Friday, September 29, 2006

Finally in Title Town

I'm starting to think this thing might turn around. No, not the blogging thing, though I do realize this is my third post this week (a modern record.)

In my lifetime, I have now seen one of my teams win a title for the second time. You see, all my life, I've supported loser teams.

For example:

The Cleveland Browns. Lost in the AFC Championship three times in the 80s. Haven't won a title since 1964, two years before the Super Bowl was invented. "The Drive" and "The Fumble" both happened during my happy childhood. They moved to Baltimore in 1995 and since returning in 1999 as an expansion team things have been really ugly.

The Cleveland Indians. Lost in the World Series in 1995 to the Braves and in 1997 to an absurd blown save and extra inning choke job in Game 7 to the Marlins. Before the turn around in 1993 and 1994, the Tribe was THE joke of the league. They mired in futility for the better part of 5 decades, last winning a penant in 1954 (before Willie Mays made "the catch" and the Giants swept us) and only winning World Series titles in 1920 and 1948.

The Cleveland Cavaliers. I was never a fan per say, but they weremy home town team. They were crushed over and over my the Pistons and the Bulls when they had their "great" teams in the 1980s. Never been past the second round of the playoffs. "The Shot." Need I say more? When I finally jumped ship (Jerry Reinsdorf and the Bulls starting giving me money) they landed King James, or as most Clevelanders would have you believe, the second coming of Christ. Just my luck.

The Chicago Bulls. Sure. Six titles in my lifetime, but none since I've supported them. In the 2 1/2 years I worked at the house that Michael built, they had a combined record of 53-111. Yikes. I leave and what happens? 88-76 over the next two seasons and two playoff berths.

The Buffalo Sabres. My first hockey team due to some family in the area. In 1999 Brett Hull had his damn skate in the crease. Everyone saw it but the referees. Fucking cheater.

The St. Louis Blues. My new number one hockey team since about the same time the Sabres blew it. This was admittedly my only real fair-weathered move, but one that was made at a time when I was deeply in love with a St. Louisian. I broke every man-law imaginable and adopted two of her teams. One, the Blues, as my number one NHL team. The other, the St. Louis Cardinals, as my second baseball team. More on that in a second. Either way, the Blues 26-year run of consecutive playoff appearances broke last season. This team has never won a championship despite being one of the perenial favorites in the West from 1999-2003. Best record in the league in 2001 and a first round playoff exit followed to the 8th seeded San Jose Sharks.

The St. Louis Cardinals. Okay, I'm not a Cardinals FAN, so don't jump on me. I'm a firm believer that you can only be a fan of ONE TEAM PER SPORT. It's a rule. Of all the teams in the National League however, I've always kinda followed them. Even as a kid I loved collecting the Donrus cards with the Stan Musial puzzle. I'm a bit conflicted though since I've been living in Wrigleyville for the past 4+ years.

The Chicago Cubs. Since I've lived just blocks from the friendly confines I was lucky enough to be in the bleachers for Mark Prior's first start in the bigs, the first Yankees series at Wrigley since Babe Ruth the double-header that clinched the division in 2003 and a couple of playoff games that season. Then they wet the bed in the NLCS against the Marlins and have been extremely shitty ever since. Again, not a fan, but I'll support them while I'm here because it's fun to be in that park (most of the time) and there are typically hot, young, drunk girls walking around. What can I say? I'm a guy. Sue me.

The Columbus Crew. My first MLS franchise. Cheered for them from 1996-2000 and love Brian McBride. McBride and the Crew's first goalie, Brad Friedel, are two of my three favorite American soccer players of all time (Eric Wynalda is the other.) They generally stunk it up and always blew the conference title to D.C. United.

D.C. United. I jumped off the Crew's ship for an internship and move to our nation's capital in the summer of 2001 and continued to follow the team for another couple years. They were awful during those couple years after winning titles in 1996, 1997, 1999 and then they won again after I dropped them in 2004.

THEN, FINALLY, in 2002, I finally realized one of my dreams, getting to watch The Ohio State University Buckeyes win the BCS National Championship over Miami (FL) in the Fiesta Bowl. Before that, under John Cooper's watch we kept getting our title hopes crushed by That School Up North and then we'd get slapped around in a bowl game.

But in my professional sports marketing career, I hadn't even come close. I've seen friends get championship rings with D.C. United, the Chicago White Sox, even the Chicago Rush (Arena Football.) Myself? A last placed D.C. United squad, some of the worst seasons in recent memory for Miami Redhawks football, basketball, hockey and baseball (when I worked for the Athletic Department,) the Bulls teams I mentioned earlier and then the Chicago Fire started off miserably this year in a brand new stadium.

Then? Well, then we hosted the All-Star Game and immediately caught on Fire (pardon the pun.) We lost our first game after the break, but have since gone 11-1-1 over all competitions, culminating with a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday in the U.S. Open Cup Championship. So after just five short years, I've won a title. So exciting.

I woke up sick as hell and got permission to come in a little late. Upon my arrival, my boss said that I didn't have to be here if I didn't want to be. I said, "Are you kidding? We're going to win the Dewar Cup tonight? You think I'm going to miss that?"

I suffered through the day, doped up on Day-Quill and then when the gates opened I was bus getting my Army Color Guard ready to go and anxiously awaiting the arrival of KTO and G-Love. My buddy Kevin and his little brother actually arrived first and I sat down with them for a few minutes and watched the Fire jump out to an early 1-0 lead in the first 10 minutes. Then I went up to make sure all of my suite holders were good to go for the night, stopped by to see my friend Dave from J. Crew who was in one of the suites being catered by AEG (our ownership group) to Time Out Chicago, a local magazine.

The Fire led 2-0 at the break, and I knew it was going to be a little chilly with my slight fever, but I braved the elements and went down to visit the girls and my buddy Kevin in the second half. G-Love was freezing too, but she definitely looked cute with her little Miami soccer hoodie. Man do I miss those days sometimes.

We had a good time, the Fire won it 3-1, putting the nail in the coffin with just a couple of minutes remaining. Landon Donovan cried like a little school girl most of the night and Chris Albright took a shot right to the face and dropped like a sack of rocks. The trophy presentation was pretty emotional when our captain, Chris Armas, came out to hoist the trophy (he was serving a red-card suspension for this match.)

Afterwards, everyone went up to the stadium club and we had about 500-600 people packed in there. What a party! I had a couple too many drinks with my cold medicine giving me an extra buzz. G-Love and KTO took off early since G had to train for the Columbus marathon at 5:30 the next morning. I stuck around and hitched a ride home with my friend Fergie, our new graphics design chick. Yes, I know she isn't THE Fergie, but the more the merrier, right?

Looking back on it now, I think I was right. I pulled a Hutch and had built G-Love up WAY TOO HIGH in my head. She's definitely cute and certainly my type, but she's not someone that I'd be crushed if I never got to date.

So here I am, working for a championship team. And we're not done yet, our pursuit of the "double" continues as we can lock up the #2 seed in the East as early as this Sunday. Nobody wants to play us right now, especially D.C. United, who we've beaten in 2 straight. They've been so frustrated that in the last two matches they've taken three red-cards. Unreal.

Alright, I think that's a long enough post today. To sum it up....I get a ring, G-Love is cuter than I remember, but I'm not hung up on her anymore, Hutch is still gay despite finding a girl that will put up with his gayness, and did I mention that in just a few short months, I'll be getting a FREAKING CHAMPIONSHIP RING!!??

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

perfect timing

Felt like absolute hell yesterday, went home around 2:00 and then came in late this morning. It figures I would get sick and look like shit when I finally get to hang out with Katie tonight.

In other news....today is the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final between the Chicago Fire and the Los Angeles Galaxy, live from Bridgeview, Illinois at 7:00 PM CT.

Tune in via Fox Soccer Channel if you'd like to watch us continue our recent run of good form and stomp Landon Donovan and the little fairy boys from L.A. And if you'd like to come out to the game, tickets are still available.

And how about T.O.? Did he really try to kill himself last night? WOW. That's something I never would have imagined. I know everyone is really down on this guy over the past two years, but suicide is no laughing matter. For those that think he just did this as a publicity stunt, I'm sorry, I just don't see it.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

G-Love and Special Sauce

Two posts in two days. Surprised?

For anyone that is curious about Hutch's new GF (or whatever you want to call her) I can confirm the stories. I have been hearing about her non-stop and he keeps following me around the house going, "I think I have a girlfriend. I think she's my girlfriend." He's like a little kid sometimes.

I also met her a couple of weeks ago I must say that I was quite impressed, very cute. Kudos Hutch, don't screw it up like you always do.

As for me, I don't know what I'm doing. After Amy and I split up I haven't really thought about dating anyone seriously at all because I just don't have time for it. However, tomorrow night at our U.S. Open Cup Final I have a couple of friends attending the game. One of which, we'll call G-Love, I've had a crush on for YEARS...dating all the way back to college. Yes, I know I was completely taken in college (not always physically, but CLEARLY always mentally.) Didn't really matter though. Nothing would have happened because I wasn't too sure that G-Love actually knew my name.

G was on the women's club soccer team and was a friend of some of my good soccer friends in the Miami world. I officiated a few of the club team's games and attended many others because I was friends with some of the girls and their boyfriends. Fast forward to July when I found out that G is living in Chicago from a mutual friend who we'll call KTO.

KTO and I worked in the Athletic Department offices together when we were at Miami and she now works for the catering company that controls TOYOTA PARK. She doesn't work here, she works on NASCAR, which sounds like fun (lots of travel.) Before we moved our offices into the stadium though, we were in the same building at the top of the Mag' Mile. Anywho...KTO and I somehow brought up G-Love's name when we were hanging in the stadium club after one of our international matches this year. I told her I had the biggest crush on G in college and she immediately thought, yeah, you guys would actually work together.

KTO brought it up with G-Love and turns out, she DOES remember me. She agreed to hang out some time, but to this point, nothing has happened due to both of us having insane schedules. Then things got messed up when I found out that she started seeing some guy....though KTO assured me that it wouldn't last. So, finally, I have them coming to the game tomorrow night and even secured extra passes for them to attend the after party in the stadium club after we win the title.

She is TOTALLY my type though. 5'5", brown hair, Miami girl, athletic (runs marathons,) soccer player, she's an actuary scientist (so she may be as anal retentive as I am.) In fact, her only flaw seems to be that she is from Cincinnati, meaning I may have to put up with Bengals and Reds homerism. Can't be as bad as listening to the Gongola's though. So anyways, we'll see what happens....if nothing else, I'm glad I'll finally get to hang out with her a bit. It's like I have this idea of her built up in my head about how she's perfect for me....mainly because KTO said she was perfect for me. Now I'm sitting around waiting to hang out with her so I can find something wrong with her and let the bubble burst.

Fuck. Do I sound like Hutch right now or what?

Monday, September 25, 2006

A Real Post

Sorry Fitz, I actually had another post about half written that day and never got around to posting it. Now it's irrelevant.

Since last I wrote, and even previous to that, there have been a lot of changes in my life. I'm not sure if everyone out there in Blog-Land knows, but Amy (formerly known as Iowa) and I broke up a couple of months ago. It was a tough decision to make, but one that I think will ultimately be much better for her. With my career going in the direction that it is, I just don't really have the time to dedicate to a relationship right now, no matter how hard I try. I miss her, though. I miss having her around and supporting me even though I really never did a good job of supporting her. If any of you run into her, as Dave did on the "el" recently, I hope you can have a normal conversation with her. She is a great girl....

Let's see, what else? The Chicago Fire are ON FIRE! (No cliche there at all, huh?) Over our past 13 matches we are 10-1-2 including both the US Open Cup and regular season MLS matches. We are the hottest team in the league, clinched a playoff spot with a home win on Saturday against L.A. and have won 2 straight over D.C. United, the only team in the league with a better record than us thus far. Wednesday night we play in the US Open Cup Championship gam (AT HOME!!) against the LA Galaxy. We're all excited for a chance to win a trophy and hope that we might get two this year.

The Buckeyes are number 1!! That's right. The post that I never finished was a nice little piece after the big win against Texas down in Austin, but we've played two games since then....so some of it doesn't make much sense. Here's the deal on the Buckeyes though, just so everyone is clear. Even though we aren't killing people every week, we ARE the unquestioned best team in college football right now. Yes, the offense sometimes has trouble getting rolling even though we have more firepower than the United States Armed Forces. But notice how many players get into games, early, under the good ole sweater vest. The bottom line is that we win. Even though there are only two returning starters on defense, we win with defense. They're fast, the front four are better than last year's version and we hit hard. Go Bucks.

I'm sorry I couldn't make it to Oxford for Pi Kapp's 10-year a couple of weeks ago. Seeing everyone's pictures and hearing the stories just haven't been good enough. I wish I could've gone. It was my biggest game of the year here though, we beat D.C. United 1-0 and it was one of my large group initiatives that day, Armed Forces Appreciation Day. Too bad, I would have loved to get wasted and hit on college girls with you.

Alright, with that...I am going to take off here and get some work done. I hope everyone is well and I think I'm going to have some more time to post now that we only have 3 home games remaining. Yea Gods.

Monday, September 11, 2006

And the hits just keep on coming....

Another of the Browns' big offseason additions goes down. Fun.