Category: Western New York (Page 4 of 6)

Break Glass if Sick of Election Talk: Your Sports Link-o-Rama

4 November, 2008 / Kat

I come to you this evening to write the only piece of blog-o-sphere not to mention tomorrow’s US Presidential Election. Because, frankly, to be all Negative Nellie about it, it won’t matter who the heck is elected President tomorrow – America is screwed either way because there is not a single politician who exists who is stand-up and honest.

But enough about my political thoughts. I come to you today with links to articles that also have nothing to do with politics, because there will be a point sometime on Tuesday where you are going to want to bang your head against the wall if you hear one more iota about the election:

They Hate Me: Western NY’s Toxic Back and Forth Relationship with Basketball

31 October, 2008 / Kat

Pravin commented earlier this week on my treatise on New York State sports fandom with a great question on basketball in Western New York:

And where does basketball fit into all of this? Is there a particular team that people in Western New York prefer to root for? I’d imagine that the Knicks–not even factoring in their past seven seasons of futility–represent everything that upstaters hate about downstate. There is the connection between the old Buffalo Braves and L.A. Clippers, but not even the most ardent fan of the A.B.A. would retain that kind of loyalty.

Now, I have been in quite a few relationships in my day, including some of those of the on-and-off, back and forth, toxic variety. (Who hasn’t in their day? The degrees of severity vary, but everyone’s had at least one.) But none come close to the toxic back and forth relationship that professional basketball has had with my home region of Western New York. Professional basketball took Western New York and toyed with its emotions – “You want an NBA Championship? Here you go. Oh, wait – you aren’t “big enough” to support professional sports! Sorry, let’s move the team away.” – until a whole generation and their children decided enough was enough, and ceased following the NBA all together.

The Quarterback Witches

13 September, 2008 / Kat

Tom Brady’s injury – and I promise this will be the last post mentioning it, but I do live in Boston, and it is currently a bigger story than anything ever, and so it’s all one can possibly think about – and my eerie premonition of it reminded me of the fall of 1993 and Dan Marino’s Achilles injury.

Dan Marino was both loved and hated in my household growing up.

Picture my family’s house in 1993 – which, if you know the house I grew up in, is easy to do, because it is a complete and total shack that you don’t know how people live in it, let alone how it’s still standing – and the characters inside. My mom, the Jim Kelly devotee; my little sister, the Dolphins fan because she liked aquatic animals at the time; me, the Steve Young obsessed 49ers fan; and my dad, amused that he lived with three women obsessed with professional football, although it was all his fault that we did. (My little brother wasn’t born yet.)

On that Sunday afternoon, I believe we had just watched a Bills 1pm loss, and my mother was livid. The Dolphins were up with a 4pm game against the Browns, and my sister had brought her stuffed animals out into the living room so that she could play with them while watching the game.

Oh, Canada!

31 July, 2008 / Kat

I have a new favorite member of the Boston Red Sox. After the Kappy-Kap (the nickname for Gabe Kapler that one of my students created four years ago) left, I had no favorites. No one could replace the Kappy-Kap with the Sox. No one was that awesome, hot, and as good of a clubhouse leader.

That is, until this afternoon, when Manny Ramirez was involved in a three-way trade for everyone’s favorite Canadian baseball player.

Jason Bay, welcome to the Red Sox. I finally have another hottie outfielder to drool over. And, did I mention that he’s CANADIAN?! Continue reading

Dear Mr. Favre: We Also Like Cheese, Beer and Lots o’ Snow (with random thoughts at the end)

20 July, 2008 / Kat

Dear Mr. Favre:

I understand you currently have a tad bit of drama in your life. A few months back, you thought it best to retire from the sport you loved, because everyone was chomping at the bit for you to. All of us football fans had been anticipating your retirement for the last eight years, as all of your contemporaries hung up the cleats. But over those years, you still had the skills and desire to play, and fortunately, weren’t racked by debilitating concussions or other injuries that have forced some quarterbacks out too soon (gratuitous Steve Young reference of the post.) So you stayed in the NFL, losing some of your effectiveness as a quarterback and as a leader in the locker room (your teammates grew up watching you play – you’re from a completely different generation as yours) but still leading the Green Bay Packers to respectable seasons.