The NFL Draft takes place this weekend, and it's the rare sports events that divides sports fans. For some, it's as if not more exciting than a game. Others join the general public in thinking, "Could anything possibly be more boring?" It's sort of like sushi, either you love it or you don't get it—at all.
Sad to admit. I love it. I watch it all day long in small doses, and that's only because I don't want to get caught watching it non-stop. If I could, I have it on from start to finish. True, I like to do other things while I'm watching but I love to watch. Can't say I know exactly what the appeal it, but it's something about hope. It's a day that's filled with nothing but possibility, and that's very encouraging.
Still, I don't know that I would ever want to go watch it live. Those people who sit in the stands all day and cheer are a degree of sick beyond me. I'll admit, as much as I enjoy the draft, it didn't even come close to making my list of 10 Things All Sports Fans Should Do. Maybe if there's sequel??
What am hoping for my Giants this year? I'd like to see them take a left tackle if there's a good one available, maybe Staley from Central Michigan or Ugoh from Arkansas. They need linebackers too, but those guys are more plentiful and they tend to come and go. You can keep a good left tackle for 10 or 15 years and build a team around him. My boys at SI have them going another way in their mock draft but I'm holding out hope.
No matter who the Giants pick, for at least one day, everything about the team will be filled with possibility.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
10 Things I Love About the Masters
No Augusta for me this year, and here are few of the things I'm missing...
10. The Tree—The huge oak behind the clubhouse where everyone who is anyone gathers is a neverending spectacle.
9. The marshalls—These fairway guardians are tuned out in white jumpsuits and yellow hard hats that have the number of hole they guard painted on the side in Master green. Hilarious.
8. Washington Rd.—Honky Tonk strip of roadway right outside Augusta National is the perfect antidote the club's notorious stuffiness.
7. The Media Center—Amphitheater with a live leaderboard and a wall of TVs with video feeds of every hole on the back nine.
6. The Chow—Peach Cobbler in the clubhouse, pulled-pork sammys, Krispy Kremes (gratis in the Media Center), sublime.
5. Driving Range—No matter how many times you've seen it, still amazing to watch a pro effortlessly pound balls to the horizon.
4. 16th Hole—During practice rounds rowdy fans convince players to try to skip the ball across the pond; rollicking.
3. The smell—Fresh cut grass, pine needles, an undercurrent of suntan lotion.
2. The roar—When something big happens that explosion of applause ricochets through the trees, instant adrenaline follows.
1. The Azeleas and Dogwoods—No words necessary.
10. The Tree—The huge oak behind the clubhouse where everyone who is anyone gathers is a neverending spectacle.
9. The marshalls—These fairway guardians are tuned out in white jumpsuits and yellow hard hats that have the number of hole they guard painted on the side in Master green. Hilarious.
8. Washington Rd.—Honky Tonk strip of roadway right outside Augusta National is the perfect antidote the club's notorious stuffiness.
7. The Media Center—Amphitheater with a live leaderboard and a wall of TVs with video feeds of every hole on the back nine.
6. The Chow—Peach Cobbler in the clubhouse, pulled-pork sammys, Krispy Kremes (gratis in the Media Center), sublime.
5. Driving Range—No matter how many times you've seen it, still amazing to watch a pro effortlessly pound balls to the horizon.
4. 16th Hole—During practice rounds rowdy fans convince players to try to skip the ball across the pond; rollicking.
3. The smell—Fresh cut grass, pine needles, an undercurrent of suntan lotion.
2. The roar—When something big happens that explosion of applause ricochets through the trees, instant adrenaline follows.
1. The Azeleas and Dogwoods—No words necessary.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Fanatic on Golf.com
With the Masters upon us, the good folks at Golf.com have posted a long excerpt from Chapter 4. Click here to check it out.
Monday, March 26, 2007
An Excerpt
With the Final Four upon us I decided to share a few paragraphs from Chapter Four. Hope you enjoy.
"Under a perfect blue sky, crowds of revelers jam Laclede's Landing, St. Louis's cobblestoned version of the French Quarter. There is no want for local color—among the jugglers, street performers on stilts, and music blaring from the DJ booth situated at the main intersection flow streams of Carolina Blue, Louisville red, Michigan State green, and Illinois orange—especially Illinois orange. The Mississippi sluices by in the background but the aura of frivolity in the early spring air floats on a different liquid: beer. This is, after all, the home of Anheuser-Busch.
As I walk among these people, I study their faces. I'm looking for someone in particular. Someone of the right age and type who seems approachable. I'm still on a high from Daytona. I had such a good time with my hosts that I'm now testing a theory that what makes these iconic events stand apart is not just the magnitude of the game, but the company you keep during it.
Ideally, Villanova would have made the Final Four, and I could have hooked up with my old college buddies and finally had the experience we missed 20 years ago. It almost worked out, as Nova made it to the Sweet 16 without their best player before losing by one point to the eventual champions. With Nova out of the mix, so was my old gang. The next best option was to hook up with students from one of the schools that did make it: North Carolina, Michigan State, Louisville and Illinois. I would, in essence, embed myself among them. These people would be my troops. I would share in their joy, call them by their nicknames, high-five them after dunks, hit on their girlfriends..."
"Under a perfect blue sky, crowds of revelers jam Laclede's Landing, St. Louis's cobblestoned version of the French Quarter. There is no want for local color—among the jugglers, street performers on stilts, and music blaring from the DJ booth situated at the main intersection flow streams of Carolina Blue, Louisville red, Michigan State green, and Illinois orange—especially Illinois orange. The Mississippi sluices by in the background but the aura of frivolity in the early spring air floats on a different liquid: beer. This is, after all, the home of Anheuser-Busch.
As I walk among these people, I study their faces. I'm looking for someone in particular. Someone of the right age and type who seems approachable. I'm still on a high from Daytona. I had such a good time with my hosts that I'm now testing a theory that what makes these iconic events stand apart is not just the magnitude of the game, but the company you keep during it.
Ideally, Villanova would have made the Final Four, and I could have hooked up with my old college buddies and finally had the experience we missed 20 years ago. It almost worked out, as Nova made it to the Sweet 16 without their best player before losing by one point to the eventual champions. With Nova out of the mix, so was my old gang. The next best option was to hook up with students from one of the schools that did make it: North Carolina, Michigan State, Louisville and Illinois. I would, in essence, embed myself among them. These people would be my troops. I would share in their joy, call them by their nicknames, high-five them after dunks, hit on their girlfriends..."
Friday, March 23, 2007
An Actual Review
Sorry for the lapse, but it was a crushing week getting out our Masters preview issue. Here's the first real review of the book, from the 3/19 issue of Publisher's Weekly.
All true obsessives, whatever their object of adoration, love making lists. It's a way of trying to organize (or at least make sense of) the sprawling, life-controlling nature of their obsession. Sports Illustrated editor Gorant, being the kind of self-described "idiot" who has spent far too much of his life watching televised sports (any kind, "the more obscure, in some ways, the better") took his particular list and made it into a book. If Gorant's genial account of attending the 10 ultimate sporting events seems at times like little more than an excuse to get out of the office and make random alcohol-based friendships with assorted strangers, so much the better. As an exercise in vicarious frivolous fandom, Gorant's year-plus-long odyssey—he starts at the Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl in February 2005 and ends with Fenway Park's Opening Day on April 11, 2006—is serenely satisfying reading in the manner of a lengthy magazine article. Gorant's selection trends toward the obvious (a Packers game at Lambeau, the Masters, the Daytona 500) and the decision to include only one non-American event (Wimbledon) comes off as a little lazy. All that to the side, Gorant brings a fresh and appreciative eye to each event, whether it's the days spent lazing around an RV at the Daytona 500 with a self-described "family" of NASCAR fans or discovering how a relaxed afternoon game at Wrigley "could be all the romance a man needs."
Not exactly back flips, but "serenely satisfying" and "a fresh and appreciative eye" work for me.
All true obsessives, whatever their object of adoration, love making lists. It's a way of trying to organize (or at least make sense of) the sprawling, life-controlling nature of their obsession. Sports Illustrated editor Gorant, being the kind of self-described "idiot" who has spent far too much of his life watching televised sports (any kind, "the more obscure, in some ways, the better") took his particular list and made it into a book. If Gorant's genial account of attending the 10 ultimate sporting events seems at times like little more than an excuse to get out of the office and make random alcohol-based friendships with assorted strangers, so much the better. As an exercise in vicarious frivolous fandom, Gorant's year-plus-long odyssey—he starts at the Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl in February 2005 and ends with Fenway Park's Opening Day on April 11, 2006—is serenely satisfying reading in the manner of a lengthy magazine article. Gorant's selection trends toward the obvious (a Packers game at Lambeau, the Masters, the Daytona 500) and the decision to include only one non-American event (Wimbledon) comes off as a little lazy. All that to the side, Gorant brings a fresh and appreciative eye to each event, whether it's the days spent lazing around an RV at the Daytona 500 with a self-described "family" of NASCAR fans or discovering how a relaxed afternoon game at Wrigley "could be all the romance a man needs."
Not exactly back flips, but "serenely satisfying" and "a fresh and appreciative eye" work for me.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Net Working It
You may have noticed the nifty new Blog Roll (that's net speak for list of other blogs) in the right margin. As the clever headline indicates, they're all related to the the 10 Things and after reading a lot of bad writing I can also tell you they're some of the best out there on their chosen subject. Some of them, like Goat Riders of the Apocalypse, are worth checking out just because the name is so damn funny. And if you don't know why it's funny check out the Wrigley site, which is entirely devoted to the Cubs Curse. Must say I'm not a big Curt Schilling fan, but his blog is one of the best by a pro athlete I've ever read. Of course, you'll notice I also threw some Nova hoops in there for my own enjoyment. Hopefully yours too. Here's the important part: If a bunch of you click onto these sites from my site, those guys will take notice (with any luck) and link back to me. Then their readers will start to read my blog too. Now, we're really spreading the word. That's what we call "viral" marketing when we're trying to sound smart at cocktail parties. Good luck, click with abandon, and...let's be careful out there.
Monday, March 12, 2007
My Ship's Come In
Spoke to the publisher on Friday and they told me that although the official publication date is June 4, the ship date for the book is May 2. That's when the big trucks will back up to the printer and start hauling Fanatic off to book stores. So, now you know when to start sleeping out at the local Barnes & Noble.
On another note, one of the Top 10 events was the Final Four, and now that Selection Sunday has passed and March Madness is officially underway, it's time to talk a little college hoops. Villanova plays Friday night at 9:30 against Kentucky, so set your Tivo and stock up on hot wings. I know one thing, the Wildcats will win. How many times will that joke be made this week? (Weber St., also the Wildcats, is in the same bracket)
Bit of a rebuilding year for Nova, so it's great that they made The Big Dance. Seemed like they deserved better than a 9 seed, but the only thing to do about that is go and win some games. Plus, it gives all the bloggers and internet chat rooms something to whine about. To hear some of that whining, or read more about the Cats check out letsgonova or villanova viewpoint.
On another note, one of the Top 10 events was the Final Four, and now that Selection Sunday has passed and March Madness is officially underway, it's time to talk a little college hoops. Villanova plays Friday night at 9:30 against Kentucky, so set your Tivo and stock up on hot wings. I know one thing, the Wildcats will win. How many times will that joke be made this week? (Weber St., also the Wildcats, is in the same bracket)
Bit of a rebuilding year for Nova, so it's great that they made The Big Dance. Seemed like they deserved better than a 9 seed, but the only thing to do about that is go and win some games. Plus, it gives all the bloggers and internet chat rooms something to whine about. To hear some of that whining, or read more about the Cats check out letsgonova or villanova viewpoint.
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