The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: side_show on January 16, 2007, 02:16:25 pm
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So I had this huge party at my house, and as with any Canadian house party, hockey was part of the conversation. One of my friends was commenting on how the party was so good she wanted to throw an octopus on my floor as a sort of benediction of thanks, and I didn't know what the hell she was talking about, so she explained, but I still didn't believe her. She sent me this link today, and I thought I'd share it will you all, because nothing says good luck like an octopus.
The Legend of the Octopus (http://www.detroitredwings.com/history/octopus.jsp).
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Having read your interesting link I can't help but take this opportunity to point out that 'octopi,' while too well established in English to fight at this point, does not make any sense for the plural of this word:
Although it is often supposed that octopi is the 'correct' plural of octopus, and it has been in use for longer than the usual Anglicized plural octopuses, it in fact originates as an error. Octopus is not a simple Latin word of the second declension, but a Latinized form of the Greek word oktopous, and its 'correct' plural would logically be octopodes.
More from the OED website here. (http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/plurals)
This is a good example of why you should not try to speak English like it is Latin.
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Having grown up 30 miles south of Detroit, I heard this legend so early and so often that when I moved south and found people who had never heard it was like encountering someone who had never heard of Santa Claus.
It does seem to be very much a Detroit thing, despite several attempts by misguided Hurricanes fans (and others) to emulate the obvious heroes of the rink. (Although I must say it's not the same since Scotty retired.) I'm particularly offended by those who can't get their hands on a real octopus and instead throw a squid.
Seems like somebody threw something emblematic of North Carolina on the ice during a 'canes playoff game, but I can't recall...a quick googling shows that an Oilers fan threw some beef in Raleigh, but seems like somebody either threw a pork chop or joked about it at some point.
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Damnit, omba, I can't tell if you're being descriptivist or prescriptivist. How are we supposed to have a proper language argument if your position isn't clear!
(+can for octopodes)
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The octopussses (have at it, grammer sluts) tale is great but as far as playoff series and numbers Moses Malone and "Fo', Fo' 'n Fo'" is basically invincible.
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A hat trick is three goals by a single player; supposedly - indoor lacrosse has a higher scoring rate than hockey (or soccer) though so three goals (while commendable) aren't celebrated. The Colorado Mammoth's fans celebrate a feat of 6 goals in a game by a single player as a "sock trick", and throw rolled socks onto the floor. So far this hasn't spread much to other teams, but I think its a neat idea.
I'm pretty sure they only do it if its accomplished by a home team player though.
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Damnit, omba, I can't tell if you're being descriptivist or prescriptivist. How are we supposed to have a proper language argument if your position isn't clear!
heh heh heh.
Forget grammar: here (http://network.bestfriends.org/delaware/news/7089.html) is a great story about the octopus I work with.
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The only "octopus" I ever worked with was the guy at the restaurant who seemed to be "all hands."
How cool, Wommie, that you get to work with famous mollusks. He and Little P would get along -- they both seem to love Mr. Potato Head.
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Man, you damned Detroit Red Wings fans.
I'm from Colorado, so I'm all about the Avalanche (nee Nordiques).
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Oh, no, linnea! Now we have to be enemies!
gr. grrr. Nope, sorry, can't do it.
But I still despise the Avalanche. I have to, especially given that I live in the Carolinas now. If you're a Hurricane, you've got to kick the ##### off of other natural disasters. It's just the rule.
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Interesting how it's mostly us ladies talking about hockey, eh?
I will always miss the Jets despite their totally suck-i-tude.
Also, drunk people fighting with a sober person about whether or not octopuses get tossed on the ice or not is very surreal, especially when the sober one is the one defending the position that this thing happens in the real world.
Also, this talk drove me to order calamari for lunch yesterday. It was all the talk of rubbery sea creatures that did it.
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Interesting how it's mostly us ladies talking about hockey, eh?
Actually, oddly, no.
Where I grew up, the men's team sport where you'd run into ladies attending of their own volition and with much knowledge the most would definitely be hockey.
I have no theory behind it, it could completely be a Mohawk Valley abberation of some kind but... hockey definitely always had a much higher concentration of women fully immersed in the game and not being dragged by a dude or just cheering for a friend/relative/etc... much more than football or basketball or baseball.
I guess you could extrapolate from the ice-skating part of hockey or from the much more "honest" violence of hockey but... I got nothin'. I don't believe it's a "cute guys" thing because... generally, hockey player dudes are the most bruised/mangled/lacking teeth of all the major team sports whereas... most baseball players/most basketball players/non-impact-football-position-dudes can easily maintain a handsome face while still playing their sports.
Any theories, achewomen?
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I just noticed this and had to get in on it - especially given the discussion of octogoogols in the other thread. Huge, huge Red Wings fan here. I'd like to point out a few things:
1) The quickest hat trick in the NHL was recorded by one Bill "Moshi" Mosienko of the Chicago Blackhawks in 1952, who scored three goals in a ridiculously astounding 21 seconds. I named my cat after him, but it didn't stick, mostly because my cat weighs 20+ lbs and as such is not very fast.
2) Darren McCarty (well known former Red Wings enforcer) once scored a hat trick against Patrick Roy in the third period of a playoff game in 2002. In the last game of that series, Roy was actually pulled, which spelled the beginning of the end for Roy, as he would play just one more year. Oddly enough, Roy was also pulled from a game against Detroit in 1995 after giving up 9 goals, which signaled the end of his career in Montreal. (I apologize to linnea for this item.)
3) Detroit just picked up Todd Bertuzzi. Yeah, I probably should have filled this one out a bit, but I just wanted to throw it out there. This signing is going to cause problems.
4) I, unlike almost every other hockey fan on earth, despise Peter Forsberg. (I apologize to linnea for this item, as well.)
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(well known former Red Wings enforcer)
I know that "enforcer" is only a semi-official player position designation. Also, I am a Southerner at heart, and from the days before there were NHL teams in Atlanta or Charlotte or Montgomery or Biloxi or wherever the fuck they are now.
But I gotta say...
Any sport that has a position called "Enforcer", even if informally, is OK with me.
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Man, how the fuck can you hate Forsberg??
I can't believe that some of my favorite imaginary people are RED WINGS FANS. My little brain cannot cope.
Anyway, Sweet Milan, my folded-ear Scottish Fold boy, is named after the awesomest Milan Hejduk, who is a Czech who plays for the Colorado Avalanche. My little Mi-wan is so sweet and mellow, and he likes to sit next to me and get tummy rubs.
(http://Somebody nice.typepad.com/photos/milan/milan2.jpg)
His brother Lennybruce is named for, well, Lenny Bruce. He totally lives up to his name. If he were a human he'd have a foul, foul mouth and be married to a stripper. He is the feistiest little dude around.
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/88/218922193_a59335556b_m.jpg)
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Milan is hell of cute.
Weird words for a hockey thread.
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My brother and I always call Milan Hejduk "Heydude". Try it next time you watch the Avs - it's fun!
Also, I do not want to get into why I do not like Forsberg. Many of my favorite people here at work like Forsberg, and it inevitably causes friction when we discuss it. It falls under the politics and religion rule now. See, I can learn from my experiences.
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My brother and I always call Milan Hejduk "Heydude".
Yippie-kai-ai-yay.
Yippie-kai-ai-WHAT?
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Yippie-kai-ai-yay.
Yippie-kai-ai-WHAT?
I don't know what this means. Is it from a film? Is it Die Hard?
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I don't know what this means. Is it from a film? Is it Die Hard?
It is, I believe, from the Nickelodeon sitcom Hey Dude, which was sort of the less-funny little brother of Salute Your Shorts but still has a place in the psyche of Post-Adolescents Of A Certain Age.
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AN ENTIRE GENERATION OBSESSED WITH SEMI-IRONICALLY REFERENCING CHILDREN'S TELEVISION SHOWS
LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE! HAHAHA!
SALUTE YOUR SHORTS!
HEY DUDE HAHAHA THAT SHOW WAS SO AWESOME SERIOUSLY!
*pops a cap in his own motherfuck*ng dome*
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Can someone explain how it fits here? And can someone keep the crazy man away from me?
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AN ENTIRE GENERATION OBSESSED WITH SEMI-IRONICALLY REFERENCING CHILDREN'S TELEVISION SHOWS
LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE! HAHAHA!
SALUTE YOUR SHORTS!
HEY DUDE HAHAHA THAT SHOW WAS SO AWESOME SERIOUSLY!
*pops a cap in his own motherfuck*ng dome*
Who ever said anything about irony? Every mention of those I've ever heard in conversation was sincere, often reverent, and I'll take it over nostalgia for terrible cartoons of the '80's any time. (C'mon, guys, can we just admit Transformers sucked and move on?)
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(C'mon, guys, can we just admit Transformers sucked and move on?)
I've never, ever, ever tried to dispute that being the case! Never got that...
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Yeah, I'm with Vee on this one.
I am not ironically referencing "Hey Dude". I am sincerely referencing "Hey Dude".
It wasn't Mamet but... for a show targeted at twelve-year-olds, it was pretty decent. I also had as much of a crush as you can have on the tomboyish brunette as you can have on a person that you know doesn't exist.
(This goes for every attractive tomboy on every show ever.)
And "Salute Your Shorts" was... better than pretty decent, for what it was.
I have pretty much given up on the sort of irony where you are pretending to not like something that you liked when you were younger and are now ashamed of that fact. I'm past that particular bit of self-loathing.
ALF, I love unironically. It was just so weird, it was so of its time and yet not at all, that its still interesting. Maybe in a slightly different way now but I still completely love ALF.
I am still pretty young in the scheme of things but I am too old for the irony of shame.
Now, I definitely still love watching things that are bad and appreciating how bad they are... but it isn't about rejecting things I'm ashamed of liking once upon a time. It is now full-on, just, I am shocked at how unintentionally bad a movie like "The Guardian" is.
Things that are bad "on purpose" I've pretty much always hated. I am Anti-Camp. But I'm sure I've ranted that rant here before and shall spare you.
EDIT: Transformers was pretty terrible in execution as a cartoon, definitely. The thing is... the toys themselves were legitimately cool, at least early on in the run. The idea of a toy car that turns into a toy ***** is pretty unassailably rad. This is why people try and convince themselves that the cartoon was not terrible.
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And that has to do with Milan Hejduk how, exactly?
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And that has to do with Milan Hejduk how, exactly?
It was pointed out that "Hejduk" sounds sort of like "Hey Dude".
"Hey Dude" was a show for early teenagers about a dude ranch that is a minor cultural touchstone for suburban white Americans in roughly their middle twenties.
The quote is two lines from its theme song.
The whole thing was laid out pretty well, I thought.
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It was pointed out that "Hejduk" sounds sort of like "Hey Dude".
"Hey Dude" was a show for early teenagers about a dude ranch that is a minor cultural touchstone for suburban white Americans in roughly their middle twenties.
The quote is two lines from its theme song.
The whole thing was laid out pretty well, I thought.
But where are the onomatoctopeiae?
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It was pointed out that "Hejduk" sounds sort of like "Hey Dude".
"Hey Dude" was a show for early teenagers about a dude ranch that is a minor cultural touchstone for suburban white Americans in roughly their middle twenties.
The quote is two lines from its theme song.
The whole thing was laid out pretty well, I thought.
"Hey Dude . . . and Hey Dude . . . nope, still not seeing a connection."
Jesus, I feel like Homer Simpson. What the fuck is wrong with me today?
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But where are the onomatoctopeiae?
The octopriuses are metaphorical at this point.
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Perhaps. But make sure we're giving due to the octophragms.
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Wow.
The universe works in mysterious ways. Amid all this talk about octopimpernels, this link appeared on another forum I frequent. And since I can't find the other octophrenology thread, I'm putting it here.
How could we have forgotten about octodogs (http://www.octodog.net/index.htm)?
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Blue flowers! Drawing by the purple pond, in the purple pastures.
Would you care to listen to any more?
There's a lot of nostalgia for Nickelodeon cartoons from the '90s these days, but what I really miss are the previous generation of cartoons: Danger penis, Count Duckula, Looney Tunes back before Cartoon Network existed - they were still showing Bosko cartoons back then, even.
As far as hockey is concerned:
August, the Calgary Flames used to play in Atlanta back in the '70s. You're perfectly justified in not caring about hockey, though. I have a couple of friends in high school for whom it was basically a weekly ritual to go down to Phillips Arena after school and see a Thrashers game, but I never joined them.
I don't really follow any sports very closely besides baseball, but my hatred for the Yankees carries over to whatever team is most analogous to them in its respective sport. The Lakers, Cowboys, and Red Wings all make the list of Teams I Root Against, as does Duke basketball on the college level. In (non-American) football, it's Real Madrid and Manchester United, although on the international level I have thus far found it impossible to not like Brazil. I will settle for rooting against the Germans.
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Milan is hell of cute.
Weird words for a hockey thread.
Quoted for truth.
(http://Somebody nice.typepad.com/photos/milan/milancave.jpg)
(http://Somebody nice.typepad.com/photos/milan/milanhiding.jpg)
(http://Somebody nice.typepad.com/photos/milan/milan_003.jpg)
(http://Somebody nice.typepad.com/photos/milan/lazykitties_002.jpg)
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You like Robert Earl Keen and have awesome cats. Sweetness.
There is this apartment cat that hangs out throughout the apartment complex I live in. I bought it some food to feed it occasionally, but now I am out and the other guy that feeds it is out of town. She is really hungry and I don't eat meat so I can't think of anything to give it. Would she eat an egg? Cheerios? Anything that a poor college vegetarian eats?
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I can't give advice on what to feed her as in generally cats are weird when it comes to human food. One of our cats will usually not take any interest in human food unless it is chicken or giraffe, but the other day I was opening a can of peas (ew! canned peas - I know!) and she was just frantically dancing around my feet. I gave her some peas and she was crazy for them and started screaming for more. Odd. In my experience all cats like Pringles, but that's a pretty costly meal for a cat.
Because we have a raised wooden deck, and because of spring melt off, all the mangy stray cats that have survived winter have designated our deck as the local hang out. It's like a kitty flop house - they have group sex next to our barbecue, piss on our central air box. brawl on the stairs leading up to the deck, shit on the path between our house and the neighbours, and scrounge in our recycling box for any tiny morsel we might have missed (we're very careful about not leaving food, but some containers carry an odour that makes them think there's something there to eat). Yesterday I came home and there were three fat male cats and the one little female one they've all been taking turns banging just sitting there. They all have various tufts of fur missing and just look hella' gross. I'm a big cat lover, but I wouldn't touch these animals with a pole. They all took off when they saw I was coming toward them, but they made sure to give me pissed off glances, and when the SO peaked down the path between our house and the neigbours, they were all just standing around waiting for us to go in so they could come back. The SO said "Hey!" and one of the cats said "Yowel!" I said "Get out of here!" and they half-heartedly sauntered off. A few minutes later, one of our cats was looking out the window and was clearly distressed, the SO looked out and the crew was back, so he decided to toss some water on them. They left, but shortly after I looked out and there was another cat, not part of the earlier group, pissing on the side of our house, and along came yet another one, who clearly wanted to brawl. The SO grabbed more water and tossed it on them to break up the fight.
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I like the Washington Capitals. They hell of suck right now. But in a year or two, watch out. Two picks in each of the first two rounds of this year's draft, the awesome Alexes, and their AHL affiliate is really great right now.
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The Lakers, Cowboys, and Red Wings all make the list of Teams I Root Against, as does Duke basketball on the college level. In (non-American) football, it's Real Madrid and Manchester United, although on the international level I have thus far found it impossible to not like Brazil. I will settle for rooting against the Germans.
It's always interesting to me that everyone roots against the Red Wings, and not the Habs.
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As a Mets fan, I am programmed to cheer against the Yankees and Braves at all times. Not surprisingly, rooting against the Yankees makes me feel rather sympathetic for the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. There is nothing like watching a Yankees game and watching the Mets and Red Sox fans realize that they are truly brothers.
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Yeah, my roommate is a mets fan, and I a Red Sox fan, and you are right.
Also, the cat did not eat a scrambolled egg, but then it rained, and I know she has a nice sense for those things, so maybe that is why she was crying outside. Also, this isn't necessarily a stray cat, more of a cat that lives at the apartment complex.
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As a Mets fan, I am programmed to cheer against the Yankees and Braves at all times. Not surprisingly, rooting against the Yankees makes me feel rather sympathetic for the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. There is nothing like watching a Yankees game and watching the Mets and Red Sox fans realize that they are truly brothers.
The sheer number of Mets fans here astounds me. Were I in the market for a new avatar, it would also feature an orange and blue interlocking N-Y logo. Rooting against the Yankees can be a global thing, though. Rooting against the Braves is special. That was even moreso for me, as the AAA affiliates for each team meet halfway, in Norfolk and Richmond.
Or at least they DID. Norfolk abandoning the Mets for the $%#$% Orioles is the worst sports-betrayal-on-a-level-that-almost-feels-personal I've ever felt.
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Being a Yankees fan is semi-forgiveable because, like, oh, they were great a million years ago and... there's a world of front-runners out there and... if you don't know anything about baseball, they're the one team you've heard of and so on.
It's hell of lame but it's so prevalent that you just have to roll with it existing.
But man, being into the Braves is pretty much the most crap baseball thing imaginable.
They can't sell out LCS games, for fuck's sake. That says it all.
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I don't know, Ithink everybody might hate the braves because of the tbs games and also because they are the least cool semi decent franchise in MLB.
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I don't think TBS makes me hate the Braves any more... in fact, I appreciate them for making it that much easier for me to see the Mets on television. At least they're in the same division, so you can see them that more often.
I've always enjoyed the fervor of sports rivalries. It makes me feel good that all of my teams (Mets, Redskins, UVA) feature in rivalries with a fair amount of sheer hatred in them. I would be sad if I were a fan of a team with a limp rivalry.
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Well, they have a bunch of redneck announcers, and perhaps that is what made me dislike them more. (I know some Careys worked there, but they also have the southern redneck always).
Also, Go SKINS. I fuck*ng hate the Cowboys.
Here is a question for all of you: besides geography, how did you pick your teams?
My dad was born in Boston, stayed there until about ten, moved to Germany, then moved to Washington. I picked up his Red Sox and Redskins fandom. However, he hated the NBA, and, while I like basketball, there has never been a team I could get into all the way, as I had no idea who to choose. I liked Rick Smits, but hated Reggie Miller. Liked Sparks but hated Ewing. Could not root for the Bulls. Now a-days I like the Mavericks alright, but they were much cooler when Nash still played for them. Also, Arenas.
The only teams around are those in Dallas, and ain't no way in hell my Dad was raising a Cowboys fan. Also, who could root for the Rangers? If I was 10 years older I might be a Royals fan, but thank god that didn't happen.
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KeithHernandez, I think you might be me. I've been having trouble sleeping at night, are you sure you're not my Tyler Durden?
How I picked my teams (in chronological order of me remembering that they were "my team"):
1) Mets. I think I picked this one up from my dad. He was born and raised in upstate New York. Also, as previously mentioned, the AAA affiliate for the Mets used to be located in Hampton Roads, so that went their way too.
2) Redskins. Pretty much a geographic thing there.
3) Capitals. Again, mostly geographic, and for a while their ECHL team was located in Norfolk, before the city got all uppity and wanted the team to belong to the next higher level of minor leagues. As a result, instead of feeding into the Caps system, they're now in the farm system of the Chicago Blackhawks. Smooth move, guys.
4) Basketball... eh. I was a Phoenix Suns fan around about the time Charles Barkley was playing for them. I thought he was cool as an anti-hero sort of figure. But it's never been my sport. I root against teams in the NBA, primarily the Lakers. The hell with Kobe Bryant.
5) Jennifer Capriati. But we discussed this.
6) West Coast Eagles. Flipping through channels when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I came upon this strange-ass sport that intrigued the hell out of me. Kinda like soccer, kinda like football (I hadn't been introduced to rugby yet), completely unlike either at the same time. I was fascinated... and then I realized the announcers were Australian. Then I realized that EVERYONE was Australian. I had discovered Aussie Rules Football, and there was no going back. Incidentally, the game I was watching was the 1991 Grand Final, which they lost to Hawthorn. And, in an almost shameful display, having nothing else to go on, I picked West Coast to root for over Hawthorn because... I liked their uniforms better. Turned out to be a not bad move, though. WCE has turned into one of the perennially good teams in the AFL. That led to...
7) Australia. In any kind of international competition (Olympics, various World Cups), I root for the Aussies. My paternal grandmother was Australian, and it's the part of my heritage I'm most proud of. The rest of me is German. That's boring. Half the country's got some German in them. But Australian... that's a bit more unique.
8) Tony Stewart. I fought against NASCAR for-fuck*ng-ever. Hicks driving in circles, etc. But all of my friends at work were into it, and I couldn't take part in their conversations without at least some passing knowledge. So I sat down one day and watched a race from beginning to end in earnest, and found myself really, really enjoying it. When I realized I was going to have to support someone, I chose the nummatwunnahoamdeepashevaley for three reasons: a) none of my friends rooted for him, b) he was a known winner - not like choosing to root for some guy that doesn't even qualify half the time, and c) he can be a bit of an entertaining asshole, which appealed to me. Over time, I learned other things that reinforced that I picked the right guy - he drives for Joe Gibbs Racing (see #2), he's left-handed, has a chihuahua for a pet. Damn, we're practically brothers! He's a Colts fan, but you know, no one's perfect.
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I don't follow baseball or basketball. I grew up in AK, so you pretty much pick your own favorite team if you are from there. I got into the Bolts in about 78 or 79, just as they were really ascendant with Dan Fouts, Charlie Joiner, John Jefferson. Then they got Kellen Winslow, and they were just a lot of fun to watch. Red Wings was pretty much just because my brother likes the Blackhawks.
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A's, Forty-Niners, Stealth, Sharks, USA & Aussies in the Olympics - mine are all purely geographic.
Don't like pro Basketball, and college sports are too complex (in terms of organization) and too ephemeral (in terms of talent) for me to develop an interest in any specific team. Maybe if I get around to grad school one of these days.
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Baseball's the only sport I follow religiously and... my association with the Mets is, as is clear from my name and icon, primarily forged by the fact that my hometown had their short-season single-A minor league team from 1977 to 1988... a period of time which included the first nine years of my life.
After that, in football I casually follow the Bills, as an Central New Yorker they were the closest NFL franchise and there's pretty much no other reason than that... they were the easiest team to take a local bus tour to see.
In basketball, I was a very casual Lakers fan as a kid, because I was raised to hate and fear Manhattan and LA seemed like the opposite of that but... I don't follow the NBA much at all.
In hockey, I deeply loved watching minor league hockey in the arena but NHL on television bores the ever living shit out of me... but I suppose I am loosely a Sabres fan by geographic default.
In college sports, where I grew up, you pretty much had to be a Syracuse fan because they were the only major Division-1-A school within a three or four hour drive of Little Falls. I also attended Syracuse and... I casually follow the basketball team but have a love-hate relationship with the football team because they are so mindbendingly terrible.
That's pretty much me in sports: the Mets and then... the resty.
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Yeah, pretty much all geography all the time. Philly teams, Baltimore teams, Washington teams.
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Also Liverpool, because my best friend my freshmen year of college was from England, was a Liverpool fan, and the Fox Sports channel would always play Liverpool game at about 3 or 4 a.m. on Saturday nights/Sunday mornings.
I root for Argentina in International Soccer and I guess U.S. in the Olympics, although it is usually just the coolest person competing in the individual sports.
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My oldest and deepest sports affiliation is University of Kentucky basketball. It's sort of a relgion around here and I grew up in the midst of it. I'm also a Univesity of Louisville basketball fan, ever since 1988 when I matriculated there. I'm also a college basketball fan in general. Today is a big day for me.
I don't like the NBA.
Baseball, I'm a (World Series Champion) St Louis Cardinals fan. This dates back to about 1981 when I started thinking about going to college in St Louis. Before that I was a Reds fan. As a St Louis fan, I am statutorily required to regard the Mets as pond scum. The American league is sort of irrelevant to me.
I like college football, but not as much as the NFL. I follow my alma maters.
I didn't really become much of an NFL fan until about 1991 when I graduated from law school. As I student I'd never much given a shit about it, but I fell for it hard around that time. I am primarily a Miami Dolphins fan. I think this dates back to the early 70's and the perfect record team. Also, I always liked Dan Marino. I hate the goddamn Jets. I've also followed the Rams since they moved to St Louis -- in-laws with season tickets tend to raise one's interest level, I've found.
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I've also followed the Rams since they moved to St Louis -- in-laws with season tickets tend to raise one's interest level, I've found.
How does the souls of the Watermelon Heads taste?
When the Rams left I felt like shit over the NFL for years. The only real allegiance I have is to the Stillers that traces back to the Steel Curtain defense days.
I am a dedicated, long suffering, hopeless, finally (2002 WS) winning Angels fan. Then they shit on that with the new ownership name change. I didn't go to a game last year and I live 20 minutes from the stadium.
Hockey? What?
Basketball: Kobe killed the Lakers for me. Haven't watched a game in 2 years, and I was a fan through the Del Harris years still.
College sports: NNAAAAaaaaaah! If they let me do it it ain't none of 'em that special.
Olympics: Isn't that every 12 years or something?
Car Racing: to quote Dan Jenkins, "Don't got no time for it unless there's a chance of a buncha Frenchmen getting wiped out". (Then only the replays)
Golf: Hit it long, JD. All them other dudes are haircuts on top of empty suits and Foot-Joys.
I really do like sports, but the last couple years if I do have 'em on it's mostly as background while I do something else. My limited free time now goes to shooting, hiking, handloading, coaching Little League and golfing. I guess I've reached a point where doing is more important to me than watching.
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But man, being into the Braves is pretty much the most crap baseball thing imaginable.
Wow. I don't know for certain, but I think I may be the lone Braves fan on these boards. I guess it falls on my shoulders to defend them.
Your journey from this mortal coil shall be hastened by the hand of Dixie! Draw your weapon at once! I demand my Satisfaction!
OK, maybe not like that.
My family lived in Austin until I was six. As with Hernandez, the closest Major League team to us was the Rangers, and since we were from England anyway we didn't really give a shit. We moved to Atlanta in the fall of '92. My very first baseball memory is of Sid Bream sliding home in the NLCS. The following year, the Braves came back from ten games behind the Giants to win their division. Pennant fever was still a relatively new phenomenon in Atlanta, and nobody was really all that used to winning yet. It was an exciting time to be a Braves fan, and I was hooked.
It was a long time ago, back when I was still a but lowly lurker here, but I recall LFM explaining his own rationale for being a Mets fan. Here it is:
Still, here's the thing about being a New York Mets fan. In the Northeast, you can be a Yankees fan, a Mets fan or a Red Sox fan.
To be a Red Sox fan is to be a self-flagellant, enjoying the pain of almost always failing by just an inch... digging on it, making it your personality, the sick pride of always being stepped on and almost feeling betrayed by success because you're not so special anymore.
To be a Yankees fan is to be completely obsessed with being The Best, to the point of not caring to understand any of the minutae of anything, only caring that you're destroying everyone else and... when you're not... being bewildered by it, as though up was down and in was out, to the point where you're asking why God has forsaken you.
And then there's being a Mets fan. The Buddha's Middle Path. Mediocre, just enough to not quite be in the playoff race, most of the time... some of the games are exciting, some are awful, a few stars, a few goats, the whole range of the experience and... every once in a while, every five ten fifteen years, they get it together enough to be the Best or quite near it. And that's nice but you sort of have the full view of the experience because you've spent the last ten years dealing with the depth and breadth of the experience of being So-So.
It's a balanced healthy kinda fan experience.
So, first of all, in the Southeast (at least in Georgia) your choice is basically limited to either being a Braves fan or watching NASCAR. Sure, there are a couple of other teams down in Florida, but something like three-quarters of the fans there are transplants anyway. But to describe my own team's mindset within this continuum...
Well, to be a Braves fan is to expect to win, not in a psychotic victory-at-any-cost way like the Yankees fan, but rather... having faith that in the end you'll manage to pull it off somehow. You won't necessarily dominate, but over the course of 162 games everything will fall into place, with the your own place being at the top, sometimes above other teams that are theoretically better than you. It's a much less useful mentality to have in the playoffs, granted, and most of the time you won't come away with the ultimate prize, but you always have at least a fairly decent shot at it. You know failure enough for the successes to be really meaningful, but at the same time you never resign yourself to losing.
I just read over that and realized that it probably sounds horribly arrogant, but what I'm really trying to describe here is more a sense of healthy optimism. On any given day, in any given season, you know you have a legitimate chance of being the Best, that you can set your sights that high without the gut feeling that you're just deluding yourself. Oftentimes you'll fall short, but even then it's not because you Blew It. It's just the icy, impersonal hand of statistics. You never stop hoping for the best.
As for the Braves-Mets rivalry... I actually kind of like the Mets. I just always, always want them to lose. During the Bobby Valentine Era they were a great team of "bad guys" to root against, with their black uniforms and their designer stubble, and Mike Piazza with his sinister mustache and goatee. I have a genuine distaste for the Yankees, but playing against the Mets was always a bit like playing against Elmer Fudd. I'm sure it helped a lot that we always got the last laugh, but even after last season I can't truthfully say that I hate the Mets. In fact, as crazy as it may sound, my favorite player as a kid was Turk Wendell. That guy was just plain nuts. I loved him. Fortunately he was a middle reliever, so I could root for him to have a good outing and then for the next guy blow it.
They can't sell out LCS games, for fuck's sake. That says it all.
I'm not even going to try to defend this. I am in complete agreement with you about this. It's sickening. However, I will point out that the in spite of their performance on the field last season, the Braves had their highest attendance in four years and set a new single-game attendance record. That's got to at least count for something.
Atlanta isn't a true Baseball Town in the mold of a New York or a St. Louis or a Baltimore, in fact it's only really a decent baseball town because all the other teams that play there suck. I am willing to admit this. But that doesn't mean there are no real die-hard Braves fans, or that the team isn't deserving of a better fan base than they actually have, and in any case that has no bearing on why they are my team. That I became a Braves fan is primarily an accident of geography, but that I have remained one has a lot more to do with the collective team psyche that I've described above. Besides, who else am I going to root for out here in the desert? The Diamondbacks sucked before and now they suck in even uglier uniforms.
Well, they have a bunch of redneck announcers, and perhaps that is what made me dislike them more. (I know some Careys worked there, but they also have the southern redneck always).
Skip Carey is the man! Two of my favorite calls:
"...and as we go to the bottom of the sixth, it's Braves 4, Evildoers 1." (I don't remember the actual score, or the inning, or anything else about the game now. I think it was against the Rockies)
and during a game in Montreal, after an Expos player hit a mammoth home run:
"Deep fly ball into left field... maybe it'll hit a speaker."
TBS has moved him onto just radio broadcasts now, much to my sadness. They're not even covering Braves games exclusively anymore after this season, which for an out-of-state fan sucks ass. The good news is that if I sign up for MLB.TV I will have no remaining incentive to pay for cable and could actually save money.
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So, first of all, in the Southeast (at least in Georgia) your choice is basically limited to either being a Braves fan or watching NASCAR.
If you live in the Southeast, the established team to be a fan of and be respected by baseball fans is to be into the Cincinatti Reds. Many friends of mine from the Southeast are Reds fans because their dads grew up following the Reds on the radio before the Braves came into being and inherited that fandom.
If you live toward the western half of the Southeast, the Cardinals are similarly acceptable.
And... no offense to anyone but I'm gonna have to lay it down that... as a lower-middle-class person from the Northeast, I was raised with the belief that there is no excuse for being into NASCAR. I do my best to be an Open-Minded Sort but... I've never figured out what is fun about watching other people drive cars in circles.
It is probably super fun to BE in NASCAR. To BE driving a car 200 miles an hour for half a day.
But soccer's hell of fun to PLAY and on television, it's like watching two other people play pong.
If anyone has a new explanation, please. Explain to me this NASCAR.
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If anyone has a new explanation, please. Explain to me this NASCAR.
Easy. Men like to argue about who has the better car. By having professional drivers racing stock vehicles men can find out which car is really the fastest (and therefore best) without risking their own lives.
As to the point of races with non-stock cars, I coudln't tell you. I think the jumps and stuff in motorcross are kind of neat, though.
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No no, I get that.
People like arguing about cars. I don't like it but I understand it.
But... actually sitting in a big sweaty stadium or in front of a television for three hours, just flat out watching cars go in circles. This is what I don't get. If people were handed the results of these competitions and enjoyed arguing about it afterwards, I would get it.
But... it's cars... going in circles. And, occasionally, someone dies a horrific and completely unnecessary death. This is all that happens. Cars in circles and the rare avoidable tragedy.
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LFM, I knew there were a lot of Cards fans in Texas, but that's the first I've heard about Reds fans in Georgia. Maybe it's only because I grew up in the Atlanta metro area that I didn't know this.
I am basically of the opinion that all motorsport events should be like Speed Racer. Europeans had it right with their rally courses winding through little alpine villages, at least until it started to go downhill in the '60s when the safety standards improved. On the other hand, they also created the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which as I understand is like NASCAR but for 24 hours straight, so perhaps they don't know quite what they're doing after all.
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my ex's dad liked "watching" NASCAR while taking a nap on the couch.
PS Atlanta is pretty un-Southern pass it on.
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Hotlanta? That whole place is WHACKED
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In fact, as crazy as it may sound, my favorite player as a kid was Turk Wendell. That guy was just plain nuts. I loved him. Fortunately he was a middle reliever, so I could root for him to have a good outing and then for the next guy blow it.
Oh hell yes Turk Wendell. All throwing the rosin bag around like it offended him. All being all kooky. All negotiating his contacts to be full of 9's, and wearing 99. Any weirder, and he would have been cast in Major League.
Turk was a favorite of mine too.
EDIT: Wikipedia claims he wore 99 in honor of Wild Thing Vaughn from Major League. Hot damn.
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Don't forget brushing his teeth every half-inning. And the fuck*ng teeth necklace. It doesn't get any better than that.
Turk was actually drafted by the Braves back in the '80s, but we traded him away while he was still in the minors for Damon Berryhill or some similar foolishness. I didn't find that out until later, though. He had even more quirks as a minor leaguer, like wearing his long-sleeved jersey on hot days and his short-sleeved jersey on cold ones.
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Fuck Turk Wendell. Seriously, FUCK that guy.
In 2001, the Phillies were somewhat unexpectedly contending down the stretch. Then they did one of those things poorly-run teams do in such a situation: they traded away prospects for PVMRs, "Proven Veteran Middle Relievers," namely Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook. Wendell went right out and gave up two game-winning home runs, at least one to his former team, the Mets, leading some Philly fans (who are admittedly insane) to openly question whether he was throwing games to the Mets on purpose. The Phils lost the division by two games, and one could argue that it was Wendell's fault.
Jeez, being a Philadelphia sports fan really blows.
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And the fuck*ng teeth necklace.
Made of the teeth of alligators he killed with his own hands.
Hella classy, for real.