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October 9, 2010
Mandy and me at the
Milwaukee Admirals-Abbotford Heat
regular season game |
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September 1996
Gary, me and Dad going to
the New Jersey Devils-
New York Rangers
preseason game |
Welcome to the 100th blog entry of Thoughts of the Common Viewer. I figured to celebrate the occasion I'd do something special. Today I will be going through sports moments and memories. I have made a list of the best, worst and most bizzaree things I'm experienced, seen or just been involved in over the years since 1993 when I went to my first hockey game, New Jersey Devils vs. Hartford Whalers, to 2010, my most recent game, Milwaukee Admirals vs. Abbotsford Heat. So sit back and enjoy and you are welcome to post comments about your moments, I would love to hear them. (The only two rules I applied to this list were: #1 sports entertainment doesn't count, so no wrestling events, and #2 I would have had to actually had been at the game, whether it be as a fan or an employee.)
Score: New York Giants 13-Kansas City Chiefs 3
Moment: First Game at Giants Stadium after 9/11
After 9/11, as everyone knows the New York area was more united than anything I had ever seen or experienced before. When Grandpa told me that he was able to get two tickets to goto the Giants/Chiefs game, the first game played in the New York area after 9/11, I was not going to pass that up. What I didn't know till I got there was that the seats were an handicapped box because Grandpa was in a wheelchair, very close to field level. The atmosphere was something I never experienced before and probably never, and hopefully, never will again. The pre-game ceremonies were the story. I had never seen that many army, navy and ma
rine soldiers on a field at once. The real moment came when they brought out firefighters and police officers to hold the flag while the Harlem Boys Choir sang the National Anthem. EVERYONE was standing, even Grandpa, and singing and alot of people were crying. It was something I'll never forget, especially since this was the last football game I ever went to with Grandpa.
Moment: New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup Celebration
This might have been one of the hottest days I've ever experienced. Yes it was in a parking lot. Yes it wasn't a parade. But it was a load of hardcore heavy-duty Devils fans sweating in 100 heat celebrating a Stanley Cup for the third time. I was with Sara for this and she really wanted to kill me for dragging her out there for this long afternoon. When the team and Cup finally came out it was worth it and turned out to be a extremely fun afternoon.
#8
December 29, 1999
Score:New Jersey Devils 5-Boston Bruins 4 (OT)
Moment:Final Game of the Millennium
Normally regular season games, especially ones in December, don't normally stick out as a big deal. This game has been in my head for 11 years now. This was one of the best hockey games I'd ever seen. The score says it all. I was at the Continental Airlines that night with Gary, Nadine and Bernadette. The game was culminated with a classic highlight cris-cross goal from Patrik Elias to Petr Sykora, it was the goal that truly gave birth the A Line.
May 9, 2001
Score:New Jersey Devils 5-Toronto Maple Leafs 1
Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 7
I've heard for years that there is NOTHING like a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Well me and Gary were given a chance to discover that when his mom got him two free tickets to see the Devils and the Leafs in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semi Finals. We went to the game and the intensity was unreal. Especially when the Devils were trailing 1-0. But as much tension as there was in the building when the game started that's how celebration there was when it was over the Devils advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row winning 5-1.
#6
June 14, 2000
Moment: New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup Celebration
On a cool night in East Rutherford, there were fireworks, confetti, screaming fans and more importantly, the Stanley Cup. For Gary & I this night was in the middle of the craziest and best week of our lives so far. On this night we celebrated a hard-fought for Stanley Cup, a Cup won on Gary's birthday. It was an amazing night.
#5
October 23, 2000
Score: New York Jets 40-Miami Dolphins 37 (OT)
Moment: Monday Night Miracle at the Meadowlands
When I worked Giants Stadium during the 2000 NFL season, I saw alot of crazy moments and alot great games, especially since I was an usher. This night was something different. The Dolphins had taken a 30-7 lead going into the 4th quarter. It was so bad that Jets fans started to have dueling "Let's Go Yankees"/"Let's Go Mets" chants during the 3rd to entertain themselves. (This was during the Subway World Series.) After the 3rd most fans were leaving to try to beat traffic. Just then at the start of the fourth Vinny Testverade threw a touchdown pass to start the fourth. Right then you can feel the ground in the stadium start to shake with all the fans turning around to get back to their seats. The Jets were alive and started one of the biggest comebacks in NFL history. They went to overtime because of a touchdown from Jumbo Elliot at the end of regulation and finally completed the comeback with a field goal in overtime. The game ended at 1:15am, but the party continued in the parking lot till the sun came up. While I'm not a Jets fan by any means, I was rooting them on this night, which also led to me gets hugs from complete strangers in my section because they were celebrating.
#4
May 15, 2002
Score: New Jersey Nets 103-Charlotte Hornets 95
Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 5
Didn't expect an NBA game did ya? Well when the Nets were on fire in 2002, me and Gary made a decision to goto a Nets playoff game while we had the chance, because it might never happen again in our lifetimes. I got us tickets to this game and it was an amazing experience. The pictures I took were very shaky and blurry because it was hard to keep my body still because the ground from shaking from the crowd noise. It was so loud that you couldn't hear the music or announcements for the entire 4th quarter. This was something I will never forget, even though I am not much of a basketball fan.
At the time I really don't think I was old enough to truly understand the impact of that night or even that time period of international hockey. Now 14 years later I can fully understand what I was apart of. In 1996, the Canada Cup was renamed and relauched as the World Cup of Hockey, a major international tournament that happened during the summer and ended right before the NHL regular season began. I was still in my infancy of being a hockey fan at the time, so when I was really only half watching the tournament. That was until August 31st when the house phone rang and it was for me. The voice on the other end was Team USA captain Brian Leetch. Being starstuck and left without words, I kindly listened and he explained that I had won two tickets to USA-Sloviaka game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night from the New York Post and then he congratulated me, I wished him good luck in the tournament and he told me that my tickets would be at the Will Call window waiting for me. I was so confused when I hung up. I soon found out that Uncle Bruce put my name in for tickets on a whim, and I just so happen to win. My dad didn't want to go into the city on a weeknight, so his ticket went to his co-worker James. This was the one and only time that me and him ever agreed on a game. Me wearing a Devils shirt and him wearing a Rangers shirt, we watched as Team USA dominated Sloviaka 9-3, with nine different USA players scoring goals. While this might not have been the best game in the world, the experience of hockey at the Garden and the fact that it was the first ever World Cup of Hockey made it extremely memorable.
#2
Score: New Jersey Devils 5-Montreal Canadiens 2
Moment: Martin Brodeur Scores a Goal
What do I say about this moment? With a 4-2 lead in Game 1 of the quarterfinals, there isn't much else to really cheer for. The net was empty and our section was getting ready to go home when the buzzer sounded. The last thing any of us expected was Marty to pick up the puck and shoot it down the ice and in the net for a goal. Well that's exactly what happened. The place was so electric after that goal, I was one of the many people running up and down our section, 217, in shock and excitement high fived and hugging strangers. It was amazing. Simply one of the most unreal hockey moments I've ever experienced.
#1 Score: New York Giants 41-Minnesota Vikings 0
When I took the job at the Meadowlands the summer of 2000, I needed a job. I knew that I would get to see alot of football games and a bunch of concerts, work them and make money having fun. What I didn't expect was the football season that my Giants had. I didn't expect that I would be working the 2001 NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME between the Giants and the Vikings. For months my bosses told us to stay neutral. On this afternoon they knew that alot of were Giants fans and had been waiting a long time for this moment and they knew we weren't going to stay neutral. This game was unreal. The score actually says it all to honest. I got work field level as my team went to the Super Bowl. I actually think for most of the fourth quarter I stopped working and was just a fan because of the moment at hand. That afternoon I also snuck in a throwaway camera so I could document the event, I knew that I would never have the oppurtunity to be at a game like this, and even if I did it would be a long time till it happened again.
(Originally I was going to make this a Top 5, but due to the lack of losses and heart-breaking defeats that I've seen, it's become a top 3)
#3
Score: Calgary Flames 5-New Jersey Devils 2
Looking back at this game, I went in thinking there was no stopping the Devils. They were on fire, I hadn't witnessed a regular season loss yet. Me and Gary went on this night to see Devils beat Theo Fleury of the Flames and I was meeting up with some friends from the New Jersey Devils mailing list. Well the score says it all, the Devs got steamrolled and that night I witnessed my first regular season defeat, there weren't many, but this was the first.
#2February-March 2001
XFL Regular Season
This might have been the worst idea in the history of sports. To make football fans happy and give them something to watch in the off season, let's play football in the dead of winter, AT NIGHT. I worked a bunch of these games. No one showed up to the games unless the tickets were given away. Not one thing about experience was good. The football games were terrible, the players were bad and overall the environment left a lot to be desired. I'm so happy it only lasted one season. This was an epic fail before that was cool to say.
#1 May 11, 1997
Score: New York Rangers 2-New Jersey Devils 1 (OT)
Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 5
This might be the one game that I want to completely erase from my memory banks. This was a heart-breaker beyond heart-breakers for me. (Not as bad 1994 but I wasn't there to witness that.) The Devils needed this game to stay alive in the playoffs that year, the game had come to a stalemate and I got to experience playoff overtime hockey for the first time in my life. Before the overtime period, during the intermission, you could have heard a pin drop in the CAA. No one was talking, chanting, even moving. I don't even think anyone went to use the restrooms or have a smoke. It was tense and not in a good way. Adam Graves scored the wraparound goal in overtime (so similar to the 1994 Matteau goal it was scary) and they sent the fans home wanting to kill themselves and the Devils off to the golf courses.
Top 5 Most Bizzare Moments
#5
September 3, 2000
Score: New York Giants 21-Arizona Cardinals 16
Moment: Lightning hits Giants Stadium, scares Ron Dayne
This might have been one of the bizzare ways to start a season. During the first half a massive storm started, but it was just rain so it didn't really bother anyone, after all it is football. Then near the end of the 2nd, thunder started to sound and fans started to run into the corridor then lightning hit the scoreboard behind the Giants endzone. The stirke scared Ron Dayne so much that he literally jumped up in the air and ran, like a cartoon character, into the locker room as they started halftime early. Hysterical moment to be honest.
#4
April 17, 1997
Score: New Jersey Devils 5-Montreal Canadiens 2
Moment: Devils fan throws a pig head on the ice
In 1996 during the playoffs Panther fans threw rats onto the ice after every goal, it became a fiasco leading to new rules getting put into place. Well that wasn't until the 97-98 season. After the first goal of the Devils/Habs game, some random Devils threw a REAL pig head onto the ice in celebration. It was a moment that would have been the most talked about part of the game, if Marty didn't score a goal in this game as well.
#3
March 5, 2010
Score: Lake Erie Monsters 3-Milwaukee Admirals 2 (SO)
Moment: Yo Gamma Gamma Performs
The fact that the kids phenomeon was at an Admirals was freaky enough but their performance during the 2nd intermission might be the strangest intermission entertainment I've ever seen.
#2
October 8, 2000
Score: Pittsburgh Steelers 20-New York Jets 3
Moment: Jets fans pelt Steelers fan with beer bottles
It's a blustery cold Sunday night in the upper decks of Giants Stadium, sounds like any other night game right? Well this was a stadium of really drunk young Jets who were watching the Steelers ruin their undefeated start. Well right in the sea of green, there was one lonely Steelers fan standing up and cheering away. Suddenly he got hit with an empty beer bottle. Nothing major you would think except that he just got louder and all of a sudden it was like a light went off and there were empty and semi-empty beer bottles flying from all directions, from as far as three sections either direction including downstairs. I remember security came up to me and said "Who hit him?" and I turned around pointed everywhere "Them!"
#1
January 8, 2000
Score: New Jersey Devils 4-Phoenix Coyotes 3
Moment: Blake vs. Drunk Islanders Fan
Yes you read that right. After a little cared about Devils/Coyotes game a drunk fan got in my face on way down the section me, Nadine and Julie were sitting in screaming on how the Devils sucked. I then pushed him down the stairs from behind and that was enough for him to literally sprint up the stairs and take me down over the row I was standing in and we got into a fist fight. It was so rough for security to break us up. We were "banned from the CAA" after that fight. One thing I forgot was that Scott, a guy who at the time did game-by-game recaps of Devils game, was sitting a few rows back from all this. He took notes and the next day assested me with a five minute major for fighting, two for instigating and a game misconduct.
