Being a Fan is Going to Kill Me
Ah, September. Great time to be a sports fan, you have baseball pennant races, football is starting, and there's some thing called the Olympics going on, but that's kinda killed by the fact that people like me are giving you the results over the radio before you see the events on TV (sorry, it's my job). It is a great feeling to be pumped up over seeing you favorite teams, high school, college, or pro taking the field game after game. It is also the closest thing I can think of to walking on hot coals while being prodded by flaming pokers.
Let me take you inside a typical weekend for this sports nut. First of all, I'm reeling already from watching my Mets blow yet another September game, to the Phillies of all people, on Thursday night, so this weekend isn't off to a good start. Friday night after I finish my professional duties, I head out to my high school alma mater, West Genesee High School, to watch my Wildcats play Fayetteville-Manlius. On this night, once again, we are treated to another example of why if you are a fan of West Genesee football, you must also be a fan of sado-masochism. These guys play with heart, intensity, spirit, something they didn't have in past years. Unfortunately, something they don't have this year is a win. What they have done is made you believe in them right up until the moment something goes wrong and they lose the game. So far this year, they've had the lights go out at halftime of the first game, lost the second game on a blocked extra point, lost the third game when they fumbled the ball on the way into the end zone, and last Friday was another one of those games. The offense, which had scored fewer points in three games than years in my age, finally put it together. Our quarterback looked great, throwing the ball for big gains. We had come from down 12-0 to take a 15-12 lead in the fourth quarter. At last, we are off the schneid!!!
And that's when F-M returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and won the game, 19-15.
OK, I am not bashing my team. If any West Genny fans or players are reading this and think I am taking this opportunity to complain about this team and that I want to tell the world how bad I think the team is, you are sorely mistaken. The fact that I am very devoted to my team is pretty obvious, have you seen the West Genesee football page? Nobody does that amount of research so that they can go on about how this year's team isn't getting it done. I had to sit behind a bunch of parents who were blaming it all on the coaches, typical parents who believe that since the team is 0-4, even though with a few different bounces they could be 4-0, that the coach must go. The best players are on the bench, they claim; that probably includes THEIR kids, I'll bet. It made me sick, even sicker than the game was making me. I think some of the readers can sympathize, though; Camillus, New York can easily be Anytown, USA and everyone remembers cheering on their old high school teams. Take heart, guys, you are by far the best 0-4 team around, even if just thinking back to the events of the other night has me on the verge of an aneurysm.
The moral is you gotta stick by your team, through thick and thin and all that. In my time of being a sports fan, I've seen the Jets go 3-13 and 1-15, I've seen Vince Coleman throw firecrackers at little kids, seen the Mets become the butt of every late night comedian's jokes, seen one strike, three lockouts, four Bills Super Bowl losses, an 0-8 West Genny team that almost forfeited the season halfway through, and worst of all, I lived through two and a half years of Greg McMichael blowing games out of the Mets bullpen. After all that, I think I can safely say that I love my teams and will always stick by them. OK, I don't like the Knicks anymore, but that's because I no longer like the NBA in general.
That said, weekend's not off to a good start. Saturday doesn't get much better, as I wake up from a well-earned nap (heartache takes a lot out of you, after all) just in time to see my Syracuse Orangemen getting throttled by East Carolina. This is not a good time to be a fan of SU, actually I should say THAT SU, as by checking the web, I find out that MY SU, as in Susquehanna, the one I went to college at, has come from behind to beat Dickinson, 24-13 and they're 3-0. That, along with listening to three hours of Syracuse fans bitching and moaning about the coaching on the radio, makes the earlier experiences a little easier to take. I want to say to my friends at Syracuse, "My SU can beat up your SU, nyah-nyah!" The sad thing is I could be right.
Sunday arrives, and with it, the much-ballyhooed Jets-Bucs game, the highlight of the weekend, Keyshawn Bowl I if you will. Once again, I gotta watch as one of my teams is headed down the road to imminent failure. Vinny Testaverde gets picked three times in what seems like about ten minutes, leading me to throw out, among other terms that cannot be repeated here, a favorite nickname of mine for him, "Interceptaverde". I'm getting set to eat major crow for going on and on all week about how Keyshawn should just shut his mouth, how we weren't going to let him beat us and all that. By the way, a brief aside: you ever notice how whenever your team does something good, it's "we", and when something goes wrong, it's "they"?
Anyhoo, in a final act of redemption that somehow seems to symbolize the whole rollercoaster experience of being a fan, the Jets score two touchdowns in just over a minute, the last one a Curtis Martin halfback option pass to the so-called "flashlight", Wayne Chrebet. The Bucs fumble twice, the Jets win the game, they're 4-0 for the first time ever, and I am stunned and needless to say, driving the neighbors in my apartment building nuts with my yelling and carrying on about how Keyshawn can go... well, you can just fill in the blank there.
This of course does not mean the cycle of pain, anxiety, frustration, rage, and outright joy will not continue. Every sports fan knows that you have to take the good with the bad, and both will always happen, usually when you least expect it. That said, West Genny's gotta go to RFA on Friday, Syracuse will play BYU Saturday night, Susquehanna will host Wilkes, the Mets will take on the Braves three more times at Shea, and I'll agonize and rejoice and come this close to a heart attack yet again.
Then again, the Jets DO have the week off. Maybe I can avoid being on the verge of a coronary for ONE week anyway.
Let me take you inside a typical weekend for this sports nut. First of all, I'm reeling already from watching my Mets blow yet another September game, to the Phillies of all people, on Thursday night, so this weekend isn't off to a good start. Friday night after I finish my professional duties, I head out to my high school alma mater, West Genesee High School, to watch my Wildcats play Fayetteville-Manlius. On this night, once again, we are treated to another example of why if you are a fan of West Genesee football, you must also be a fan of sado-masochism. These guys play with heart, intensity, spirit, something they didn't have in past years. Unfortunately, something they don't have this year is a win. What they have done is made you believe in them right up until the moment something goes wrong and they lose the game. So far this year, they've had the lights go out at halftime of the first game, lost the second game on a blocked extra point, lost the third game when they fumbled the ball on the way into the end zone, and last Friday was another one of those games. The offense, which had scored fewer points in three games than years in my age, finally put it together. Our quarterback looked great, throwing the ball for big gains. We had come from down 12-0 to take a 15-12 lead in the fourth quarter. At last, we are off the schneid!!!
And that's when F-M returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and won the game, 19-15.
OK, I am not bashing my team. If any West Genny fans or players are reading this and think I am taking this opportunity to complain about this team and that I want to tell the world how bad I think the team is, you are sorely mistaken. The fact that I am very devoted to my team is pretty obvious, have you seen the West Genesee football page? Nobody does that amount of research so that they can go on about how this year's team isn't getting it done. I had to sit behind a bunch of parents who were blaming it all on the coaches, typical parents who believe that since the team is 0-4, even though with a few different bounces they could be 4-0, that the coach must go. The best players are on the bench, they claim; that probably includes THEIR kids, I'll bet. It made me sick, even sicker than the game was making me. I think some of the readers can sympathize, though; Camillus, New York can easily be Anytown, USA and everyone remembers cheering on their old high school teams. Take heart, guys, you are by far the best 0-4 team around, even if just thinking back to the events of the other night has me on the verge of an aneurysm.
The moral is you gotta stick by your team, through thick and thin and all that. In my time of being a sports fan, I've seen the Jets go 3-13 and 1-15, I've seen Vince Coleman throw firecrackers at little kids, seen the Mets become the butt of every late night comedian's jokes, seen one strike, three lockouts, four Bills Super Bowl losses, an 0-8 West Genny team that almost forfeited the season halfway through, and worst of all, I lived through two and a half years of Greg McMichael blowing games out of the Mets bullpen. After all that, I think I can safely say that I love my teams and will always stick by them. OK, I don't like the Knicks anymore, but that's because I no longer like the NBA in general.
That said, weekend's not off to a good start. Saturday doesn't get much better, as I wake up from a well-earned nap (heartache takes a lot out of you, after all) just in time to see my Syracuse Orangemen getting throttled by East Carolina. This is not a good time to be a fan of SU, actually I should say THAT SU, as by checking the web, I find out that MY SU, as in Susquehanna, the one I went to college at, has come from behind to beat Dickinson, 24-13 and they're 3-0. That, along with listening to three hours of Syracuse fans bitching and moaning about the coaching on the radio, makes the earlier experiences a little easier to take. I want to say to my friends at Syracuse, "My SU can beat up your SU, nyah-nyah!" The sad thing is I could be right.
Sunday arrives, and with it, the much-ballyhooed Jets-Bucs game, the highlight of the weekend, Keyshawn Bowl I if you will. Once again, I gotta watch as one of my teams is headed down the road to imminent failure. Vinny Testaverde gets picked three times in what seems like about ten minutes, leading me to throw out, among other terms that cannot be repeated here, a favorite nickname of mine for him, "Interceptaverde". I'm getting set to eat major crow for going on and on all week about how Keyshawn should just shut his mouth, how we weren't going to let him beat us and all that. By the way, a brief aside: you ever notice how whenever your team does something good, it's "we", and when something goes wrong, it's "they"?
Anyhoo, in a final act of redemption that somehow seems to symbolize the whole rollercoaster experience of being a fan, the Jets score two touchdowns in just over a minute, the last one a Curtis Martin halfback option pass to the so-called "flashlight", Wayne Chrebet. The Bucs fumble twice, the Jets win the game, they're 4-0 for the first time ever, and I am stunned and needless to say, driving the neighbors in my apartment building nuts with my yelling and carrying on about how Keyshawn can go... well, you can just fill in the blank there.
This of course does not mean the cycle of pain, anxiety, frustration, rage, and outright joy will not continue. Every sports fan knows that you have to take the good with the bad, and both will always happen, usually when you least expect it. That said, West Genny's gotta go to RFA on Friday, Syracuse will play BYU Saturday night, Susquehanna will host Wilkes, the Mets will take on the Braves three more times at Shea, and I'll agonize and rejoice and come this close to a heart attack yet again.
Then again, the Jets DO have the week off. Maybe I can avoid being on the verge of a coronary for ONE week anyway.
Labels: baseball, football, Jets, Mets, sports, Syracuse, West Genesee
posted by Dave | 4:05 PM
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