By Scott We Go
These pics were inspired by St. Louie's best: The Checkerdome, 42, Bradford, beer and multi-ethnic females, acid wash jeans, and vintage Blues.
I must admit, I've been such a die hard Blues fan since childhood, it's hard for me to see the NHL in any other color besides blue. My dad brought me to Blues games at the old Barn starting at age 2 and we had season tickets until a 4 year hiatus (replaced with heavy drinking at U of Illinois - Illini hockey? .... meh, not so much). Some of my most vivid memories of childhood are being at Blues games with Dad, smashing peanut shells with our boots, mullets and mustaches everywhere, acid wash jeans, giving high fives to the players as they came back to the locker-room, getting pucks from Bernie Federko, Bobby Bassen, Hullie, Oates, Garth Butcher and CuJo among many others; the towel guy, the fog horn, going nuts for a Hull from Oates goal against the Winnipeg Jets and realizing, as we're going nuts, Hullie has just put another one in before the first one was even announced!
This year is a bittersweet one for my Blues and I. Since I got back from school, I've had 6th row goal-line seats on the Blues-shoot-twice-end with my best friend, Dustin.
HIGHLIGHTS: Dustin winning one Halloween costume contest (as Richard Simmons) and coming in 2nd by a hair (as Pauly Shore) to an old lady dressed like a beer pong table, meeting the Blues Chick while winning the Clarkson Eyecare contest for a T.J. Oshie autographed stick (nice!), our playoff run two seasons ago, the Perron goal, the Oshie goal, almost catching the Towel Guy's towel .... so many more. The bittersweet part comes from the fact that Dustin now has twins due on November 27th, which also means that $ is not leaving his pockets right now unless it has to do with diapers, baby food, or breast milk pumps. I tried to convince my girlfriend to join me, but to no avail. And also, I see it as a result of the U.S. economy, that no one else was willing to make the financial commitment. Although I was tempted to be "that guy" that goes it alone, I couldn't bring myself to cough up a small fortune for many nights of lonely drives home. It's also bittersweet because I'm so excited about this year's squad with the addition of the Halak-ness Monster and the other boys having grown up a bit.
So, I can't watch every game from the edge of my seat, but my best friend does have healthy twins on the way. I'll miss getting there on time (ya, right!), the first Budweiser of the night, the terrible introductory video, the between-period entertainment, the towel guy ("that guy" alone at every game .... I know this because we followed him to his car one night .... CREEPY, I know), not knowing anyone around us even though we had season tix (I think we were in the corporate section, new people every night), yelling out each player's nickname way too loudly and too many times throughout the game, screaming at Jackman about how much I hate him, and Cam kicking ass (Dustin coined the phrase, "He just Cammed all over your face, bitch!" © 2008).
Oh well, I guess I'll be hitting up Stub Hub a few times this year and watching too much TV. In conclusion, I wasn't sure what this post was going to be about, but I had to get that off my chest.
