Not Selling Out, Just Window Shopping.

If you had to make a choice to be a fan of something other than the teams you currently root for, what would that choice be? If you were to buy a jersey from a player who was not on your favorite team, who would it be?

I had to sit down for a minute and think about my answer. I went sport by sport, and here is what I was able to come up with:


Baseball:

This one was fairly easy. My reasons started out a bit off, as it was financially related. Back in 1990, when I was all of 11 years old, the most sought-after baseball card was the Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. If you could score one of these babies, the grumpy proprietor of The Dugout sports card emporium in Batavia, Il, would shell out an entire EIGHTY bucks in trade for a KG.JR rookie card. Do you know how many Super Pro football cards that could buy me?

Anyways, in the beginning I loved Griff for the financial success him and his card could bring me. But as I got older, and a little wiser about the game of baseball, I realised that the guy was the absolute complete package. A great defender. An outstanding power hitter. An amazing teammate, and most importantly, a great person. Even when he left Seattle for the wasteland that is Cincinatti, you always knew he would return to the city that adored him (with a little stop in Chicago along the way).

He was (and still is) the anti-Barry Bonds. A pure baseball player, not just some roided up chump who was no good too his team outside of the batters' box. THATS why the only other baseball jersey I would buy would be a Mariners' Griffey jersey.

Football:

This one for me, was the hardest. I love the 49ers. I always have. All of my favorite players have come from the Niners, and my football season begins with SF, and usually ends with them in late December when they miss the playoffs. I can still smell the glory days, though. Montana to Rice. Young to Rice. Garcia to...uhm...JJ Stokes?

Anyways, I'm pretty fierce in my loyalty to the Crimson and Gold. Up until this past year, I probably would have just skipped this sport and moved on to Soccer (Freddi Adu, here I come!). However this one player made me stop and consider just how much I would give up to get him on the Niners. That player is Larry Fitzgerald.

I've never seen a reciever in the past 10 years that does just what LF can do. I actually watched him at Pitt, and was fairly impressed with him. Then Zona drafted him, and he went from Potential Savior to Bitter Enemy. I had a chance this year to watch him quite a bit. I drafted him second round in my 2nd fantasy football league, and was rewarded with the best all-around reciever in the game.

The thing that I love best about Fitz is that he remembers that it's a team game. No matter how impressive or impossible the TD, the first person Fitz congratulates are his teammates. He knows that without the offensive line, or the arm of Kurt Warner, there is no way that he would be able to do what he does so well. Then, in the offseason, he spoke to Cardinals management about taking a pay cut just so the team could afford to keep Anquan Boldin and Warner around. For those reasons (and the absolute dominance), the only non-Niners jersey I would buy would be that of Larry Fitzgerald.

Basketball:

This one was a bit hard for me as well. During the 90's, I was a rabid Bulls fan (who wasn't?). Jordan, Pippen, Cartwright, Paxon...they had it all. Then MJ retired, and decided he wanted to play baseball for my White Sox. He turned spring training into a media circus. Then he got sent down to AA Birmingham, and turned THAT place into a circus. And something happened. I stopped liking Mike. It seemed that he was just in it to prove that he was somehow good enough (and popular enough) to force his way into a Sox uniform. Some poor kid making $12,000 a year riding a bus from game to game was going to lose his shot at his dream because MJ decided to entertain a whim he had. And what a whim it was.

Eventually he tired of the expiriment, as we all knew he would, and headed back to the Bulls. Now I was a bit irritated, though. I really found that I was not interested in rooting for him. Sure he was the best player ever (still is. Suck it, Kobe), but I just didn't give a shit. So I found another team to root for. And that team was the Indiana Pacers. And the center(hah)piece of the Pacers was a 7' 4" beast of a man from the Netherlands named Rik Smits.

In high school basketball, I found myself playing the big man's posistion. After watching Rik play with the Pacers, I modeled my game after his. I learned to love posting up, and hitting a fadeaway bank shot on the blocks. Or getting a pass inside and letting the D collapse, then kicking it back out for a wide-open 3. Smits also had a pretty solid jumper from 20 feet in. All that, and he got to play with the best pure shooter in the league, Reggie Miller. And for that reason, Rik Smits is the non-Bulls jersey I would buy.


HOCKEY:

Last, but most definitely not least, comes the NHL. Until a year ago, I would have answered this question in a heartbeat. I would have answered Mario Lemiuex. The guy was everything that Wayne Gretzkey was not. Big, powerful, not afraid to take a hit, but could still rip a puck top shelf at pretty much his will. And you never heard him complain or whine about calls. Not to mention the fact that he overcame CANCER to come back and play at an elite level. Then after that he rewarded the city that had invested so much of their time and hope in him by buying the only franchise that he had ever known. The classiest of a bunch of athletes who are known throughout the sporting world as being classier than most.

Who wouldn't pick Super Mario, right? Well this past year or so has seen the rise of an incredible young star. One guy who has the ability to bring back fans to the NHL, when the league so desperately needs the attention. And that player is Sydney Crosby.

Just kidding. Screw that little whiner. Alex Ovechkin is the guy I'm talking about. Not only his he the most prodigious goal-scorer in the league right now, he does it with a flair and panache that leaves Sid the Kid in his dust. The most important thing is his enthusiasm. Every goal scored while he is on the ice, even the ones that his teammates score, he celebrates with energy usually reserved for game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. He celebrates with his linemates, then speeds over to the bench to be with the team. And good god, the goals he DOES score are usually some out-of-your-mind Holy Crap did you just see what Ovechkin just did, that's just not fair type of goals.

So for all those reasons and more, the only non-Blackhawks sweater I would buy would be #8 from the Washington Capitals, Mr. Alexander Ovechkin.


Who would you pick?

Lethargy Zoning

I realize that it's been about 2 months since I've posted anything on the ole' blog, and that kind of surprises me. Normally I'll be sitting at work (on break), looking at cnn.com, and I'll see something that makes me say "that's pretty screwed up. I should write a blog about that." Then I'll head home, full of piss (and occasionally vinegar) ready to spew blog-style venom about whatever current events topic I read about online. Once I get home, however, one of two things happens. I realize that what I thought of isn't funny or topical, or I realize that I had to be at work at 5:45 am, and I am too tired to give a shit anymore.

Usually, it's the fact that I am zonked out of my gourd tired that prevents me from blogging, or going to the gym, or doing anything else remotely productive with my life. I'm like Pete without the diabetes. I feel guilty about just getting home from work and just sliding into a comatose state. I know that there is stuff I could be out there doing that would advance (and possibly extend) my life, but I just can't muster up enough energy to give a shit. It's like there is some kind of wierd Lethargy Zone around Roper's house that just sucks out the will to do anything proactive. If Pete didn't have to pay rent, I don't think he would ever leave his room. 45 years down the road when Roper finally sells the house, there is going to be a Pete skeleton sitting on top of a pile of comics and empty Coke Zero cans that needs to be buried, or fed to the neighborhood dog.

That being said, there are two important things coming up this summer that I REALLY want to be in shape for. Number one is my wedding day. There is just something about the threat of looking like Hurley from LOST in your wedding pictures that can motivate you to hit the gym. The second thing is that very shortly, we will begin practicing for the upcoming softball season. I love Rambone, probably moreso than any other sporting team I've been a part of. I want to be the best damn 1st baseman I can be, and that includes being able to score from 1st base on a double to the fence. I'd like to be able to go from 1st to home without needing to take a hit on the portable oxygen tank afterwards. So if you happen to drop by Roper's place in the next few months, and you see me sitting on the couch like a coma patient, do me a favor and slap me in the nuts and tell me to hit the gym.

I really need to up my "Runs Scored" stats this year.