Dead Time
- Thread starter Seth53
- Start date
Fryowa
Administrator
Right now is actually my favorite sports time of year. @99topdawg and I are gonna have our hands full till the middle of July and now that they have MLBtv I can and do watch all 162 Braves games.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
How does a NW iowa dude get this infatuated with the Braves?
Fryowa
Administrator
3rd generation fan.How does a NW iowa dude get this infatuated with the Braves?
My grandpa (who I never met) and dad were both Braves fans going back to the Milwaukee days in the 50s. I was born in '80, and in '84 we moved from NW Iowa to Arizona for about 7 years, and that was right around the time that cable TV became huge and we could watch every Braves game on TBS. It's a very, very small number of games broadcast that my dad and I missed growing up. Best memories I have of my old man are watching games together. Sometimes my mom would get sick of baseball all the time so dad and I would go sit on the edge of his and mom's bed (only other tv in the house was in their bedroom) and watch games. Truth be told neither of us minded getting booted out of the living room. In fact, that's where we were watching the '92 NLCS when Sid Bream scored to send the Braves to the series. Remember it like yesterday.
I'm also a Cubs fan close second. I grew up in the WGN days with Caray and Stone back before they had lights, and when I was a kid in the summer I'd ride my bike to the park to play rec baseball for a couple hours and then haul ass home to watch the Cubs on WGN while mom and dad were at work. God I wash I was 10 again. Summers seemed to go on for years.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
I think the biggest teams in terms of national draw are:
1) Yankees
2) Cubs
3) Braves
The Dodgers maybe are up in 3, but it's tough to say. The Braves really gained a lot of fans due to the TBS era and they are the team of the southeast because they are the closest team to Knoxville, Charlotte, Greenville, Birmingham, etc. They basically have north Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Alabama on lockdown. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more Braves fans in Virginia than there are fans of the Expos (not sure what they are called in Wershington now).
Fryowa
Administrator
Still called the Expos.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
I used to get late night broadcasts of KMOX (AM 1120) Cardinal's games, and that coupled with the fact I played on the Cardinal's Little League team in my home town made me a lifelong fan.
Jack Buck was the bomb.
Only other teams available to listen to/watch in my hometown were the Cubs and Twins. Yuck. No thanks.
Jack Buck was the bomb.
Only other teams available to listen to/watch in my hometown were the Cubs and Twins. Yuck. No thanks.
How about Hawkeye baseball and softball? I am happy.
Seth53
Well-Known Member
I love college and high school track/field, so I'll take a step back and watch that!
Fryowa
Administrator
I sucked in track in JH and HS and hated it at the time. I think if I had my teens to do over again I'd have worked harder.
Since my kid started getting really competitive in XC and Track once he got to high school, I really find I enjoy watching. XC especially. But yeah, I hated going to meets when I was in track but it's a lot of fun now. I have two this week my son is running in.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
My son does cross country. He has a good time doing it, but the best part is there are absolutely no insane parents there. My old lady was a very legit swimmer in high school and just missed the national cutoffs for getting invited to try out for the Japan national team. She went tiger mom on the boy teaching him to swim but she refuses to push him to compete because of the psychos she saw growing up and because she doesn't want to subject the kid to waking up at 5 AM everyday when he should be going through growth spurts.
Fryowa
Administrator
Cross country is the chillest sport I've ever seen. I love it.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
How does a NW iowa dude get this infatuated with the Braves?
When cable started in the 80's and 90's, I remember the Braves being on TV ALL THE TIME! Seemed you couldn't turn the station without seeing the braves on.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
How do you watch it as a fan? Locate a spot and watch from there for the 8 seconds you see your kid run through? Do you set up by the finish line? Do they have designated spots for fans? Honestly, I've never been to a meet and don't know how it works.
Fryowa
Administrator
Most commonly in Iowa meets are on golf courses, some are on college courses (in NW Iowa that would be Dordt), and once in a while you'll get a true "cross country" course. West Lyon runs their event around Lake Pahoja in Lyon county every year which has hills, sand, goes through trees on actual trails, etc. In my view that's what a true cross country course is.
As far as spectating, there's a few different ways. Some people follow their runner from turn to turn (easy on a golf course because they run down fairways so you just cross the fairway perpendicular to the hole), some people set up at a spot somewhere along the course and stay there, and some people set up at the finish line. Most courses the starting gates are pretty close to the finish, so what I do is walk over to watch the start and hit a stopwatch on my phone when the gun goes off, because I know within just a few seconds what my son runs a 5K in. That way I know pretty much where he's at in the race distance-wise.
I personally don't chase the race. I get nervous as hell for some reason so I watch the start and then go about 200M from wherever the finish line is to cheer my son on as he goes by and kicks to the finish (and his teammates). Because I start a stopwatch on the phone I know within a handful of seconds when he'll be coming by. Once the race is over I walk down to the finish where everyone is gathered to look at times, places, etc, and talk to my kid and his teammates. I know most all of them from me being a coach at our school.
The nervousness thing is weird for me because I'm not that type of guy. I never get nervous coaching, didn't' have a problem with it when I played sports, and even coaching my kid I don't get nervous when he's up to bat or whatever. Cross country is the only thing that happens in...I have no explanation. I get super worked up so I purposely walk away after the start and I make it a point to never watch any of the middle of the race. Essentially I see the start of the race and the last 45 seconds or so.
Having said that, everything about the experience is super chill and it's soooooo much nicer to watch than football, basketball, or baseball. All the coaches, parents, and runners from all teams are super friendly and encouraging to one another, there's lots of hugs and high-fives, and congratulations between everyone. My kid has made great friends with runners from other teams which you don't typically see in other sports. I never knew there was such an inviting and supportive community in high school sports...I wish I'd have gotten into it earlier. There's no aggro, alpha male shit going on.
Also don't want to leave out that it's not just one race you get to watch. In Iowa there's a junior high 1 or 2 mile race depending on where you're at, and then there's a JV girls 5K, JV boys 5K, Varsity girls 5K, and lastly Varsity boys 5K. There's plenty to watch. Grab your lawn chair, take a cooler of food and drinks, and just chill out under a tree somewhere. If I were you I'd go to one even if you don't have kids running to check it out and support your school. You'll have fun.
Fryowa
Administrator
Yeah we had it made back then. My pops and his pops were long time fans and then once Fryowa got old enough to be a fan, every game was on TV.
SwirlinLingerie
Well-Known Member
I ran cross country and track all through college. I was pretty burned out by the end, but I loved competing.
I'm trying not to push my kids too hard in any direction, but the oldest (5th grade) has gravitated towards running in the last year or so. Which is sort of awesome, because I've already come to hate a lot of aspects of most youth sports. At least in the big city suburb I live in. His younger brother (2nd grade) loves all the ball sports and is naturally skilled, and it's already a pain in the ass trying to work it out so he can play different sports in regular "recreation" leagues (which are increasingly rare for even second graders) and not be funneled into select teams where they practice every day of the week and only focus on a sport or two. The kid isn't even 9 yet.
What's cool about cross country and track - more so now than even when I was in school - is you can cut through the bullshit real fast. The stopwatch doesn't give a shit what you or your parents think. People figure that out sooner rather than later and then everyone can appreciate the beautiful honesty that comes with the sport.
My 5th grader is part of this track club that goes back years. Despite it being a "club" team the vibe and parents are so much chiller than most ball sports we've been a part of. All ages and a lot of the kids stay with the club for years, even for off-season workouts and additional coaching when they are on high school teams.
The best part is this bad ass black woman runs it. She's from inner city LA and was an all-american at University of Washington. She has a bunch of other coaches helping her, but one of the main rules is that parents get their kids to practice on time and help volunteer during meets. And make sure your kid stays for the whole meet to support teammates. That's all we do. No crossing any lines. No negotiating or exceptions. Read the handbook and ask other parents if you have questions.
Inevitably these tiger moms new to the program try to bug her at practice, asking about things that have been covered a million times or expecting some exception for their kid. I try to linger just within earshot of these confrontations. Always pretty entertaining.
99topdawg
Well-Known Member
I have a friend that is an Indians and Redskins fan and I told him I'll always call them by those names. He didn't believe me but I told him I still call it the WWF so...
Fryowa
Administrator
Nail on the head.
And if they're going to change them, Washington Football Team and Cleveland Baseball Club were perfectly suitable. Commanders and Guardians are two of the stupidest sports names in history.
