9-11 Thoughts

With the recent ceremonies surrounding the 10th anniv of that horrible day in 2001, I still find it hard to believe that 10 years have passed.  I remember Ronda, our admin person with the Knights, coming into my office and saying the first tower had been hit.  Like everyone else I was thinking what a freak accident.  Did the pilot have a heart attack or just lose control of a small plane?  That question was unfortunately answered minutes later when a second plane attacked on live television.  We all know that events that followed so no need to rehash them.

I remember thinking "Wow, this is going to happen across the entire country and I live in one of the top financial cities in the world (Charlotte, NC) and it will probably be a target."  Rocky and I had just started dating a few months earlier and my thoughts immediately went to her and that she worked in a large public gathering place that could be a target.  Probably the most eerie thing was the deafening silence that now filled the air as all air traffic was grounded.  Knights Stadium was located in the landing pattern for Charlotte-Douglas Airport and always had the hum of planes flying over sort of like the old Shea Stadium in NY.   When that stopped, it became very real that something wrong was happening and I headed to the comfort of home.  The events throughout that day seemed surreal and as more footage became available it seemed like something out of a movie but this one wasn't going away and have a happy ending.

Later in the week Rocky and I were schedule to take a trip up to Baltimore for a weekend series between the Sox and O's as well as meet my dad and Trish up at her brother's house.  Dad wanted to see Cal Ripken play and this was going to be a fun trip.  We were taking the train and were not sure if train travel was also going to be halted but later found out it would not be.  MLB still had not decided if the games that weekend would be played or not when we left and we later would learn that all games were ppd which we were prepared for and understood.  The one thing we were not prepared for was the very real picture outside the window to our left as the train rolled past the Pentagon....still smoldering from it's attack.  

We look at life much different now, at least I do, but I think it is important to also live your life to it's fullest especially now that we have Sam and Grayson.  Life can be taken away at any time so it is important to live and love the things that you have 100% of the time.  We can't control many things in life but you can control how much fun you have with your family. 

That's what it is in the world of the Sports Grapevine........     

Rivalries

This week's Sox/Yanks series has brought back some great memories of this storied rivarly since I became a Sox fan in the mid 70's.  It's always fun, dramatic and usually with a lot on the line with these two teams.  I know the rest of the country is sick of this rivalry and understandibly so.  "Big Media" has created a monster by overshowing this series as it does with everything else.  It is what it is in todays media and social world.

With that said, I have been fortunate to have lived in several parts of the country thanks to Minor League Baseball jobs around the country and other reasons so I have been able to be around a lot of pretty intense rivalry games that mean just as much to those people in those part of the country.  Some of these are obvious, some of them not.  Some you are grossly underrated and some are overrated, but they are all rivalries and make for good conversation.  Here a just a few to get us going...

1)  Sox/Yanks......enough said already but still the best bang for the buck especially when they meet in post season

2)  Alabama/Auburn.....365 days of hatred that you just can't understand unless you are a fan...Roll Tide

3)  Clemson/South Carolina..... (see Bama/Auburn justs move the fight two states to the east)  I onced witnessed these two teams at the end of awful seasons strap it up in front of 85,000 fans who thought they were at the Super Bowl.  Intense.

4)  Bama/Tennessee.....as the saying goes "We hate Auburn because we have to.  We hate Tennessee because we want to".....uh yes that would be a rivalry and it is actually older than the most believe.  3rd Saturday in October always meant one thing for close to 70 years...Crimson vs Orange

5) Cardinals/Cubs.....quite possibly the most underrated rivalry in sports.  Classic fans who travel to both cities.

6)  Blues/Blackhawks..... for some of the same reasons  listed in #5 but revved up just a notch because it is hockey.   As it was put when one Italian-Chicago fan of the hawks was quipping about how the STL is a shitty sports town, so bad they couldn't keep an NFL team (post Cardinals and pre-Rams) the response from a blue fans was "Hey you wap...we can't help it our football team wasn't as big as your nose!!"   Game On!

7)  Illinois State/Bradley....mostly a basketball rivalry but a fun one none the less.  

8)  Iowa State/Iowa.....for the Cy-Hawk trophy.   In a state where there are no pro sports teams other than minor league ones,  this rivalry tops everything, even the state fair and the Iowa Caucus. 

9)  K-State/Kansas....only event where I witnesses a live animal sacrificed.....seriously!

10)  Capitals/Penguins.....regular season or playoffs....these two teams and fan bases just hate each other beyond comprehension.   Now they both have mega stars at the forefront who also don't like each other. 

11)  NFC East....This is the one division in all sports where all four teams are truly rivals of the other.  Great history, legendary matchups and star players.  Any combo of teams and it spells RIVALRY

....and so on and so on.  

That's what it is in the world of Sports Grapevine.....