Thursday, April 26, 2012

New York sports fan dilemma tonight...

If you're a New York sports fan, tonight is the night - the good news is, the Yankees are off and the Mets are playing this afternoon. The bad news is, you could be in a bit of a quandry - tonight at 8 p.m. the Knicks play their final game of the regular season and an hour earlier, the Rangers begin Game 7 against the Ottawa Senators to move on to the next round of the NHL playoffs. The Knicks already have a playoff spot, so I suppose the game tonight is not must-see-TV unless you're a super hardcore basketball fan - I guess that's also when a DVR comes in handy, if you're able to avoid commercials and Facebook status updates and tweets until you get a chance to watch the game yourself.

I think I might personally be checking out the Rangers game - Game 7 is do-or-die and though I'm not a hockey fan, I am a New York fan and I would love to get the chance to watch them play in the next round. They say New York doesn't get to see two sports champions in the same season and the Giants won the Super Bowl this year, which doesn't bode well for either the Rangers or the Knicks (though technically, the Super Bowl this year was for the 2011 season). We can still hope, though...everyone else already hates New Yorkers, we might as well give them a reason by winning everything! ;)

On another sports fan note, the boyfriend has really gotten into soccer lately and so we've been watching some of that - apparently there's some kind of Cup playoff going on in Europe right now...he's tried explaining it to me but I'm still not really understanding it. All I know is that Real Madrid and Barcelona are considered the top two teams - unfortunately, the boyfriend's adopted team of Barcelona was knocked out by Chelsea (I think). I'm sure we'll be watching more of those happenings, so as I understand more, I'll write more. But whatever your sport of choice, "root, root, root for the home team..."!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

2012 inaugural trip to Yankee Stadium April 18

We're in the middle of a drought but of course it rained the day the boyfriend and I went to Yankee Stadium last week. I guess it could have been worse, whether it rained harder or was windier or colder.

Of course, it also could've been better - the Yankees could've beat the Twins and actually won the game. We got to the stadium halfway through the first inning and the score was already 0-4. Not cool, man. But it was fun anyway. We were sitting toward the front of the terrace level along the first base line, just into right field. It's amazing how much of a difference there is between how far away the grandstand feels and sitting just one level below.

But I love going to a game - I love eating Nathan's hotdogs and drinking a $12 beer (though I don't like paying for that beer!) and feeling the stadium shake and hearing everyone screaming and cheering. Plus, I got to see my baseball boyfriend, Joe Mauer, so that always makes for a good night! ;)

At least the Yanks have done better since then - the Red Sox are a mess right now and last night the Yanks actually beat the Texas Rangers, who have been on a roll so far this season. But what drives me nuts is that we're not even out of the first month and experts and fans are already lamenting whose season is over and what teams are done and whose going to win this whole thing. Really? When the Orioles are in first place, you know it's too early in the season - you gotta let things shake out still.

Anyway, this was the Twins' only trip to town this season but I'd like to get to a day game in the summer - those are my favorite baseball games. You can get some sun and make some friends, and it's not after midnight when you finally get home (unless, of course, it's a Yankees-Red Sox all-day marathon!)

New York takes on the Rangers again tonight - let's go, Yanks!

Yankee Stadium, April 18, 2012, versus the Minnesota Twins



Friday, April 13, 2012

New York Yankees home opener and some Rangers ramblings as well

Last night the New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators in Game 1 of the NHL playoffs. I was waiting for my bestie to arrive in Penn Station so we could go see The Fray in concert at Radio City (squee! They were so good!), and while I was waiting, I decided to have a beer and watch the Yankees. Well, the Yankees weren't playing, but hockey was on, and a New York team at that (and actually, they were playing right above my head in Madison Square Garden - I rode the train into the city with everyone in their Rangers gear), so I decided to sit and watch. After all, the boyfriend and I had just decided that hockey was the perfect the sport, so I might as well try it, right?

I mean, it's definitely exciting. There's a lot of action. But the puck is so tiny and moves so fast, I can't really follow it. I don't know where it is until it's already somewhere else. And I get that the goal is to get the puck in the net, but other than that, I don't understand the rules, the tiny nuances of the game. I think maybe after you get a goal you have to start a fight with the other team, but that's just conjecture based on what I saw. It seems to be like lacrosse on ice...but to be honest, I don't really understand the nuances of lacrosse either. Oh well. It doesn't hurt that Henrik Lundqvist is super cute. I should watch just for that.

Don't tell my boyfriend.

The point is, the Rangers won, so well done, and congrats Rangers fans - hope your team can keep it up. Now for sports I DO watch, today is the Yanks home opener at Yankee Stadium. Where they're playing the Angels, notorious Yankee-killers, though not so much recently. Oh wait, now they have Albert Pujols on their team. That's right, Pujols, arguably the best player in the game right now, is in the American league, on a team we play a lot, and on a team that historically always killed us. This does not bode well. For those of you lucky to be off today, the game is on this afternoon. I will be stealthly checking in on it on MLB.com from my cubicle whilst pretending to be working hard and looking forward to seeing the Yanks in action in person next week. Going to the April 18th game versus the Twins and JM. And trying not to buy tickets for another Yanks v. Twins game now that I have my paycheck burning a hole in my pocket.

I'm a fan girl. What can I do?

No matter who you're a fan of, enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Lou Gehrig: As the baseball season begins, paying respects to a baseball legend...

I am a genealogy enthusiast, and a cousin of mine and I went up to Albany yesterday to do some family tree research. On the way back, she wanted to stop at a cemetery in Valhalla, New York, to try to find the graves of some newly discovered ancestors. I had never even heard of Kensico Cemetery, but this place is huge, and beautiful, with these large, fancy, elaborate, sometimes beautiful and sometimes ostentatious headstones. They even give historic walking tours, because apparently there are a whole bunch of famous people buried there - Ayn Rand, Tommy Dorsey, Glenda the Good Witch (probably not her real name, but that's the name the cemetery employee told us, so maybe? :)) ... and New York Yankee Lou Gehrig. I thought that was pretty cool. And what was even better was that his headstone was nice, but simple and low key, and he's surrounded by his family in his plot. I thought it was especially appropriate that as the new baseball season begins, fresh and new and full of promise, that I got the chance to pay my respects to one of the all-time baseball greats, who I'm sure, wherever he is, is rooting for the home team today.

Go Yanks! :)

Lou Gehrig's grave in Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, NY. Taken 7 April 2012 by Mary Ellen Gorry.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Yankee Stadium (and Joe Mauer), here I come!

It has become a tradition for me to go to at least one Yankee game a year, which is not always an easy thing to swing, considering how expensive ticket prices are - c'mon, Steinbrenners! Don't you make enough money charging me $12 for a beer????

The tradition has also been to go to a game where the visiting team is the Minnesota Twins - if you're asking why, you obviously don't read my blog on a regular basis. Last year, I didn't get to see my favorite homegrown Minnesota boy while he was in town, but yesterday I bought my tickets to see Joe Mauer - er, I mean, the New York Yankees - play. Unfortunately, the Twins are here very early in the season - the game is April 18th. I prefer something during the summer AND during the day, but I'll take what I can get. I went to TWO Yanks v. Twins games two years ago and actually wore a Joe Mauer jersey to one of them. It was surprising how many Twins fans I encountered on the subway AND how many Yankees fans did not heckle me (it wasn't a Boston Red Sox jersey, after all), but I did confuse a group of guys at the Stadium who stopped to ask me why I was wearing a Mauer shirt but a Yankees cap. As I tell my boyfriend, I'm a girl - don't try to figure me out.

Speaking of the boyfriend, I'm bringing him to the game. I figured two years in to the relationship, it's about time my real boyfriend and baseball boyfriend meet. And while the boyfriend always accuses me of being a Joe Mauer fan most of all, I tell him this - I root for Joe Mauer to do awesome in every game (yes, I cheer for him when he's at bat at Yankee Stadium), but I always, ALWAYS want the Yanks to win!

:)