The last post was getting long, so I thought it would be helpful to start a new one which it deserves. I'm referring to the new Gopher Football stadium sponsored by TCF but whose current and most popular nickname is "The Bank". Time will tell if that nickname holds up and what new traditions will develop and what old traditions will hang on.
The Gophers played off-campus at the Metrodome for almost 30 years. That's essentially the last time any major sporting event was played outdoors in the Twin Cities as the Viking and Twins all moved into the Dome with the Gophers.
Atmosphere is very important for college activities, it's more important then football which showcases professional athletes. The colors, the cheerleaders, and the band are the backbone of a college football game.
Melissa has Camp Randall and we've enjoyed quite a few fun days there together but we're long over due for another game.
There are three of us who split four season tickets and we all attended the opening game with a guest who used to serve in the Air Force, who was our opponent. We rented a hotel on campus for the weekend but I wasn't feeling well so I showed up for the evening to walk around the campus and attend a ceremony at the stadium before heading home to get some sleep.
It was a magic moment, sitting outside for the opening ceremony on the Friday before the game. There was a ceremony behind us in the plaza of the horseshoe at the stadium but we spent most of the time staring into the stadium. There were a few World War I planes that flew overhead.
The first game was around 6 pm, so that the it was light during the opening of the game and the sunset and the lights came on. That weekend it was 80 degrees, and quite hot. People wore shorts and tee-shirts and people were on campus all day Saturday. I made it down in time to wake everyone up for lunch at the Big 10. Then we walked around campus checking out different venues.
A new, and my favorite new, tradition was the Victory walk where the team and band walk from the Alumni center to the Stadium. On opening weekend there were so many people, thousands and thousands that the street (University and Huron - a major intersection) became shut down from the masses. The team and bank could only manage a single file line through the crowd and there were getting pummeled by slaps on the back.
The stadium itself is beautiful with Minnesota spelled out across the top and a gold M on the lower sections of the stadium. They list all 6 years that the Gophers were National Champions and the 18 years they won the Big 10. They were before my time, but most people don't realize how good the team used to be.
The team ran out on the field to fireworks just as a flyover with military jets came through. There was a mistake that caused the gameclock - countdown to kickoff to start late such that they got off schedule. The planes were supposed to fly over during the National Anthem but they came when the team came out. People went ballistic when the team came with quite a few misty eyed people and many actual tears. The Minnesota Rowser was probably the loudest I've ever heard at a football game (and that's without a roof) as everyone spelled out M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A. It was the first sell out with almost exclusively Gopher fans that I can remember after watching them for almost two decades. The stadium seats 50,000 but is designed to hold up to 80,000 by stacking another 30,000 on top of the existing bleachers without having to fill in the horseshoe.
The game was close and everyone will remember when Nate Triplett, in the gold top and bottom (bright) uniform grabbed a fumble that was kicked off the foot of an offensive player in stride and ran it back uncontested for a defensive touchdown. The place went absolutely nuts. It was a magical moment for a magical weekend for any Gopher fan who has had to suffer some not so great seasons, many unbelievable collapses, and an absolutely sterile environment at the metrodome. Good riddance. Ski-U-Mah (another new cheer that I hope catches on).
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Catching up is hard to do
So we basically haven't posted anything for 9 months and wanted to use this blog as a documentary for ourselves, as much as anyone, about how things are going with us.
We left off in September 2009 but that post was mostly about Bea, because we didn't have very many posts that summer, and not as much about me and Melissa, and we count too. So we're going to go back and post for each month we've missed and will add some pictures after the text is done.
I'm going to start with a September paraphrase beginning with our first big event - U.S. Open (tennis) in New York City. Mid-summer while watching either the French Open or Wimbledon both Melissa and I both realized we were thinking it would be fun to sneak off for a weekend ourselves to watch the U.S. Open and knock off grand slam #2 (we saw the French open before Bea was born).
Off we went to NYC. We staged it well getting general admission passes to the Friday session (end of the first week). Thus we were able to go see all of the games at all of the courts with the exception of the three or four large courts that you needed specific tickets for those venues. This worked great in that there was a lot of good action on the outer courts and we stayed until they closed down the outer courts around 10-11 pm.
We decided to buy tickets to Arthur Ashe (the largest tennis stadium in the world) for the Monday session as the outer courts weren't doing well. We ended up having to pay quite a bit of money to scalp tickets because people were expecting some really good players during the night session on Monday. I've thought some of my favorite tennis matches I've ever seen were the late (midnight or later) sessions at Athur Ashe. Connor, Borg, Agassi, Sampras, McEnroe all had phenomenal night matches with two or three ranking as some of the best tennis matches ever in my opinion. Well there were a ton of upsets and night session we paid so much for had (relatively) no-namers, and Federer was playing in the day session, so obviously we dropped even bigger bucks to Arthur Ashe for the day session on Monday.
Melissa really wanted to see Federer play at some point, so we did. In actuality I thought the night tennis was much more fun. The last match started at 10 pm and the two players had played each other about 5 times with all of the matches around 4 hours so I was pumped and ready for a late night game (even though we had been watching tennis since about 10 am). Well the match was a route and the match was over at midnight. The winner apologized a lot to the crowd because everyone was excited for a long match. He couldn't get his tennis coach to play, so invited McEnroe (who was announcing the game on tv) to come down and play. John threw down his headset, tie and jacket and ran out of the booth. He showed up with a pair of tennis shoes on but still in his dress shirt and pants. John immediately went to serve (with no practice) and had a great serve and took the net in about 3 strides so quickly that he was at the net for the return and put the return away for a winner. That was nuts and the crowd went ever more nuts. They made a couple of more volleys before talking to the crowd and then we were all sent home. To make it even more fun, we saw an attendent handing our "rush seats" about 1/2 way through the last match and I ran over to grab a couple. They basically allowed us to go from the top deck so courtside where it was really hard to watch because they were hitting it so fast it was hard to turn your neck and see if the ball was in or out.
We spent two more days (Saturday and Sunday) in the city. The highlight for me was probably taking the Ferry to Ellis island and the whole Ellis island tour. The second highlight was probably going to Brooklyn and walking over the Brooklyn bridge back. We had a few dinners out and met up with some friends of Melissa and walked through Little Italy with them. I walked TriBeca, Soho and a few of the neighborhoolds around them. I went to the Met Insitutue of Art and walked through Central Park while Melissa took a nap. NYC is a nice city, but I think both of us thought 5 nights and 4 days was enough. It's a different lifestyle that to me seems like a much nicer place to visit then stay.
We left off in September 2009 but that post was mostly about Bea, because we didn't have very many posts that summer, and not as much about me and Melissa, and we count too. So we're going to go back and post for each month we've missed and will add some pictures after the text is done.
I'm going to start with a September paraphrase beginning with our first big event - U.S. Open (tennis) in New York City. Mid-summer while watching either the French Open or Wimbledon both Melissa and I both realized we were thinking it would be fun to sneak off for a weekend ourselves to watch the U.S. Open and knock off grand slam #2 (we saw the French open before Bea was born).
Off we went to NYC. We staged it well getting general admission passes to the Friday session (end of the first week). Thus we were able to go see all of the games at all of the courts with the exception of the three or four large courts that you needed specific tickets for those venues. This worked great in that there was a lot of good action on the outer courts and we stayed until they closed down the outer courts around 10-11 pm.
We decided to buy tickets to Arthur Ashe (the largest tennis stadium in the world) for the Monday session as the outer courts weren't doing well. We ended up having to pay quite a bit of money to scalp tickets because people were expecting some really good players during the night session on Monday. I've thought some of my favorite tennis matches I've ever seen were the late (midnight or later) sessions at Athur Ashe. Connor, Borg, Agassi, Sampras, McEnroe all had phenomenal night matches with two or three ranking as some of the best tennis matches ever in my opinion. Well there were a ton of upsets and night session we paid so much for had (relatively) no-namers, and Federer was playing in the day session, so obviously we dropped even bigger bucks to Arthur Ashe for the day session on Monday.
Melissa really wanted to see Federer play at some point, so we did. In actuality I thought the night tennis was much more fun. The last match started at 10 pm and the two players had played each other about 5 times with all of the matches around 4 hours so I was pumped and ready for a late night game (even though we had been watching tennis since about 10 am). Well the match was a route and the match was over at midnight. The winner apologized a lot to the crowd because everyone was excited for a long match. He couldn't get his tennis coach to play, so invited McEnroe (who was announcing the game on tv) to come down and play. John threw down his headset, tie and jacket and ran out of the booth. He showed up with a pair of tennis shoes on but still in his dress shirt and pants. John immediately went to serve (with no practice) and had a great serve and took the net in about 3 strides so quickly that he was at the net for the return and put the return away for a winner. That was nuts and the crowd went ever more nuts. They made a couple of more volleys before talking to the crowd and then we were all sent home. To make it even more fun, we saw an attendent handing our "rush seats" about 1/2 way through the last match and I ran over to grab a couple. They basically allowed us to go from the top deck so courtside where it was really hard to watch because they were hitting it so fast it was hard to turn your neck and see if the ball was in or out.
We spent two more days (Saturday and Sunday) in the city. The highlight for me was probably taking the Ferry to Ellis island and the whole Ellis island tour. The second highlight was probably going to Brooklyn and walking over the Brooklyn bridge back. We had a few dinners out and met up with some friends of Melissa and walked through Little Italy with them. I walked TriBeca, Soho and a few of the neighborhoolds around them. I went to the Met Insitutue of Art and walked through Central Park while Melissa took a nap. NYC is a nice city, but I think both of us thought 5 nights and 4 days was enough. It's a different lifestyle that to me seems like a much nicer place to visit then stay.
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