Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Greatest Weekend Ever

I figured out a while back that part of, or maybe even all of the reasons why people enjoy my writing is because I have the ability to make events sounds better or feel more interesting to my reader than they really were. I'd like to think I don't use too much hyperbole in this process, but rather I just highlight the absolute best things about a situation and describe them in an appealing manner. That being said, I've been trying to write a blog about two of my best friends getting married and the weekend that surrounded it for over a month now and I just haven't been able to do it. I would get half an idea of how to approach the topic and then it would evaporate just as quickly as it came to me. I couldn't decide whether to make it a humorous recap of all the shenanigans and tom foolery that we all took part it for three days or to write a tear-jerking, sentimental tale of true love and being a part of it. A moment ago, the problem with writing about this event dawned on me; the weekend was too good. Making an average road trip and wedding sound like the best time ever would be easy, but how on earth am I supposed to write about an event that words could never do justice, no matter how perfectly they were crafted?

I only spent one school year in the same state as Evan Stone, but he quickly became one of the best friends I will ever have. I can't properly describe the strangely close and mostly heterosexual relationship Evan and I have, so I would suggest you look at Turk and JD from Scrubs and use that as a point of reference. At one point during that same school year, I jokingly claimed that his girlfriend was my bff, I believe as a result of her promising to send me a batch of cookies with the next box she sent Evan. This girl, Becky, actually did become an incredibly good friend of mine and I couldn't have approved more when after Evan had moved away from me (tragically) and back closer to home (and closer to his girlfriend) in Illinois, he proposed to Becky and she said yes. That was in November of 2008. The wedding date was soon scheduled for June of 2010 and thus began the longest build up and most highly anticipated event of my life pretty much. Two of my best friends were getting married, pretty much all of my other best friends from college would be heading on a road trip to Illinois (the site of the wedding) for a long weekend and hopefully the best time of our lives. It's probably up for debate who was more excited for the big day to come; the happy couple or their road tripping, fun loving friends from Nebraska.

Usually when something comes with this much hype, it can't possibly live up to the expectations. I mean its just not even fair to expect it to. My friends and I were literally building up this weekend in our minds for over a year and a half. There was no way this thing could possibly come anywhere close to the dream we had painted in our imaginations. The scheduled departure day for Illinois came and things were at a fever pitch. I was excited beyond belief, but in the back of my mind I was a little bit worried. I realized that no matter how amazing this weekend was, and I was sure it was going to be phenomenal, I was probably still going to be a little disappointed. How could I not be? After 19 months of hype, a letdown was inevitable. It would have taken a miracle for things to turn out better than we had hoped for.

The weekend came, and passed all too quickly. I'm going to refrain from describing anything that happened specifically because it will never look as good on paper as it still does in my memory, and I just don't want to ruin that. Let me just say that I don't think any of us that made the trip to Illinois for Evan and Becky's wedding came home disappointed. I know for me it completely surpassed the hype. When we all made it back to Nebraska, one of my friends and I exchanged pretty much the same sentiment . . . what do we do now? We had been preparing all of this time for the greatest weekend of our lives, and we actually got it. How often does something turn out to be every bit as good as you had hoped for? Not very often, I know that.

I'd like to leave you with some deep philosophical conclusion to all this but the truth is I just don't have one. I know only a few things and here they are: I absolutely love my friends and will deeply miss these times I have with them once all of us inevitably go our separate ways. Evan and Becky are two of the greatest people I know, and I love them and both of their families so much. And last but not least, the fact that this weekend of their wedding lived up to all of the hype we'd built up for it gives me hope; hope that dreaming and wishing for things to be bigger and better than you ever thought they could be is alright, because every once and a while things work just the way you wanted them to. Just ask my friends Evan and Becky, their story is going pretty well for them. Now, I won't lie to you and tell you it happens all the time, it doesn't. It's a rare thing, but it only has to happen once in a blue moon to keep that hope alive, and thats good enough for me because like a man in a movie once told me, hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing, and no good thing ever dies.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Decision Part 2

In my original post about Lebron James' decision I also included a section in which I discussed my thoughts on the manner in which Lebron made his announcement but took it out so it wouldn't distract from what I felt was the more important point of the blog. However, since I already wrote it, I figured why not post it as well, so here are my thoughts on how King James made his decision.

I completely understand that athletes mean way more to fans than fans mean to athletes. In fact, everyone understands this. Fans agree to dish out ridiculous amounts of money to watch their favorite athletes play, to wear their shoes and jerseys and anything else with their name on it. In return, athletes do their best to perform and pretend to give a crap about the fans. That's just how it works. Part of every athletes' carefully crafted image is how good they are at acting like they care about their fans. Everyone is perfectly alright with this arrangement . . . Until someone screws it up, and then all hell breaks lose. Lebron James royally screwed this up. He had every right to leave Cleveland for another team, personally I would have gone with Chicago but thats just me, but how you do things is a crucial window into your character. When we saw this glimpse from Lebron James what we found out was shocking and a little disturbing.

Deciding that he needed to have an entire hour devoted to himself to announce something that literally took about 15 seconds was essentially like a guy hijacking the halftime show of the Super Bowl to break up with a long time girlfriend who coincidentally had bought him tickets to the game (some analogy credit there goes to Bill Simmons). James didn't even have the common decency to tell the Cavaliers he was leaving before the rest of the world found out so they could start coming up with a practical contingency plan. He just strung them along for the ride, giving them hope until the very end. Lebron did however have time to refer to himself in the third person almost half a dozer times and to talk about all he had done for Cleveland. Maybe mailing it in during the playoffs was James' way of giving the Cavs his two weeks notice. By choosing to have a one hour self promoting special to announce his decision, James proved to be one of two things. He is either so unbelievably arrogant and self-absorbed that he didn't care that doing this on national television would rip out the hearts of everyone in Ohio, or he is just so naive (read: stupid) to have realized it would rip out the hearts of everyone in Ohio. Or there is a third option, that he is a little bit of both, unbelievably arrogant and a little bit daft. The point is you pretty much have to a royal douche in order to think you are important enough to hold a one hour special to announce where you want to play basketball. I used to be a Lebron James fan, I enjoyed watching him play basketball. I assume someday I will enjoy watching him play again, but right now I just think he's kind of a tool. The Heat will be fun to watch and watch them I will, but they will be more fun to root against. Here's hoping that Kevin Durant with his decision via twitter get the better of the King somewhere down the line.

Lebron James forgot something crucial when he decided it was a good idea to flip off everyone in Cleveland. While James, or any other athlete for that matter may not care about fans or what they think, they need to remember that without the fans, they wouldn't matter at all. Athletes are rich because fans are willing to pay to see them and where the same gear they do. Athletes are famous because fans care about what they do. If you took away the fans, Lebron James would be Sydney Crosby. Sure, people would kind of know who he was, and they might watch a playoff game or two, but overall he'd be irrelevant to our society as a whole. Without fans, King James would be less important than Landon Donovan was before the World Cup. So while fans might care way more about athletes than athletes care about fans, the athletes need to be careful not to upset the balance because at the end of the day, its the fans money that lines the athletes pockets.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Decision

First off let me say that I don't care that Lebron James signed with the Miami Heat. Would it have been nice if he stayed home, and won a championship in Cleveland? Yeah, I would have liked that, let me say, I'm a little old school like that but whatever. The one real problem I have with the situation (other than the fact that by demanding an hour to make a 15 second announcement we learned that King James is a royal douche) was the fallout from the situation involving Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and "Reverend" Jesse Jackson (I only put reverend in parentheses because it is unclear to me is Jesse Jackson has ever actually given a sermon, seeing as all he ever talks about is race).

The problem I had with the whole fallout from "The Decision" is probably not what you think it is. I don't really have a problem with Dan Gilbert's comments regarding Lebron. Would he have perhaps been better served sleeping on that email for a night before publishing it? Yeah, probably. Did he go a little overboard? Maybe. But did Gilbert show most of all that he's a fan just like the rest of us? You bet, and that's what I love about his comments; they're the exact same thing that every other Cavs fan was thinking that night (although probably minus more than a few expletives). That being said, the PR guy who was on call that night needs to be fired immediately . . . Unless Gilbert's comments were a carefully thought out plan to unite his fan base with him, instead of the very real possibility of the owner being blamed for letting James get away. Either way, Gilbert's comments are not my problem.

My problem is Jesse Jackson's reaction to Gilbert's comments. The alleged reverend first said that Dan Gilbert's comments put Lebron's life in danger. Now it is true that James and his people have received threats, but if you think that the idiots who take sports so seriously that they would threaten the life of a guy who is 6'8 270 lbs wouldn't have made those threats whether Gilbert said anything or not, than you're just as dumb as the people making the threats. To me, it sounds like Jesse Jackson hadn't heard his name on TV in a while and decided this would be a good time to speak up. That being said, morons out their who are making threats on Lebron James and his mom, pull your head out and go get a job . . . or a girlfriend . . . or go do anything that matters because right now you are a disgrace to sports fans everywhere.

My real problem however, arose when Jesse Jackson said that Gilbert's comments were like that of a slave owner. I know, it is shocking that Jesse Jackson pulled the race card. Let me ask you this, had Larry Bird been born 30 years later and was drafted by the Cavaliers, and decided last week to leave via free agency in the exact same manner that James did, do you think Gilbert would have reacted any differently? The correct answer is no. Gilbert would have gone off on Larry Legend the same way he went off of King James. Let me ask you another question, had Gilbert made those comments about Larry Bird, would Jesse Jackson have said anything at all, much less to go as far as to compare him to a slave owner? The correct answer is once again no. That's what bothers me the most about this whole situation. Jesse Jackson might be the most racist man in America, because only he would make this about race, when to everyone else it was about basketball.

Now before you start calling me out as a racist or whatever, go ahead and take a look to the right hand side of the page. Yeah, I'm the brown kid in the picture with the sunglasses. No, I'm not black, if by black you mean African-American. I'm not black if you mean the color either but then again neither are African-Americans, their skin is brown just like mine. The point is, when people see me on the street, they don't know what I am, but Caucasian isn't one of their guesses. So don't go off saying I'm just some white guy that doesn't understand. I understand perfectly clearly that the less people care about the difference between black and white, the less Jesse Jackson matters, so Jesse Jackson likes to try and create racial drama. That way he's still famous. I'm not saying racism is gone in America, because not being white, I know that it's not. What I am saying is, racism has a different face now than it did in the past and ironically, the face of racism this past week wasn't Dan Gilbert the white guy, it was Jesse Jackson, the black one.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

The Blatt's Last Stand

Anyone and everyone who has heard me talk about Rosenblatt Stadium, the College World Series, and TD Ameritrade Ballpark, knows exactly how I feel about the situation. At least they did. I'm not sure if I was in denial, or if I just let my gusto for progress get the best of me, but for some reason or another, I didn't think that I would miss old Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. I railed on and on about how the concourses are too small and smelled like everything from rotten garbage (at best) to human feces (at worst). I went on tirades about how the bathrooms had to be designed to resemble a medieval European dungeon (thats the PG version). The seats are too small, the hallways are too dark, and the parking situation is a nightmare. None of these things that I founded my arguments against Rosenblatt on are any less true now than they were before. In fact after experiencing another handful of games at the Blatt, they might be more true than they've ever been. You know what's coming though . . . All those things are true, but . . .

My first trip to Rosenblatt was also my first trip to a sporting even that I was old enough to remember and occurred in 1996 when I was 8 years old. It was the championship game of the 50th College World Series. This game would turn out to be one of the most memorable NCAA championships in any sport. In the bottom of the 9th with two outs, Louisiana State was down one run with a runner on base. Up to bat came Warren Morris, who had missed much of the season due to injury and had not hit a home run all year. Meanwhile, out in the right field bleachers, my brother and I were sitting with a family friend from church who had taken us to the game. I had quickly became deeply invested in the fate of the Louisiana State Tigers, mostly due to the fact that the stadium was covered in gold and purple and because the LSU fans are about some of the greatest people you could ever hope to watch a game with. In great distress as the Tigers were down to their final out, our family friend told me, well just stick your glove as high in the air as you can so he knows where you want him to hit it. Being 8, this made perfect sense to me and I did as I was told. The next thing I know . . . PING! It turns out Warren Morris could have used GPS (which no one knew existed yet) because his ball landed out a half a dozen people to my left. I wasn't overly upset about this though as I was caught up in the absolute bedlam that ensued as Morris circled the bases for his walk-off home run to win the National Championship. The old wooden outfield bleachers at the Blatt were literally shaking as the stadium essentially turned into a 20,000 person mosh pit. That game more than anything else solidified my lifelong love for the game of baseball. That game is the reason we as a culture watch sports. That game is the College World Series in a nutshell.

I have returned to Rosenblatt for every College World Series since then. Some years I was a die hard fan (when Florida State was there, or when I latched onto an underdog like the Louisian-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns), while others I was just a kid that loved the game. In that time I've gone from hoping to participate one day as a player (before arm injuries and reality set in), to realizing that while the quality of play isn't up the the standard of the Big Leagues, the fact that those kids have never wanted to be anywhere more than they want to be in Omaha at that very moment, certainly makes up for it. I've gone from preferring the insanity that is the mob in right field when I started, to enjoying the ease and superior view of the reserved seats now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've grown up with the College World Series, and therefore with Rosenblatt. I have changed a lot since my first game and so the fact that the Series, and even the venue is changing doesn't really scare me all that much. I've seen the bleachers go from terrifying wooden structures on the verge of collapse, to beautiful blue and yellow painted steel. I've seen the championship decided first with a single game, winner takes all and now with a best of three series. I've seen the games shown almost exclusively on CBS to now having it be an all ESPN event. I think that's why I'm alright with the move to the new ballpark, in the back of my mind it seems like I kind of always expected it to happen eventually, even if I didn't realize it. I am used to the College World Series changing. The one change I never would have been okay with was if the Series was no longer in Omaha, and the new stadium ensures that it will be here for at least 25 more years. I have always been pretty good at looking at the big picture when it came to this issue because the one thing for me that was non negotiable was having the CWS in Omaha. Once I understood that the NCAA was going to move the event to another city if Omaha didn't build a new facility, I was all for TD Ameritrade Ballpark; whatever it took to keep the Series.

Looking at the big picture for the last year or so at the last College World Series at Rosenblatt approached left all of the little things a little blurry. Those things came into focus on Monday evening as I made my last trip to the College World Series in the ballpark on the hill. I sat in a seat next to my oldest sister, who had taken me to so many games over the years. It just seemed right that my last one was with her (unfortunately my brother and younger older sister couldn't make it into town for the event). We got into the stadium about an hour before game time and just started reminiscing about everything we had experienced over the years. There was the year where we got trapped in the concourse by a tornado warning and the year Florida State came up just inches short of finally capturing the title. We had story after story, and this is when I started to realize that while I'm more than happy to let the big things change, there are some little things that I really hope stick around.

I hope the 70 year old LSU fan who tosses free beads to anyone who asks is still a regular. I hope head ground's keeper Jesse Cuevas decides to take care of the new grounds as well. I hope Lambert Bartak makes a cameo appearance or two during the 7th inning stretch at next year's Series. I hope Zesto's builds a downtown location right across the street from the new ballpark. I hope right field and left field continue their never ending battle for supremacy (a battle which right field will always win because "Left field sucks!"). I hope there is still a place for the countless tailgaters to set up shop and offer free food to complete strangers (namely me) just because they have extra. I hope the mile's worth of merchandise tents make the trip downtown so I can still buy my Florida State gear dirt cheap after they inevitably get eliminated. Most of all, I hope everyone, opponents and advocates of the new stadium alike, embrace the College World Series the same way we always have. After all, the true home of the College World Series is Omaha, and when it comes back this time next year, nothing about that will have changed.