to convince the returning team to look away before you serve to them
14. It is possible to have an unintentional-reverse-serve. These have special rules.
15. Nobody can stretch forward and interfere with the net during a serve (i.e. lower the net)
16. If the server completely misses the ball and it hits the table the ball is still alive, The server can still serve the ball but they can not hit it directly over the net and it can't touch their side of the table a second time during the serve process. They can't catch and re-release the ball but they can try to hit it. If an ace is achieved via this manner it is worth 1 point. A whiff serve can not be hit by anyone else on the server's team during the service sequence even if it results in an unintentional-reverse-serve.
17. You can not serve the first point of the first game of a session until all players are ready. The first serve on all subsequent games can be served as soon as the entire serving team is in position - regardless of the receiving teams readiness. A "red paddle" can not be used to get the receiving team into position.

Aces

1. An ace is any serve that goes over the net without touching the net and without being played off of any other surface before going over (or around) the net which is not hit by the other team before the ball bounces twice. The first bounce after crossing the net has to be on the receiving side of the table (can hit an edge) and the second bounce can either be on the table or on the floor. If the ball is hit by anything before the second bounce (hand, leg, foot, face, etc) then it is not an ace.
2. An ace that fulfills the definition is worth 2 points.

Unintentional Reverse Serve

1. An unintentional reverse serve (URS) is a serve that when struck by the server hits the edge of the table and goes backwards instead of in the initial direction of the serve.
2. When a URS occurs the ball is treated as if it were served by the other team than the team that served it. Thus, the serving team becomes the receiving team.
3. A URS can never be an ace
4. The person who served the URS can be the first person to touch the ball after the URS occurs.
5. The first person to touch the URS can not send the ball over the net; they must pass it to another player on their team first.
6. The second (or subsequent) player to touch the ball can hit the ball over the net using any of the standard receiving rules.

Ball out of Play

1. A ball out of play is one that has not touched the ground yet but is in a non-hittable position. Examples of non-hittable positions are: in a foosball table; in a lamp shade, over a partition wall and into someones office, wedged between furniture and the wall. Whichever team last hit the ball before it became out of play automatically loses the point.

An example:

Team A is serving to team B. Team B handles the serve and crushes the return so that it bounces off the far wall and into the bowl of an overhanging light fixture before Team A can touch the ball. Team B loses the point and Team A maintains serve.

Another example:

Team A is serving to team B. Team B. handles the ball and crushes it to team A who digs the ball but, when they attempt to set it to their crusher the ball floats over and into the same overhead light fixture. Team A loses the point and team B takes over serve.

Receiving

1. The first player on the receiving team can not return the ball back over the net. They must pass it.
2. The receiving team can hit the ball a number of times equal to their team size plus one. So a two man team can hit the ball three times.
3. Receiving players must alternate hits. The same player can't hit the ball twice in a row unless they are dribbling or a "hand call" is made
4. A hand call occurs when a player attempts to play the ball with their paddle but it hits their hand or finger (anything below the elbow) The player must call "HAND!" and then they can hit the ball again. The "Hand" hit does not count towards to the teams hit total
5. The ball, once returned, does not have to cross the net. Nor does it have to hit the top surface of the table.
6. Any contact with the table on the oppositions side of the table including the sides of the playing surface is considered a valid return. The bottom of the playing surface and the legs of the table are out of play. 
7. The ball can be played off of any object in or near the playing area. Walls, bookshelves, boxes, bodies etc are all in play.
8. If the ball comes to rest (no motion at all) on an object (book, shelf, paper) the ball is still in play so long as you can get the ball off the surface in 3 seconds without touching the ball with your hands. If you need to use your paddle to dislodge the ball it counts as a hit towards the team total. You can move the object the ball is resting on but only in the Z axis (up/down) you can't move the object in a direction that is parallel with the floor.
9. You may hit the ball with your body, head, shoulder, elbow, legs, or feet and it does not count toward your team hit count.
10. If using partition walls and your return bounces off the table and over the partition wall it is considered an out of play shot and your opposition wins the point and the service.
11. If you break the ball on the Crush the opposition wins the point and the service.
12. If you step on the ball while playing the opposition wins 2 points and the service.
13. If your paddle hits the table with force the opposition wins the game.
14. If you hit the net and "knock it down" the opposition wins the game
15. If you lose control of your paddle (it leaves your hand) then you automatically lose the game.
16. If the ball hasn't hit the oppositions side of the table yet you can reach over the net and hit the ball; if you hit the ball after it bounces the opposition automatically wins that point. However, if the opposition is trying to hit the ball at the same time and you hit paddles (or bodies) the opposition wins the "paddle clash" and the point.
17. You can not use your non-paddle hand to hit the ball. Doing so is called a "Snake-Bite" and results in the opposition team winning the point and the service.
18. If the ball crosses the net, hits anything (including another players body; with the exception of their non-playing hand) and then comes back across the net the ball is still in play and the return is considered valid. An example of this is a crushing return that bounces off the table, hits a far wall, and then the ball flies from the wall all the way back over the net and lands on the crushing teams side of the table. The crushing team now has to handle that return just as if it had been returned by a player.

Dribbling

1. A player is considered to be dribbling when they hit the ball in a way that causes it to come in contact with a downward facing surface parallel to the tables top surface.
2. A player is considered to be dribbling if they hit the ball in a way that causes it to come in contact with any part of a non-rectangular object connected to the ceiling.
3. A player is considered to be dribbling when they hit the ball in a way that causes it to hit another players body without the other players consent(but not their paddle).
4. A player can not dibble off of themselves. If a player hits the ball with their paddle and the ball then hits their own body the player can NOT hit the ball with his paddle again until the ball is either dribbled or hit by another player's paddle.
5. Any dribbled ball is not considered a hit towards the teams total.
6. If a player dribbles a ball they may immediately hit it again.
7. A dribble can be followed immediately by another dribble with no penalty.
8. A player who hits the ball into the net so that it bounces back out of the net, without hitting the table, and stays on the strikers side of the table,can hit the ball again before another player. This only counts as one hit.

An example of a dribble using dribble rule 1

Nick digs a crush and it immediately hits the ceiling above him. Nick can hit the ball, with his paddle, again at no penalty. If the subsequent hit also contacts the ceiling then Nick can hit the ball again. This can happen as many times in a row as possible.

An example of a dribble using dribble rule 2

Nick is attempting to dig the ball but so is Joe. Joe leans in to hit the ball and misses it but Nick hits it and the ball bounces off of Joe afterwards. Nick can hit the ball with his paddle again at no penalty. It is not advised that Nick hit Joe with the ball again; but if he does it is another dribble and Nick can subsequently hit the ball again with his paddle at no penalty.

NOTE: If Nick had hit the ball with his paddle and then Joe and kicked the ball then it would not be a dribble.

Ball Switching

1. A ball can only be taken out of play if it is broken or a game ends.  Thus a new ball can only be introduced at the start of a game or if a ball breaks.  You can't switch balls while someone is getting the current active game ball.

The Red Paddle

1. Volleypong has a "Timeout" rule called the Red Paddle. In order to call timeout you MUST raise your paddle above your head and call out, loud enough for everyone to hear, "RED PADDLE"
2. A timeout can only be called in the sake of safety. Teams do not get to call red paddle simply because they are not paying attention.
3. Basically, "red paddle" exists to let non-players move through the game area or to allow players a chance to tie their shoe, or recover from some sort of injury (such as getting your scalp split open with an errant paddle on a crush - I'm looking at you Josh).
4. To reiterate you can not use Red Paddle simply because one or more of the players on your team are not in position simply to give them time to get where they are supposed to be. This is particularly relevant on the first serve of a new game.

The Crowd

1. The crowd consists of people watching, but not playing in, the game.
2. If there is a crowd they must stay in the designated "Crowd" area.
3. If the ball goes into the crowd they may hit the ball
4. The crowd can pass the ball back into the game
5. The crowd can hit the ball as many times as they want so long as they don't leave the crowd area
6. The crowd can attempt to hit a winner for either team when they pass it back into the game
7. Crowd hits do not count toward either teams hit total
8. If the ball went into the crowd and was a valid hit and the ball doesn't come back from the crowd the last team that last hit it across the net wins the point and the service
9. Players may enter the crowd area to hit the ball
10. Crowd members can't hit the ball more than one time in a row (with the exclusion of "dribbling").
11. The crowd is not subject to the "HAND" call rule

Winning

1. First team to 21 winning by 2 wins. If no team is winning by 2 then the first team to 25 by one wins.
2. Any lead of 2 points beyond scoring 21 points is considered a win.
3. If the winning team is going to continue to play they switch sides of the court.
4. If Either team damages the table or dislodges the net they lose the game.
5. If any player loses control of their paddle that players team loses the game.
6. If either team hits the table with their paddle with FORCE that team loses the game.

This is the first article in my series of "The Rules of the Game". In my next article I will discuss Fireball Foosball the latest incarnation of Foosball here at the office.

#Sports #FunStuff

My friend, and coworker, Ryan Parker is a huge sports fan. He is also a singer-songwriter so he decided to combine these two passions into one and has recently been composing and recording "sports songs" about his favorite teams. Late last year he wrote a song dubbed "Bengals Bandwagon" which was a huge success and received great acclaim from Bengals fans. In march he recorded "I Bleed Blue" as a tribute to the UK Basketball program in the NCAA tournament. Next he created a song that he still hopes will be included in the Marshall Movie: "We Are Marshall".

After baseball season kicked off he cranked out two separate Reds songs, "This One Belongs to the Reds" which is a great tailgating song and "Cincinnati Is A Baseball Town" which ties in the glory years of the past with today. He will be playing "This One Belongs to the Reds" at the Reds Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony this year.

His love of these various teams goes so far that he even wrote a song about the UK football team, "True Blue", which, if you follow football at all, doesn't have much of a history.

Finally, in anticipation of the upcoming NFL season he has recorded a new Bengals song, "The Ballad of The Bengals" which is a humorous take on the rivalry between the Bengals and the Steelers.

You can listen to a preview of each of these songs on his website. Plus he has put a few video slide-shows out on Youtube and Google Video where you can hear the entire song(s). There is a link to the video(s) on his website near each song.

Please, leave a comment here if you listen to any of his songs and let me know what you think. I'll pass your comments on to Ryan.

#Music #Sports

Well the Rose Bowl was about as good as I had hoped it would be. Texas came out on top 41-38 with a TD in the last half minute by their amazing QB Vince Young.

Matt Leinart of USC played pretty well, though the second quarter was a little shakey for him. Reggie Bush was playing well, then lost his head and made a hugely stupid mistake by trying to lateral the ball and thus turned it over; later he redeemed himself somewhat with a really fast run around the left side for a 20 yard TD.

The best player for USC was Lindale White. He ran for almost 9 yards a carry in the second half and had 3 TDs. Other than Young the best player for Texas was, without a doubt, David Thomas. He is their TE and he made some great catches and then was next to impossible to drag down. One of his catches started off with him slipping as he tried to stop, regaining his balance, then diving back toward the direction he came from to snag the ball out of mid air as he was parallel to the ground. I may have to keep an eye on him for fantasy football in the future.

The BCS will try to claim they did a great thing with the games this year. I don't know if I will give the BCS credit - but they were four really fun and exciting bowl games and was probably the best final week of college football I can remember watching. These last four games have been a blast.

#Sports #Commentary

I'll be the first to admit that I don't like the BCS system in college football. But (there is always a but isn't there) this year I have seen some of the best bowl games ever.

Yesterday I watched Ohio State duke it out against a tough Notre Dame team (#9 on Notre Dame is FAST); it was a blast of a game. That game was followed by a more incredible match up where WVU outlasted Georgia thanks to one of the ballsiest calls I have ever seen in a bowl game when Rich Rodriquez called for a fake punt late in the fourth to cap the game.

Tonight, well, tonight, it went up to another level. Penn State and Joe Pa took on Florida State and Bobby Bowden. What a freakin game. Went into triple overtime thanks to MANY missed kicks. Players were giving everything they had to win the game and many suffered injuries in their quest for the victory. In the end it came down to field goals. Bowden and his dreaded curse "Wide Right" when his boy hit the right post. Then, the Nitney Lions freshman kicker came back out on the field and squeaked his effort just inside the right upright for the win. 5.5 hours of incredibly competitive football by two teams that were perfectly matched. What a game!

As much as I like NFL football I can honestly say I have never seen a series of games that comes anywhere close to the three I have watched so far this week. I can only hope the USC -vs- Texas Rose Bowl is half as good.

#Sports #Commentary

My friend, Ryan Parker, is a pretty good singer/songwriter who is also a huge Bengals fan. He has been a fan of the Bengals for pretty much his entire life and has followed them through all the crappy years upto this point where he has a moment of glory. However, he is distrubed that he is forced to share the moment with so many fair-weather fans who suddenly love his team. In honor of the wannabe's he recorded a new song - Bengal Bandwagon. It's a great track and well worth a listen even if you aren't a Bengals fan because you can laugh at the bad years the Bengals had as well as appreciate what they have accomplished recently.

The link to the song is a mirror of the file that I am hosting becuase his website RyanParkerSongs.com is hosted on a very small machine and may not be able to handle all the traffic he will/is getting due to the songs popularity with football fans. If the link above stops working then please try this alternate location.

#Music #Sports #FunStuff

If you don't follow college football at all let me give you a little back story. It has always seemed to me that, our great nation, loves Notre Dame. Except, I have never, in my lifetime, seen a good reason for it. They are, at times, a good football team. But I haven't known them to be great. I haven't seen any reason to fawn over them. They are just another team except - they aren't. They live in a special place in college football. This odd Catholic University isn't in a conference like all the other "big" schools and they don't have to play by any conference rules to earn their way into a bowl game. They just have to win. And, if memory serves, they only have to win 8 games to have an automatic birth into a BCS game (big money $$$).

Rumors have abounded for years that Notre Dame would join the Big East (why?) but after the defection of Miami, Virginia Tech (VT), and Boston College (BC) I think it is safe to assume Notre Dame will never join the Big East. In fact there is no real motivation for them to join a conference. If they did they would have to share that bowl money that gets handed to them with their less fortunate conference members and they would have to do a bit more to even earn a big Bowl Game invite.

Notre Dame is loved though. They have tons of fans from all walks of life from all across the country. It is this rabid, and seemingly inexplicable following that garners them their own TV contract with NBC so the whole nation gets to see every Notre Dame game. Heck, I hardly get to see any USC games and they are the #1 team in the land and haven't lost a game in over 2 seasons!

A few years ago Notre Dame looked good, real good. They had just hired the coach from Stanford, Tyrone Willingham, and he went 8-0 to start his career there (I don't know how that year ended). When I first saw it I though, well maybe there is something to this Notre Dame mystique. However, since then Notre Dame has been pretty average. And then, after 3 years of his 5 year contract Willingham was fired this past off-season and Notre Dame went to the Super Bowl champs and hired a ND alum Charlie Weiss (the Patriots Offensive coordinator at the time).

I was a little shocked by the firing of Willingham. Heck Notre Dame hadn't seen success like he brought them in as long as I could remember - what did the Notre Dame leaders want? He seems they just wanted another Coach. This year Weiss started off admirably winning his first five games I think. Then, something strange happened. Notre Dame gave Weiss a ten year extension worth 30 million dollars. What gives? Willingham had a better start, against better competition but Notre Dame showed some restraint and left his contract alone, presumably to see how he did in the long run. But they didn't do that with Weiss. Why not? And what college football coach really deserves a $30 million contract? That is absurd. Have Notre Dame's TV ratings been so phenomenal since Weiss took over that somehow this was justified?

One of my favorite sports columnists, Jason Whitlock, recently wrote an article about this odd Coach contract hypocrisy at Notre Dame. He pulls the racist card out but not because of the firing of Willinghame, something he dubs as "shortsighted and unfair". However, he does think the contract extension was. It's a thought provoking read.

By the way there are only a few teams I always root against; Notre Dame, Florida State, and the opponents of Marshall and North Carolina State.

#Sports #Commentary

Last week, for work, my boss and I had to travel to Chicago. We left here early Tuesday morning and flew out of Charleston at 6:30am. We arrived in Chicago at 6:30am (sometimes time zones can be funny). We weren't scheduled to be in Chicago for the meeting until Wednesday but since we were there we spent the day with our customers in their meeting. That night we were going to accompany two customers to a Chicago Cubs baseball game against the Atlanta Braves. Now, if you don't know, I've been a Cubs fan for about 20 years (prior to that I was a Yankee fan only; but after Thurman Munson died I picked up the Cubs).

My boss has a friend who lives in Chicago and has some connections so he was able to hook us up with some incredible tickets; 2nd row behind the visitor dugout (on the first base line in Wrigley; i guess visitors are normally on the opposite side). We entered the park and had to walk down some stairs to get to our section. While we had expected the seats to be good - we really had know idea how great they really were until we reached them. I could read the text on tattoos on the Braves as they entered and left the field. We couldn't have been in better seats.

Needless to say, I wanted to take a photo - but I had accidentally left the camera in WV. I could have bought a disposable during the day but I didn't really think it would be worth the money (I didn't know how great these seats would be). After the first inning I would have paid a small fortune for a camera. I ran around the park asking every vendor if they had any for sale - everyone was sold out. I was bummed - but managed to persevere with my great seat. After the fourth inning I noticed this attractive blonde in front of me had a camera phone. Building up my courage I asked her if she would take a photo and email it to me. She looked at me as if I had the plague and claimed ignorance on how to use the camera and email the photos (all the while she was taking photos of the players). I graciously accepted my vile status of strange guy asking weird questions and went back to watching the game.

Our seats (did I say they were amazing yet?) were basically a ticket to a free baseball from the players. Well, they were if you were a kid, a hot woman, or someone who could catch the damn ball. It turns out I was none of those three. Every kid in our section got a ball. The aforementioned hot blonde got 2 (her hotter brunette friend got a couple as well) and I had one tossed right to me. Since I'm neither a kid or a hot woman I am clearly a moron who can't catch. Oh, I tried - I put my glove up, the ball faded to my right a little (over my boss) and I leaned to catch it. I leaned forward over the first row to make sure I caught it and it wouldn't hit the 79 year old lady in the aisle seat. I guess I should use a glove more often (or just bare hand it in the future) because the ball "supposedly" hit the pinky of my glove, fell down and hit the old lady on the head, and rolled into the aisle where it was immediately hawked up by a kid who had already been given a ball. He dove, grabbed the ball, and ran.

Supposedly, my boss was going to catch the ball (to give to his 4 year old daughter) but I was having none of that. I'm greedy. I'm a Cubs fan who was at Wrigley for the first time in his life, with PERFECT seats, and a ball headed right to my boss! Hell no he wasn't getting it. I was! Well, I would have if I could have caught. Damn me and my foul glove. No camera and no ball. I did buy a ball from the gift shop ($10) but, really, that is a poor replacement for the ball that should have been.

To top off the great night though, the Cubs won 10-1. Go Cubbies!

#Sports #MyLife #Travel