Off-Topic Forum

Doc, your experience with the Panthers was about the same as mine. The Panthers got clobbered, something like 31-3 for the final score. But it was late in the season (about a week before Christmas) and most of the main starters on offense were injured. Starting QB, RB and #1 WR were all out and the team had no shot at the playoffs. Walking up the stairs to the nosebleed section was exhausting (even though I was 28 then and very healthy). I only got to go b/c I won 2 tickets from a contest Outback Steakhouse had. The face value on those nosebleed tix was $48/each and now the same seats are $85+. Thanks to Outback though b/c I got to go to the game and also got a $25 Gift Certificate to Outback that I used to pay for myself and my Grandfather on his Birthday the following April. I'd LOVE to go back to the stadium now to see all the upgrades they made the past 2-3 years. I've heard that they replaced the stairs with escalators and even added some elevators. My main problem is that I don't want to sit that high again. I'd rather watch from my couch where I can rewind a play or fast-forward thru commercials AND I don't have to spend $8 for a single beer. Plus, I don't have to spend 2 hours driving there and twice that long getting back home. Where I would settle for sitting in the stadium costs a minimum of $110/ticket. That's almost 3x the price of a ticket to the NASCAR race @ Martinsville. I'd love to go to a race in Charlotte too, but their prices are way too high and the races are all at night. I'd have to get a hotel or start driving home after midnight.

As for the Hornets/Bobcats, I wish I had gone to a game when the original Hornets were in Charlotte (especially in the days of Alonzo, LJ and Muggsy)! After the team moved to NO, I completely stopped caring about NBA and focused on NCAA for my basketball fix. I refused to go to a game when the Bobcats started and I still won't go to a "new" Hornets game until they can consistently win games. Or at least put together a consistent team. That team has more turnover every year than a grocery store hiring high school kids to run cash registers during the summer!

I do like minor-league baseball though. Especially when you watch a player live and a few years later he is on TV playing in the MLB. I got to see several future-MLB players and some possible HOFers when they were still teenagers. Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez both played for my hometown team right after they were drafted and I saw them play in-person. Derek Jeter played for the next closest MiLB team to me before going to the MLB, but I didn't get to see him play there b/c his stint with the team was very brief. I prefer to see baseball without the DH too, but it doesn't bother me as much as it did when I was younger. Why not let someone with old legs but a powerful swing get a chance to continue playing? In the NL, they just move that guy to 1st Base and let him bat clean-up.

If you are ever in St. Louis, go to a game there! You'll be staying in a hotel anyway and all the hotels have parking garages. You can walk to the game or take the Metro bus for $2 right to the stadium. When I went, we were in a hotel about 6 blocks from the stadium. We parked in the hotel garage and never used the car again until we left the city 7 days later. We walked everywhere. A short stroll in any direction can get you to food or something fun to do. We even walked 17 blocks (one-way) to the mall at the train station! That was me and my sister with her two children (both under 6 years old). We did use the Metro Bus once to get us to a Kids Museum that was farther away than the train station and bring us back to the hotel. Two dollars for the day!

It appears to me that I am rambling. I will wrap this up by saying that I'd love to go to a dirt-track race at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem. Something so close but I still haven't had the opportunity to do yet.

The Bears to keep losing .......... I have never heard such rubbish!! =P

I use to love going to Martinsville when I lived down there. We would end up going to seven or eight races each year, but Martinsville was always my favorite. And they never raised there prices like the other tracks did.

Monday, September 11th - Kansas City Royals vs Chicago White Sox in KC. The Royals got clobbered. My son and I try to drive over and see a game every year. Then I was watching the Cardinals vs the Reds on Tuesday night. This time the Cards whomped the Reds. Friends invited my wife and I to see the game with them. My first ever experience of sitting in "Green Seats" at Busch stadium. Free food and drinks included with the seats. A great buffet dinner before the game, again included in the ticket price ($366). I also saw Ozzie Smith at the bar.  Front row seats, directly behind the Cards batting circle. I was about 6 feet from the players while they waited to walk up and bat. It was nice to see how the 1% get to experience a sporting event. Fun time, but back-back nights made for a long week at work.

I only went because an old friend of mine from Virgina had bought tickets because he's a Dolphins fan. He came down and stayed at my place in Albemarle at the time. I had to work the night before and wasn't able to sleep that day because I had so much to do. I also drove us, and everywhere we went, even at Applebees in Albemarle there were tons of folks wearing Dolphin jerseys. They didn't have any home-field advantage. The seats were nosebleed, about 12 rows from the top. Had to watch the Trinitron to see the ball. A play-action play always looked like a run to me. Jake Delhomme had a bad day, folks around us kept yelling "Throw to us, Jake!" And he did a few times. I still drank then, but only had 1 beer. Not so much for the price, but because I wasn't going to stand 12 deep in line to take a leak. Was eyeing the trashcan the one time I did because I was busting. Walking back the 8 blocks to the parking garage had to go again, but there was only one port-a-john at the end of an alley, wasn't going down it. Parking garage didn't have a bathroom either, so ended up going in a corner there. That's another gripe, getting all these people in one place, pumping greasy food and booze in them, and no place to go. Can't hold it in like I could when I was younger.

The whole Hornets thing still bugs me. Shinn and that asshat Woolridge wanted a new stadium. There was nothing wrong with it. Not enough luxury boxes, so they made it look like attendance was way down. Several bonehead trades, the Shinn rape case, his standing was tarnished. It was completely wrong to turn around the very next year and award another team to Charlotte, after letting him move the Hornets.There's more, but trying not to think about it. Those teams were great, Dell Curry, Muggsy, Zo, LJ, a lot of great guys came through. Even later when Geiger, Parrish, and Campbell, still good teams. Bobby Phills was player of the game one game I went to, really was a great player and guy. Shame he had that car wreck, racing against Wesley uptown and died. Even Anthony Mason was fun to watch, he brought leadership, and drive to some mediocre teams, even being there in a cast for every huddle, though he was out injured. Don't see stuff like that often, or notice it on TV. Also got to see Bird while he coached the Pacers, think that was the last time I went. .MJ is never going to put together a winning team unless it's simply luck. He's a businessman first, his winning will be at the bank, he would never pay the kind of money he got to retain talent, or to a worthy FA. But I'll still go if I get free tickets. Wouldn't mind seeing what the new place looks like.

The closest I'll come to ever supporting a game with the DH in place is if it's a team I'm into is in an AL park in the WS. Then it'll still be a distraction. I've studied MLB rule 5.11 quite a bit over the years, it's worse than a travesty or abomination. It breaks the very foundation of baseball's rules, a game of nine. 9 play the field, that same 9 bat. I've heard all the arguments for it, pitchers can't bat, they'll get hurt, it extends the careers of aging superstars, gives a star a day off. It's for simple-minded, short attention span, instant gratification fans who only want to see HRs. The debate has increased with daily interleague games. I want it gone as it's permeated baseball even in lower levels to the point it's not just for the P anymore. Some change is good, but tradition is a good thing too. I'll be completely done with baseball should it come to the NL.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Cardinals, that was the first team I liked when I was about 4 or 5. Recall having a pair of sneakers that had them on it. One had "home" and the other "run" on the toes, might've been an attempt to make me learn left from right.

Where I'm at now in Lancaster, SC has a local dirt track. Been a few times, end up eating a lot of red dirt. Be in places didn't think it could get, a shower after is a must. Rambling is good, wish I could continue myself.