Sports Sunday - Fathers and Sons

This week my dad and I are headed to Durham to watch the Blue Devils play Temple at Cameron Indoor Stadium.  This is like seeing your favorite band in concert.  Maybe going to Broadway and watching that show you've always dreamed of seeing.  I want to say it's a trip of a lifetime.  That may be a little over the top.  Duke isn't that far away and there is a chance we could always go again.  Now, seeing them play in the Final Four in person, that would be a trip of a lifetime.

I've never travelled anywhere with my dad before, just him and I.  Not that I can remember anyway and definitely not as an adult.  I mentioned in my last Sports Sunday post that the reason I love the Blue Devils is because of my dad.

As a son you are desperate to find something to bond with your father about.  My dad is a fantastic father, he leads by example and I've learned how to be a father by watching him and learning from him.   But he's a fixer.  He can fix things around the house, he's very mechanical.  He's been in the Navy and worked for the Coast Guard working on massive guns on ships.  Me, I'd be hard pressed to do the most basics of things.  Now me, I'm a techie and my dad can't work the remote control on his TV.  When he first got a new cable service I was down there every other day helping him use it.  I tried to teach him how to get to the on-demand stuff and I might as well been explaining quantum physics to him.   But to this day if there is something broken in my house, he's the first one I call.

But when it comes to sports, we are on the same page.  We can not have talked for a week, pick up the phone and carry on a conversation about sports like we were just talking 5 minutes ago.  He often calls me during Raven's games (when we aren't watching in person) to yell about what's going on.   My dad is a funny fan.  When things are going well, he's all in.  When they aren't, they are all bums.  We connect on most all sports and share a love of the Orioles, the Ravens and the Blue Devils.  I can't get him to watch soccer or nascar but he loves golf.

Now, I also have two sons.   Jonathan, above, is going to be 14.  He's really not into sports.  As he's grown up, we've put him into every sport imaginable.  Baseball, basketball, soccer even karate and swimming, he just didn't take any of them.  When I watch sports on tv he may sit there for a couple of minutes but then he's off to do something else.  He loves going to games though and I'll keep buying him jerseys in hopes that it will rub off.   That doesn't mean I can't bond with Jonathan on different things though.  The kid is a techie as much as I am and we can spend hours blasting Zombies on the XBox.  He also loves Sci-Fi movies and TV and books.  We spend hours watching cool stuff on TV that I could never get Brigid to watch.

Nick is going to be my sports kid.  I can see it already at three.  When football is on, he's fascinated and stares at the screen.  He even knows when to yell TOUCHDOWN.   He loves to throw the ball around and keeps telling us that basketball is his favorite sport.  He will sit with me when a basketball game is on but will barely sit still when I try any other time.   When Brigid isn't around I talk to Nick about sports like he's 30.  He mainly just looks at me and says "Uh-uh" but I think the wheels are turning.  

One day I hope the three of us can go on a trip and share in a great sports moment.   But in the end it really doesn't matter.  Sons want to bond with their fathers, it's my job to make sure that it happens.

Sunday - It's playoff day!

The Ravens are getting ready to kick off their playoff game against Kansas City. I thought about holding off this entry until later but if they lose, I'm not going to be in a happy mood and then there would'vebeen no blog. And, I have a schedule to keep.

I mentioned that my loyalty mainly lies with 3 teams. Two hometown, one not so much.

I'll concentrate on the Orioles today. The fact that I go to them first should tell you what I feel about them. I can't remember a moment in my life that I wasn't a fan. I love baseball. I'm a big nerd and I love all the numbers. But this recent run has hardened my heart against the black and orange. They made a lot of moves this year and my heart is jumping up and down going, "Hey, nice job!" My head is going, "Shut up." Head wins for now. I have witnessed some great events in my lifetime. I was at Memorial Stadium for the last game in 1982 when Earl retired and the O's had won three straight to force what was essentially a one game playoff with the Brewers. When the game was over, this happened.

And I'll never forget it.

Oh speaking of never forgetting, I was here too....

I tried to find some video but all I could get my hands on were people taking video of their television. Not the best quality there.

When Cal did the lap around the field, this grown man cried. A little. Hey, it's allowed.

I watched this on TV and it still hurts. Deep deep hurt. That little bastard stole an out and helped the O's lose a playoff game against theYankees that they might have won. That was 1996 and I don't think they've been the same ever since.

I'll never stop following them. I'll never give up on them. But why does it have to be this hard to root for a sports team?

Everything is running on schedule

Or it will be at least. I think that if I want to continue this blog and have people read it, I need to come up with a schedule for myself. I know every Thursday at 9, "The Office" will be on NBC. Or that football games on Sunday start at 1 & 4. So I'm going to lay out a schedule and hopefully keep to it. Mark it on your calendar and come back for your favorite days. Better yet, just come back every day. See, I'm here to make your life easier.

• Sports Sunday - I'm a big sports fan. The Ravens and the Orioles are my favorite major league teams and I'm a big time Duke Blue Devil basketball fan. 2 out of 3 isn't bad right? I do follow other sports but I don't have a vested interest in any other teams. So on Sunday you'll get a whole bunch of sports goodness.
  
  
• Money Monday - Don't roll your eyes. Everyone needs to think about money. This probably won't be the biggest of my weekly entries but I do think about money. A LOT. Not in a get rich sort of way but in a how can I pay off my debt and still take my family on a cool vacation way.
  
  
• Tuesday's Review - Tuesday is when new DVDs and games come out. It's the perfect day for a review segment. It won't always be the newest stuff. I may review a TV show that I watched in the last week or a even a book I'm reading. Could be a movie I saw with Brigid or a PS3 game that I can't stop playing. I'm out of control. I've never really reviewed anything before and I hope I'll be able to muster something other than, "True Blood is awesome, you should watch it."
  
  
• Wildcard Wednesday - Wednesdays suck. It is the middle of the week. Last weekend seems so far away, next weekend is equally as far. On Wednesday, for no good reason, I'm going to open up Yahoo and comment on whatever is the top trend at the time. Yeah, how's that for a wildcard?
  
  
• Interview Thursday - I'm a husband, father, son and brother. I have a great core group of friends and I have a job that I do quite well. But what's going on deep inside? Got me. I'm one of the least introspective people you'll ever meet. So I'll think up a question and ask myself. And then I'll answer. See how that works? Like an interview. Clever.
  
  
• Computer Friday - I restarted the blog on a Friday with a small rant about something that happened in my job as a Desktop Engineer. (Fancy title, right?) So I think I will keep computer Fridays. It won't alway be about my job. It may be about....yeah it's probably going to be about my job.
  
  
• Stupid Saturday - No, I don't think Saturdays are stupid. Quite the opposite, I love Saturdays. It's the one day of the week that I feel is the least filled with stress. (For the most part.) I'm going to browse the web and find the something that makes me laugh or makes me shake my head in disgust. It's going to be hard work, surfing the web in search of funny or disturbing things. But I'm up for the challenge.

And to prove it, here you go.

What I love about this is that he really tries the first two hurdles and knocks them both down. Then he just starts Hulk smashing his way through the rest of them. Near the end when one of the hurdles gets wrapped around his head and knocks him off track into the next lane, he destroys those hurdles too. The poor guy that was running next to him has no idea what to do so he just sort of fake half jumps over the broken hurdles. And at the very end of the clip he actually trips on the little ledge that surrounds the track. I'm thinking the hurdles are not his strongest event.