Us at the Liberty Bowl 2004
Us (with t) at the UofL-UConn game 2005
Us at UofL-Villanova 2006
Us at Gaylord Arena in Tennessee for UofL-Georgia Tech 2nd round NCAAs in 2005
Before Darren (I quit the whole "DH" thing; it's dumb and y'all know him or me anyway) and I started dating, I was a punk-rock, alterna-freak who only wanted to go to shows or hang out with loser skateboarders and do other crap that I really wasn't good at. I swam and liked UofL sports, but I didn't really go to games or obsess about stats. On our first trip out of Louisville together (all the way to Cincinnati!), we went to my first MLB game (reds v brewers, talk about shitty teams). Since then, we have become sports junkies together. Over the years, we have seen some very memorable games and events.
1. Busch Stadium, 1998: Sammy Sosa and Mark Maguire each hit a home run (44th and 46th, respectively) during the great home run race that saved baseball post-strike. It was still the best baseball game I've ever been to (yet somehow my sister fell asleep in the 7th). The game went to extra innings, with StL winning in the 13th on a play by Willie McGee, who was 86 at the time. I have pics, but they were taken on film and I still don't have a scanner.
2. Arthur Ashe Stadium, 2006: Darren's lab partner got some tickets to the US Open on a Monday night, so we drove up to Flushing to watch Andre Agassi v Andre Pavel in the first round. It was the first match of Agassi's last tourney and it lasted until well after 1am (Agassi won). Billie Jean King and Serena Williams were also there for some dedication thingy before the match.
3. Freedom Hall, 2001: UofL vs Tennessee. In Rick Pitino's first season, the Cards were down 6 points with 31 seconds left. Reece Gaines hit two threes along with Bryant Northern's one and we ended up winning by 1 (UT hit a layup also). I have never heard the Hall so loud before. Here is a crappy video of it.
4a. Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, September 2, 2000: Kentucky, led by fatty Jared Lorenzen, had a chance to win the game when Dave Ragone was intercepted with about 8 seconds left to play. The score was tied at 34 and the defender had to only jog into the endzone. He forgot that Zek Parker was a UofL wide receiver and the defending C-USA champ in the 100 meters. Zek caught him at the 2 and then the field goal try was blocked. In OT, UofL intercepted Lorenzen on the first play and Tony Stallings ran it in 25 yards the next play. This game was also great because the game was delayed about an hour due to rain and lightning. Darren and I poured onto the field with the rest of the crowd in the 3rd quarter to get out of the stadium. We ran to the car, went back to his place, changed into dry clothes, and went back to the stadium, not having missed a minute of game time.
4b. Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, September 27th, 2002: Louisville beats #4 Florida State in a monsoon. Louisville came back late to tie, then intercepted Chris Rix on the first play of overtime. Henry Miller then ran it 25 yards for the win (exactly as in the UK game in 2000). And yeah, I helped tear down the goalposts.
5. Citizens Bank Park, July 15th, 2007: The Phillies lose their 10000th game to the StL Cardinals 10-2. Darren, Laura, and I were there to root on the Cardinals (well, in Laura's case, to eat hotdogs and ice cream), but we got the added bonus of being present to watch the first professional sports team reach that landmark.
6. Great American Ballpark, April 4, 2003: Sammy Sosa hits his 500th home run. I know Sammy's been tainted by the steroid scandal, but I really loved to watch that guy play (besides, if everyone's cheating, is there really an advantage?).
Honorable Mention: Any of the basketball or football games that Darren and I have gotten to go to since we moved out of Louisville. Philly may suck, but at least most of the Big East schools are nearby. Too bad we seem to be cursed to always watch UofL lose, such as last Saturday at Seton Hall.
That's all I can think of for now.
Triathlon Training week 7: run 11.88mi, bike 8.75mi, swim 3500 yd. totals 57.46/83.8/14100 Great week for running; got to get in the pool more
2 comments:
OK, so I was at 3 (with you guys!), 4a, and 4b. The crazy thing about the UofL/UT game was that UT (Ron Slay, anyone?) had a wide-open 15-footer to win the game at the buzzer that they missed after setting a nice baseline pick on the inbounds pass to set up the play.
Also, 4a was memorable for a weather-delay wet t-shirt contest that broke out in the student section. I'll let you remember what you want about that game, though :)
Great list!
FYI. Ignore the score in that GT - Louisville game in 2005. The tens digit was out, so instead of 30-5 GT at halftime, it was a 45-30 shellacking, on our way to the Final Four.
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