Wednesday, February 24, 2010

 

Bobby D's Blog - T Minus 39 Days

 



Is it April 5th yet?

I just scored my ticket for the Cubs season opener in Atlanta on April 5th. And it’s not just any ticket – but section 101, row 10 or simply put – 15 rows directly behind home plate. The funny thing is I will be at the Yankees – Red Sox MLB season opener the night before and all I will be thinking is get this game over so I can get to Atlanta.

Previous to last season I had only been to one home opener. That was back in 1980 when I was in high school. Cub single game tickets would go on sale in the middle of February. Back then there was no internet so my buddy Dave Kahan and I drove to Wrigley, got in line and were lucky enough to get the Cubs home opener for that season. All I remember of the game is our seats were way down in the left field reserve area and it was cold – really cold. But we didn’t care – we were at the Cubs’ Home Opener.

Last season I actually got to 2 openers in 2 days. The Quest started in Philly on April 5th when Jack and I saw the Phillies raise their World Championship banner and then promptly lost to the Braves. The next day we drove down to Baltimore and saw the Yanks – O’s opener at the Yards. This season fate was such that the Yanks – Red Sox opener which was originally scheduled for April 5th was moved up a day so it could be broadcast on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball – this move opened up April 5th and fate would have it that the Cubs open up in Atlanta. So for the second season in a row I will make it to 2 openers in 2 days. I highly doubt I will do the all 30 thing again in 2011 (but then again I highly doubted I would be doing it again this season) but one thing that I will attempt to do each season is attend the MLB opener each year and then catch an opener the next day. Basically keep the 2 in 2 steak rolling.

There is not a better phrase in all of sports than “Opening Day”. Even non-baseball fans get that boost from hearing opening day. For us baseball fans it means our team has a chance this year. Even Pirate fans feel that way on opening day. For us Cub fans – it means this is the “year”. For non-baseball fans opening day means they made it thru another winter and spring is here and summer is right around the corner.

So last weekend I tried to get into NASCAR. The month of February could very well be the worst month for sports. NHL and NBA games do not really mean much, we are still a month away from the Madness that is March, baseball spring training has yet to begin and the Super Bowl has just ended and since the Bears didn’t win it all – who really cares. So NASCAR it was for me. I tried to watch the Daytona 500 – the great American race as it is billed. They also call it the Super Bowl of racing yet it is the first race of the season. Isn’t that like calling the NFL Hall of Fame pre-season game played in Canton, OH the Super Bowl of the NFL? The other thing I found strange is that all the teams build the fastest car they can and then they have to put a restrictor plate in the engine to slow it down. So I tried to watch the First Race of the season Super Bowl of Racing with slower cars then they can be Daytona 500. I will admit that all the colors look great in hi-def and the sound on my new Bose sound system was awesome – but 10 minutes into the race I fell asleep. I woke up an hour later and nothing really had changed. The lead had changed hands a bunch of times supposedly – but all the cars were separated by no more than 7 seconds. Then something happens like a piece of paper flies across the track and the yellow flag comes out and everybody goes to the pits. That was kind of fun to watch – just think they get refueled, 4 tires changed and something called a wedge or track bar was adjusted all in fewer than 15 seconds. I can’t get the gas cap off of my car in 15 seconds.

I watch the race and it is going ok – I did nap a second time. Then they red flag the race – seems a little piece of asphalt came loose and caused a pothole. So for this they stopped the race for 1 hr and 40 minutes. Those Floridians sure don’t know how to fix a pothole. Finally the race starts again and pothole opens up again. More delays – by now I almost had given up but I had already spent 5 hours on this so what’s another hour. Turns out the finish was exciting with Jr. charging at the end but couldn’t quite make it to the lead. I have concluded that I will handle watching NASCAR like I do the NBA – watch the last 5 minutes.

They – and you do know they are always right – tell me that I need to go to a race to truly appreciate the “sport”. I will give them the benefit of the doubt, hockey is so much better live than on TV and usually if you can get a person to a hockey game than they are hockey fans for life – right Harley? But if I do become a fan of NASCAR does that mean I also have to learn how to hunt, chew tobbacky and drink cheap beer out of a can? I sure hope not

Well I think that’s enough for today – thankfully I know. I am sure by now you are afraid that I will go into the sport of Curling – though there are some hot women in Olympic Curling. Does that make them a curlgar or a milfmpian? I can’t take credit for that – it was a tweet from the Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. If you have Twitter please add me – I am bobbyd023. So for now this is so long and goodbye from sunnyless Columbus, OH where yesterday I was walking around town humming Hail to the Victors and everyone was looking at me like I had a boogie.

Posted by , 11:48 AM, Permalink

 

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

 

Bobby D's Blog - T Minus 46 Days

 



Before I go into all the stuff I have been doing over the past week or so I would like to take a moment and point out the Shawn M. DeVries Memorial Fund. I am partnering this summer with the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome (SADS) foundation to raise awareness of SADS and hopefully some money for their foundation. To the top left of this page is the link to Shawn’s memorial page and has much more information on the Mission I am on this summer. I thank you in advance for taking a few minutes to check out the page.

I really like the bullet format for updates – so here goes:

• All flights for this summer have been booked. A total of 26 flights, 27,000 miles and untold dollars spent. I have added a page to the site that lists all my flights – I did this to help me out as it is a nice place for me to keep track of the insanity that is the Quest.

• My tickets for opening day arrived in the mail the other day. I felt like Charlie when he got the Golden ticket for the Wonka Chocolate Factory. After I got the ticket I had a dream that night with Big Papi as an Oompa Loompa. And in the dream he still couldn’t hit a breaking ball.

• Cub single game tickets went on sale yesterday and I scored tickets to the Reds – Cubs games on July 3rd and 4th. My parents are flying up from Tampa for the game on the 3rd. Mark Clement who I haven’t seen in 25 years will be joining me with his family for the game on the 4th. That will be a great weekend.

• On the 2010 Quest page I have added my seat location to the games that I have gotten a ticket for. I will update as I get tickets.

• Now I have that damn Oompa Loompa song stuck in my head. I apologize if you do now. And if you don’t – it starts “Ooompa Loompa doopity da…”

• I spent Super Bowl weekend in Tampa with my family. Since my niece Harley is now a hockey nut and the biggest fan (and only) of the Tampa Bay Lightning we saw the Bolts play the Calgary Flames. Get this – tickets in the upper deck behind the goal were $6.00. The Bolts won in OT and Harley is now 3 and 0 attending Lightning games. Just think if you had season tickets there Hammer, The Bolts would be 41 and 0 at home.

• There is not a better place for people watching than at a state fair in the south and the Florida State Fair did not disappoint. The highlight of the fair was finding a food booth that sold – get this – Deep Fried Butter and Deep Fried Pepsi. The booth next to it sold a hamburger that used 2 Krispy Kreme donuts as the bun. My stomach turns just thinking about it.

• This summer at each ballpark I am going to try a food item at the ballpark that is the signature item. An example of the good would be a Dodger Dog in LA and an example of the bad would be Rocky Mountain Oysters in Colorado. Please forward me any suggestions.

• To date I have acquired tickets to 7 games. My thought on which game to buy tickets for now and which to wait is potential popularity of the game. Tickets to Fenway and Wrigley are very hard to get so I have made sure to acquire these early. Also tickets for Cub, Yankee and Red Sox road games are very tough to get. Tickets to see the Pirates play the Oakland A’s not so much so I will wait and get them day of game at the ballpark. This saves me some money as well since I won’t have to pay those stupid Ticketmaster fees to buy online.

• One cool thing with social websites like Facebook is that I have reconnected with many friends as well as kept in touch with those I made last summer. Because of this at 22 of the 30 games this summer I will be going to the game with friends. Last season at only 9 games did I go with friends.

• Inside story of Oompa Loompa – I used to have weekly conference calls when I was working in Tucson – my friend Kelly would give me a word or phrase to work into the conference call. The best and toughest one she gave me was “Oompa Loompa”. I was up for the challenge and this is how I pulled it off – the night before the conference call Tucson had a very rare snow/ice storm. When the call started I was asked how the weather was in Tucson and I said “well lots of ice here which is making people all have to walk like an Oompa Loompa”. It was my finest hour. Maybe we could start it on here – email me suggestions for words or phrases to work into a blog. Could be fun - or not.

Well I guess that it’s for now. I am not sure which was more boring – this blog or the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. One thing is for sure – thankfully Lindsey Vonn is hot so I don’t mind so much all the media coverage her bruised shin is getting as well as that SI cover photo. So for now this is so long and good bye from snowy Newburyport, MA where just the thought of David Ortiz as an Oompa Loompa is well – disturbingly funny.

Posted by , 11:13 AM, Permalink

 

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Thursday, February 4, 2010

 

Bobby D's Blog - T Minus 59 Days...

 



Forgive me Father for I have sinned - I purchased a membership to the Red Sox Nation today but only because the membership comes with 2 tickets to Manny's first game back in Fenway on June 18th when the Dodgers come to town.

Have I crossed over to the dark side? All this just to get tickets to a ballgame. Well not just any ballgame but maybe THE ballgame this summer at Fenway. Manny Ramirez coming back to Fenway will be an event – the sports talk radio shows are already talking about it. The Red Sox even made a new membership level for the Red Sox Nation just for this game. All because of 1 guy – Manny.

That weekend will be fun – my nephew Aaron and niece Alex will be making the trip up from Florida. We see the Red Sox – Dodgers on the 18th and get to see the Mets – Yankees at Yankee Stadium on the 19th and 20th. That weekend also kicks off my West Coast swing of ballparks. From June 18 to June 28 I will see 11 games at 10 different ballparks.

I know it’s hard to believe with the cold weather we have been having and the major snow storm to hit the East Coast tomorrow – but opening day is only 2 months from today, Fenway Park, Yankees vs. Red Sox. For me the only thing better would be seeing the Cubs season opener – oh, wait – I will, on April 5th in Atlanta. Sorry – just saying Cubs season opener and I get all giddy.

One of the funnier things that I repeatedly hear once people find out that I went to ALL 30 ballparks last season is something like this “Really – all 30, so did you get to - insert ballpark here?” I call this the Flounder moment – you remember Flounder from Animal House. He is pledging the Delta house and he walks up to a bunch of guys playing poker and says “Hi guys, playing cards?” I wonder why it is that people constantly ask if I got to so and so park. One of these times I am going to say “Actually I didn’t get to San Francisco – when I said ALL 30 I really meant 29 but I like even numbers so I rounded up.”

I also saw this with Shawn – when she would meet people and say her name was Shawn they would always ask her how you spell it. I have no idea why people were so intrigued by how she spelled her name. If she was in a joking mood and people asked how she spelled it – she would say “I T – how do you spell it?” That would be met with glazed looks or the occasional – “b word for women”.

Because I am on every teams email list I am starting to be flooded with emails from all the teams. I want to spam them but you never know when a jewel of an email will come thru. Today I actually had 2 of them. The first was the Red Sox Nation membership deal for the Dodger game on June 18th. I usually look at Red Sox emails as well as Cub emails – one team I never look at but for some reason today I did was the Giants. I got an email for single game presale ticket opportunity for Visa card holders which just so happens to be me and millions others but I like to think it was just for me. My Giant game is June 26 when the Red Sox visit AT&T. Well I knew that Giant tickets were going on sale this Saturday but what this gem of an email did was tell me that at 1 pm today Visa card holders got to buy tickets 2 days early. I am now the proud owner of a View Box ticket in section 326 for the Red Sox/Giant game on June 26.

This season I will put my seat location on the 2010 Quest schedule – this way if anyone happens to be at the game then you can find me or as Andy would say – avoid me. If you have any other suggestions for this season please drop me a note. I am trying to think of different things to track this year in addition to the stuff I tracked last year. I have a goal to beat the number of beers drank – I think I am man enough to do just that.

Now time to plug a business for a friend. Shawn’s very dear friend Kathy has set up a business of doing temporary airbrushed tattoos. She has this machine and the artwork and can come to a function and temporarily tat everyone in the group – for a fee of course. So if you live in the New Jersey area and want to go crazy with temporary airbrushed tattoos at a party check out Kathy’s website – kattstatts.com and make sure not to tell her Bob sent you – she is a bit angered at me for joining the Red Sox Nation and she may mark up the price of the tattoos for you. The picture attached to the blog is Kathy and I during happier times when she wasn't mad at me for the whole Red Sox Nation thing.

Well I guess that it’s for today – so for now this is so long and good bye from Newburyport, MA where this really dark cloud has formed over my home – I wonder if I will have 3 ghosts visit me tonight, I am ok with the ghost of baseball games past and present – but that ghost of baseball games future may have an issue with me being a card carrying member of the Nation. I wonder what’s next – voting Democrat.

Posted by , 2:31 PM, Permalink

 

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