Category Archives: Sports

Mets 2011 Home Opener.

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To kick off my Year of Baseball* Julie and I headed to New York on Friday for the Mets home opener at Citi Field. We got to the stadium a couple hours before gates opened so we could take in the scenery*** and hang out at the stadium bar so we were sure to get a bobble head. The game didn’t really turn out the way we would have wanted with the Nationals winning 6-2., I’ve yet to see a win at Citi Field but I always enjoy the food.

Julie and I actually kept score this time using the Eephus League Official Scorebook which was not nearly as complicated as I expected.

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Side Notes:

* Year of Baseball Stats:
Game No. 1
Stadium Opened: March 29, 2009
Capacity:  41,800
Attendance:  41,075
Food:  Cheese Burger from Shake Shack, Fried Chicken Leg from Blue Smoke,
Beer:  1 Brooklyn Lager, 1 Miller Lite, 3 Budweiser,
Opponent: Washington Nationals
Pitchers: W: J. Zimmermann, L: R. Dickey
Miles From Home: 711.47
Ticket Face Value: $49
Seat Location: Section 424, Row 6, Seat 12

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** The majority of these photographs were taken by Julie and the full set can be found at chicagometsfan.com.

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*** If you’ve never been to Citi Field (or Shea Stadium for that matter) you’re truly missing the ambiance of Flushing, NY.  The street that surrounds the stadium along the outfield is just a series of chop shops.  It’s truly a site to see.

Citi Field home opener: Mets - Nationals - View From My Seat -

**** The View From My Seat.

***** Previous Mets home opener at Shea Stadium back in 2007.

Bobby Hull at Finley Dunnes

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Last night after the Blackhawks overtime win over the Red Wings Julie got word that Bobby Hull was in the neighborhood at Finley Dunnes. We figured it was worth a trip to see if he was still there.

Finley Dunnes is an official Chicago Blackhawks bar so that’s how the Hull appearance was arranged. Bobby Hull as a ‘Blackhawks Ambassador’ was booked for FD’s. He basically just hung out at a table while people came up to him for an autograph, photograph or just a handshake. My understanding is this was to be a ‘word of mouth’ event so there really wasn’t a crowd, granted it was 10:30pm on a Monday night.

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Side Notes:
*At one point when I was taking photographs something funny was said so I started laughing from behind the camera when Hull dropped the following line:

“Don’t you fucking laugh.”

** The rest of my photographs are on Flickr.

Chicago Golden Gloves

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Last night I went to the semifinals of this year’s Chicago Golden Gloves tournament which was held at Gordon Tech High School.  There were several decent fights and a couple of bad fights (one lasted about 17 seconds).  The crowd consisted of a good mix of people from all walks of life and unlike last year’s Final there were several boxers from the same gyms with the same trainers which was interesting to see the variety of boxers.

If you’ve never been to a boxing match I highly recommend you checkout your local Golden Gloves tournament.  Tickets were $10, beers were $4 and there were probably 15 bouts throughout the night.

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Side Notes:

* This is the first year that Gordon Tech hosted the tournament.  I was thoroughly disappointed when I discovered it moved from St. Andrew (which is a block away from my front door).  The facilities were much larger and there was parking which isn’t readily available at St. Andrew.  With that being said, public transportation to Gordon Tech is limited to the Addison bus whereas St. Andrew is within walking distance of 3 El Stops, and 2 major bus lines.  Also, I’m pretty sure parking was supposed to be free at Gordon Tech but when Julie arrived they tried to charge her $10 because there were no empty spots in the main lot.  For the record, I’d much rather have the event at St. Andrew.
**The rest of my photographs can be found on Flickr.
*** Previous Chicago Golden Gloves Tournaments: 2009, 2010.