My Passion

Just got back from Cali over the weekend. Went white water rafting for two days and got to go to my first Oakland A's game in their home ballpark.

That last part is key, I'm about to break down my source of happiness in this world in one word: Sports.

I'm a junkie. I pour over previews, I have two fantasy teams each for the NBA, NFL and MLB, I watch games on TV of teams I don't even give a shit about. I am passionate. I throw around the word hate with regard to my teams adversairies quite liberally and yet truly mean it for each person I bestow that description upon. I live and die with my teams. Here's the breakdown (in order of intensity of love I have for them) although trying to choose between these teams is like Sophie's choice:

Miami Dolphins
Florida Gators (football)
Miami Heat
Oakland Athletics
Florida Marlins
Florida Gators basketball

One team kind of stands out, doesn't make sense. It all started back in 1988. Before Tom Cruise went crazy, back when Vanilla Ice was automatically followed by the word cream, before both wars with Iraq. There was a time when the only south florida sports franchise was the Dolphins. My dad had grown up in this type of environment and had unfortunatly chosen the Yankees as his favorite team. As an impressionable youth of a mere 4 years of age I followed in his footsteps and grew an attachment to the team in pinstripes. I immediately gravitated my interest towards Rickey Henderson. Then the devil that is the franchise that makes its home in the Bronx did what I thought was the unthinkable. They traded him. How could they do that I thought. Showing signs of a personality trait I still have to this day I turned my back on this team and have held a grudge about it to this day. He went to Oakland, the home of the Bash Brothers, and would eventually win a world series the very next season. I jumped on the A's bandwagon and have been driving it ever since.

I take sports very personally. I am passionate, I feel as though when I yell things in my living room the coaches can hear me. Sometimes (especially the past 5 years with the Dolphins and only 3 with the Gators) I do better than the guys roaming the sidelines. It's insane. I have more of an invested relationship with these teams than I do with most of my family members.

I started reading this great book called The Tipping Point. It's about how things that start out as trends tip to become epidemics. Anyway, the book disects all the necessary components that make something 'tip' including the types of people that are needed. I'm in this cahpter that is explaing the rule of 150. It talks about how when a group (work setting or social) reaches the capacity of 150 it loses it's cohesivness and close-knit feel. Anyway, the book asks you to list as many people as you can who if they were to die would absolutely shatter your life. I found in making my list that sports figures kept popping up. The average number of peolpe that a person is that close to is around 12. Here's my list:

Dad
Mom
Natalie (sister)
Carli (sister)
teddy dupay (basketball player)
Mark (best friend)
Jana (closest female friend)
Ricky (roommate and best bud)
Steven (known since I was 3)
Grandma June
Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat)
Xavy (good buddy)
Jason (good buddy)
Tu (the asian invasion)
Jay (good buddy)
Becca (ex-girlfriend)

Wow, that was more than I thought I would get. Anyway, back on topic. I have never been as excited for an upcoming football season as I am for this year. It seems like I say that every year but I really feel that way this time. Both my teams are getting no love and will be able to stay under the radar for a while. You watch, Urban Meyer and Nick Saban will creat weinning mentalities that will allow both of those programs to flopurish for decades, this is truly the begining of my glory years as a football fan.

If there seems to be some jumping around it's probably because I've written this over the course of two days. I think that my style is modeled mostly after Bill Simmons of espn.com. If you don't know who he is you SHOULD. I'm kind of finding my own way here and I'd like to see if peoplen are actually reading this.
He has a second installment of an article about the NBA offseason in which he gives awards based on anchorman quotes. In the words of the Rajun Cajun, Mr. James Carville " we have no response, that was perfect"

but you know, when in rome...