Take Me Out: Rockies v. Braves

Let me spell it out for you in case it isn't obvious: I really like baseball. I may even love it, but I'm not ready for that kind of commitment. Because baseball and I are pretty serious, there will be LOTS of baseball related posts and pictures throughout the season. I will try to warn you through blog titles so you can click away if you like, but I hope, like the self-obsessed gal that I am, that you will see how awesome baseball is and heart it, too.


Photo of Matt Holliday (Rockies v. Braves - 4.8.2008)

Opening Day: Rockpile Style

The seats sucked.  The game sucked.  But Coors Field was awesome as usual.  

Lucky Streak

I never win ANYTHING.  Being voted "Most Likely to be a Teen Mom" doesn't count.  And the six tickets I won to a Sawyer Brown concert, which happened rain or shine (f*cking rain!) in 1992 don't count either.  Those guys ROCKED, but if you tell anyone I like country music, I will so not be your friend anymore.   

Since I'm a bit of a loser when it comes to contests, you can imagine how surprised I was to win TWO tickets to tomorrow's Rockies home opener.  Yep, I won despite dialing the radio station's number while navigating rush hour traffic in an area with spotty cell signal.  Sure, I could have crashed my car or - worse - crashed my car and have been caller number sorry-you-didn't-win-this-time.  But neither of those unhappy events came to pass and, tomorrow, I'm going to the game. Go ROCKIES!  

March Madness

It's here! Join Madhubby's NCAA Fantasy Bracket Challenge before game play gets underway. Follow the link, click "Join A Group," and enter the Group ID# 60640 when prompted.  Leave the password field blank as it is a public group.   Register soon because Round 1 starts tomorrow. See you in the tournament!

If you need some assistance completing your bracket, then check out Madhubby's blog for his NCAA picks and advice.    

Enemy of the State

Madhubby felt a little left out of the Christmas posting and bullied me into telling you he got some good Christmas stuff, too. His BoSox sweatshirt was an instant favorite and I can honestly say he has worn it every day since Tuesday.  Yes, it's starting to get a little rank and no, he will not be wearing it to the Rockies home opener.  

My Feelings Exactly

I had little luck with Rockies tickets, today. Madhubby nicely sums up my feelings about the whole ordeal. Rockies management maintains there were "no problems" with ticketing - no problems except for the idiots running the front office.

60 Minutes of My Life That I Will Never Get Back

I'd heard the rumblings:

• Ticket brokers will get all the tickets with their super-fast servers
• Tickets will sell out in twelve minutes
• The Montforts are keeping all the tickets and re-selling them on Ebay

Still, I thought I'll get through. Yeah, I must have been seriously trippin' because tickets are all sold out according to the local media.

I'm so disappointed that I didn't get tickets and I'm also pretty pissed-off at those Red Sox fans who are gloating on craigslist about the bungled online ticket sale and how they now have loads of Coors Field tickets because the Brothers Montfort didn't think to require a zip code/credit card verification - or - I don't know allow only Coloradans to purchase tickets before the rest of the country (like the Broncos do during the playoffs).

Oh, well. It's done. Tickets are sold-out. The Hippie DINKs are hosting a Halloween party on Saturday so that will ease the pain a bit. And, the bright side? I don't have to worry about Madhubby being exposed as a member of the Red Sox Nation amid a crowd of 17,000 Rockies fans.

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**Update - Nearly all the tickets ARE still available. The server just crashed. 8.5 million hits in 90 minutes will do that a site. Right now, tickets sales have been suspended but will resume later. So, we may have a chance. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Rocktober

You may have heard the news: the Colorado Rockies won the NL Pennant. We're going to the World Series! It's unbelievable, but the Rockies are hot right now; we have won 21 of our last 22 games. Now, that the Rox are officially "in," I can cheer on the BoSox because how cool would that be? Madhubby's home town team versus his boyhood team. It couldn't get any better than that.

Clean Sweep - The Rockies Home Edition

The Rockies swept the Phillies last night in the National League Division Series, so it's on to the NLCS and the D-Backs. We can take them. No problem (Ya hear that Arizona? That's 50,000 fans heralding the end of your post season).

The game was a kick in the pants as usual and a tad more enjoyable because the kiddos were home in bed at my mom's house. So it was just Madhubby and I on a date night with fifty-thousand of our buddies. Of course, not everyone was there to watch the game and this home edition goes out to those special brand of fans otherwise known as Fair Weather -

• The DINKAS (Double Income No Kid Assholes): We know you're cool. Your Cole Haan shoes paired with your Diesel jeans and corduroy blazer layered over your vintage Pink Floyd tee shirt tells us so. And, your girlfriend - she's a total man magnet. We know this because your hands were surgically attached to her lovely lady lumps the entire night - when you weren't too busy checking out her friend and downing $7 Coors Lights. Also, I want to personally thank you for blocking the aisle, and the view, every chance you got so everyone could be exposed to your coolness.
  

• The Frat Boys - You guys. We can always count on you for a good time. You're rowdy, drunk and loud at all the wrong times. You crowd us, you try to steal our seats when we go to the bathroom, and you spill your beer on us. We know you do it because you love us. And, don't worry about interrupting our enjoyment of the game with your frequent trips to the beer line. Pissing yourself during the 8th inning is thanks enough.
  

More of the Same

I just realized my posting has been a bit anemic lately. I'm just really swamped like the rest of the mommy blawgers. I promise I'll update as soon as I get a breather. In the meantime, cheer for the Rockies because I really want to go to a World Series game.

Lucky 13th

We're going to the National League Division Series game! The Rockies won 9-8 over the Padres in thirteen thrilling innings. The only thing that makes me happier is that we purchased our tickets to home games #1 and #2 this morning before the play-in game. As of this post, limited single seats are the only tickets left for this weekend's round of games. Gotta love those fair weather fans who waited until the last minute to buy tickets, you know, just in case the Rockies blew it.

Diamond Fever

18 guys with the singular goal of winning. If each does his part, then 9 will leave victorious. That's baseball. And, it is a game I hated until I met my husband.

My earliest memories of baseball are unpleasant snapshots of people crammed into a hot, sticky room, angling for position in front of a console tv, eventually dozing off to the soothing sounds of equally lethargic crowds and dulcet toned announcers. Atlanta was the only baseball team we ever watched. The only team anyone in our small hamlet rooted for aside from the Tide. Endless Sundays and Wednesdays were gobbled up by baseball.

Then I met my husband. A man crazy about all sports who can recite stats with ease and whose knowledge is bigger than a baseball. A pair of tickets to a middle-of-the-week game and I was officially hooked on the baseball. When our family blossomed from two to five, our long days spent at Coors Field, drinking beer and cheering for the home team abruptly ended; the price of ticket prices was just too high for five people.

But with the Rox in the mix for an NL playoff spot, our love of the game prevailed over our budget. Last night at Coors Field was the most fun we've ever had at the game. When Tulo hit a Grand Slam it was amazing and electrifying and just perfect. And we were there. Even if the Rockies don't make the playoffs, we were there as a family - cheering, high-fiving and celebrating the home team.

In the end, I think - nay, hope - that my children's memories of baseball will not be like mine - laden with memories of humid afternoons crowded in front of the tv - but instead will be infused with the overwhelming and crushing love that forty-three thousand fans have for their home team.*


*My college team also won 27-24 over OU. GO BUFFS!

Does Cody Hawkins Have the Stones to Lead the Buffaloes?

I don't think he's got the stones or the talent. Madhubby has the courage to disagree.




**Update: Little Hawk (his new and uber-annoying media nickname) didn't suck! CU won 31-28 in OT.

Labor Day, It's a Holiday

Labor Day weekend in Colorado is SO MUCH FUN. A Taste of Colorado kicks off the weekend with performances by old school rockers, Survivor and Night Ranger. There are street fairs and other community events to attend as well, but the highlight of the weekend for us is the CU-CSU football game (Go BUFFS!).

In-state rivals go head to head at Invesco field for bragging rights. The competition is INTENSE and some of the t-shirts - like the one that says "CSU Always Blows the Game" under a picture of a Buffalo (the CU mascot) getting a beejay from a Ram (the CSU mascot) - are not appropriate attire for Olie's U6 soccer game. I have a G-rated shirt but I pretty much think CSU blows, too.

Fight CU down the field,

CU must win
Fight, fight for victory
CU knows no defeat
We'll roll up a mighty score
Never give in
Shoulder to shoulder
We will fight, fight
Fight, fight, fight!

Sick Daze

The past few days have been a hard fought battle against a nasty infection of some sort that, with each sneeze and cough, propels foul smelling, ochre colored excretions from my body. I'm such a good mom that I've shared my ailment with the rest of the family; Olie and Bubba are also firmly stuck in mucous hell. Contrary to my mother's staunch belief, we did not catch these colds by frolicking naked in the snow. We were wearing hats, mother!

Despite my sick haze, there has been some light: the Colts won (GO Peyton!) as did the Bears (GO Lovie!). I saw some of The Incredibles (for the umpteenth time) and caught up on some "Little House on the Prairie" viewing. You can never have too much conservative God-and-Pa-will-make-it-okay television. It is good family tv if you overlook the obvious things like procreation, birth and death all happen in a one room shack.

Tell me how that works, again? I've got 2400 square feet of house and if my children even think their dad and I might have sex, they're barging into our room demanding food, drink, attention or all three. Ma and Pa were seriously keeping it on the DL. And, Pa? How did he have the energy after working at the mill all day, working on the farm in the evening and being all up in his neighbors' business the rest of the time? Must have been that super sludge Ma was passing off as coffee. They drank that stuff 24/7. Seriously!

Thankfully, the haze is clearing because I am not sure how much more network tv (we are cable-free by choice) or home confinement I can handle. Unfortunately, because Olie is bedridden and Bubba is still blowing neon snot, that pretty much rules out going anyplace where there might be people. So, home is where we are along with the kleenex, the suction thing Bubba hates, and drams of Theraflu and Mucinex.

We Interrupt this Blog

Can we talk television for a minute? Loyal readers know that we are a cable free by choice household. Yes, it is a bit like being child free by choice but with a lot more social stigma ("You don't have HBO? Ohmigod!") and a lot fewer discernible benefits. Being cable free doesn't mean we have more money or more sex. More of both would be good.

Until recently, our lifestyle choice wasn't a problem, but the onset of football season has seriously fucked this up.

Monday Night Football has always been a Primetime staple. Had a bad weekend? No worries, Monday Night Football is on tomorrow. Hate Mondays? Wait...Monday Night Football is on tonight! Hell, hated Sunday's football? Everything will be all good in twenty-four hours. But, no more! Nope, ABC pulled the Primetime plug on Monday Night Football and shuffled it over to their sister station, ESPN, which is fine if you have cable. Which, as you know, we don't!

And, they finally got it right. Al Michaels and John Madden, together. Oh! It can't get any better than that but we don't get to partake in the manna because the doofus' who call Monday night's game are ESPN peeps. And, they suck.

Last night, we got a taste of the nectar because the game was shown on a local channel. And, it was oh so sweet. Except for the appearance by the Desperate Housewives guy. C'mon? Who cares. Women who watch football don't watch Desperate Housewives. We just don't. So, please, no more plumber guy.

Women who watch football just want their network stations to show all the football games, so that we don't have to shell out $200 for the "NFL Package," and we want our men to answer our football related questions, quickly and succinctly, without trying to cop a feel. Low standards. Pretty easy. Neither one of these standards ever gets met but we keep lobbying.

So, please, ABC, think of us frugal women who need their weekly football. While you're enjoying first downs and extra points, penalties and T.O. drama, I'm fending off boob grabs while fighting an internal battle to just relent and give Comcast all our dough. If you put Monday Night Football back on network tv, I could have two exciting things happening at once. And, the boob grabs? Worth every first down.

The Team That Keeps on Sucking

Well, my beloved football team lost again! First, we gave up what should have been an easy win to a 1AA team, then we lost to our in state rivals, and now after losing to ASU there's no disputing it: we suck. We're 0-3.

Amazingly, no couches have yet been burned in protest of the new coach. But, just you wait. If things don't get better, Hawk will be tarred, feathered, and run out of town.

MSU vs. CU (19-10)

Today was a bad day in Boulder. The home team suffered a disappointing loss to 1AA Division Montana State University. We lost to a team that's not even in our division! And we paid them 280k for the honor.

Wait....Do you smell that? It smells like someone's roasting Hawk. Oh...never mind. It's just the Sunday Early Edition.