Football, basketball, and the tree

Today we are at home. For every Saturday during the past three months, I have either been working, or we have been off watching some type of sporting event, primarily college football. Today Tony is doing laundry, I vacuumed, the tv is fixed to one of the sports channels, and the Christmas tree is in the process of being trimmed. We watched the Jayhawks win a close one against USC, the Dawgs (the Mark Fox version) won another game to quietly get to 7-2, and now one of the 35 college bowl games is being played. No blog today about a sports trip, just wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful time with family, friends, and football. We'll see you from Arizona in a few weeks...

The year in review...

A friend said I should blog on the different sporting events Tony and I attend. Since we're at the end of the year, and I haven't blogged on our trips as of yet, here is our year in review.

We have attended 9 baseball games (excluding the unofficial spring training game due to inclement weather), 2 NFL games, 3 NBA games (including the All-Star game), 10 college football games, and 2 college basketball games. Here are my best of:

Best City to Visit: Minneapolis, MN. (Even in spite of the Kirby Puckett statue outside Target Field doing a fist pump to win game 6 against the Braves.) It is one of the cleanest cities I have ever visited, and I have to applaud the city's efforts towards being green. The light rail makes traveling to and from the stadium very easy, with the Mall of America at the other end. The SkyWalks are pretty cool. My favorite part of the city? The Spoonbridge and Cherry.


Best Facility: Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX. The House that Jerry built defines Everything is Bigger in Texas. What distinguishes Cowboys Stadium from the rest: the Scoreboard.


Best Fans: Twins fans. Two sold out games against the White Sox. Followed the game throughout and stayed until the end. Outdoor baseball had returned to Minneapolis, and the city was rewarded with another postseason (albeit short).


Best Rookie Moment: Jason Heyward's first at-bat, first swing, first major league home run. 414 feet later into the Braves' bullpen beyond the right center field wall.


Best Game: Another to Minnesota: July 17, 2010. Classic pitching match up between Carl Pavano and Mark Buehrle. Buehrle pitches eight, strikes out three, walks none, three earned runs. Pavano pitches complete game, strikes out six, walks none, two earned runs. Game lasts 1 hour, 52 minutes. Wins out over the Iron Bowl and Game 4 NLDS Braves-Giants because my favorite baseball player will always be Greg Maddux, and these two guys pitched a heck of a game.

Best Team: Auburn Tigers (college football). If I didn't love my husband, I would probably hate this team. And since I do love my husband, I got to watch 6 of their 13 wins this season. They put up 500 yards per game, and regardless of how they may have talked him into attending the school, have the best player in Cameron Newton. All they do is win, win, win no matter what...


Best Moment: I have to take my own bias. On October 11, 2010, the San Francisco Giants beat the Braves 3-2 en route to a World Series Championship. At the end, all Atlanta fans knew was that we had just watched the last game managed by Bobby Cox. Instead of focusing on the loss, we said goodbye with an ovation for the long time coach, and the Giants players joined in with the Atlanta fan base. Just a half-inning earlier, the maligned Brooks Conrad received cheers instead of boos to encourage him in his pinch-hitting at-bat. For a moment, even if just a moment, you saw fans from the South have perspective. A fan from NY said that would've never happened in Yankee Stadium, and besides Atlanta's lone World Series win, it's one of my proudest moments as an Atlanta Braves fan.