Your sports bucket list

My bucket list:

Sing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' at Wrigley with Harry Carey.
Rickwood Classic
See the Big House
Infield at Talladega
Experience The Grove (By coincidence, also saw my school beat Ole Miss that day!)
Watch as the Atlanta Braves win the World Series (Oh, well...)
Watch Peyton Manning play
NCAA Final Four
Winter Classic
Watch the ArenaBowl

One thing I did in 2007 was attend 14 of the arena football team's games, including 6 road trips. That was pretty awesome. I saw 19 arena games that year, including the ArenaCup. – nobody else gives a shit, but I love arena ball, so there's that.

 

On my sports bucket list:

1. Go to a practice round of a major.
2. See Rick Reilly riding around on a cart, as he always does.
3. Snatch his golf glove out of his hand.
4. Slap him with it.
5. Tell him, "That was for the horrid column you wrote on sports bucket lists."

 

Same here. Plus, as a fan, you're on your own schedule. If I want to get there early and pre-game, I can. If I want to stay late and post-game, I can. Just a different state of mind that I enjoy way more now that I'm on the other side of it again. Covering certain stuff was great, though. But overall, I'm good without it. Plus, when I want to go to a particularly expensive event, I can afford it. Or at least come a lot closer to affording it.

 

This could probably be its own thread, but I find that I enjoyed events, for the most part, as a journalist more than I do as a fan. That's not across the board, but in general. I think a lot had to do with the camaraderie of a beat, particularly on the road. And I never feel I quite fit in as a fan any more. Cheering, for example, will always feel strange for me.

 

#PoY

 

1. My first hole in one (my 7 yr old even got one!)
2. Wimbledon
3. Final Four
4. The Masters
5. US Open at Flushing Meadow

 

One thing I love doing, either after covering an event or watching as a fan at a major venue, is lingering until most of the crowd has filtered out and just taking in the scope of the place for a moment.
I'll never forget going to a Cardinals game at the last Busch Stadium in the early 2000s. It was a day game on July 4, and for some reason they had some sort of American Legion game there about an hour the big league game ended. There were maybe a couple hundred people watching, but they had the entire lower bowl open. I wandered around, sat in a few different sections for a half-inning each, and just really took in the place. It's hard to do that during an actual game when there's so much going on around you.

 

Yeah, I always feel like I should be doing something. Dr. J always has to tell me to put down my phone or camera because I'm not used to keeping still. I always think I should be closer to the action too.

I'd still love to see:

The Iron Bowl
The Olympics (winter and summer)
Superbowl
One of those crazy Texas high school football games where the whole town shuts down for it.
Duke at Syracuse hoops once Syracuse drops into the ACC
NCAA softball championships

 

If you aren't already old, going to Talladega will definitely nudge you down the path. A great time, but man will it put a hurtin' on you.

 

You think its killing you? Try coming home every time to you kid saying "Did you get one yet dad?"

 

I'm with you both on this.

Man, I got to cover some pretty cool events (on a small-time level, not on a Mizzougrad level.) And I enjoyed and appreciated the hell out of it, then and now.

But overall, I was a sports fan before I got into journalism and I'm a fan now. And while I'll never be able to cheer in public again like I did before I got into journalism, and the press pass got me into areas I'll never dream of getting into on my own dime, I enjoy the hell out of attending a big-time event as a fan. Also, never having to climb any fences after they padlock the doors on me, either.