[for Monday, Nov. 19]
It only took me three years, but I finally made it to a Grizzlies game tonight.
We bought the $5 nosebleed tickets (next cheapest were $18 apiece … um, as if) and threw a grappling hook over a beam and climbed our way all the way to the top of the Forum.
Even the crappy seats aren’t all that bad, though. The Forum isn’t that huge. And yet, they can’t fill it up. I actually started feeling bad for the Grizzlies when I saw all the empty seats. (It filled up steadily over the course of the game, though, so it wasn’t too dismal.) And then I remembered the price levels of the tickets and my pity melted away into absent daydreaming about a better way to sell tickets in Memphis.
(Like, wouldn’t it be cool if, on game day, they reduced the price of all the leftover tickets by, hell, $5 or $10, just to see if they could get a packed house in there? It’s an imperfect idea, so don’t go telling me all the ways it sucks. I was just daydreaming, sheesh.)
And then, as I was leafing through the game booklet, it occurred to me (again, since this thought hit me the other day when a Grizzlies MATA bus passed me) how nice their graphic design is this year. I don’t know if they had the tri-color geometric lines thing going last year, but I’m digging it. I think the bear head is a good logo anyway, and the colors are nice (yellow plus two tones of muted blue). But the tri-color lines, dude. Dig. Them.
So, yeah, about the game. Um, it was exciting. There were dunks and layups and free throws and T-shirt cannons! I fantasized about Pau Gasol getting an effing haircut, and squirmed in my seat when I realized how cute Juan Carlos Navarro is. I yelled things (“Get it, Headband!”) and kvetched at the children dancing inappropriately during halftime because I am eighty. The Griz won, which my super-sleuthing abilities lead me to believe is something rare and magical.
Man, $5. I’ll be back.
$5?!?
You couldn’t get me to pay someone five bucks to watch that shit.
New Years is coming up! Gimme yer cheese, crackers and huddled drunken masses.
I think in the south, college sports rule all. (which, if I were to like watching sports on a TV, college would be my pick) Up here, they are sports freaks, everybody is. Even the Hippy bar down the street always has some pro game of some sort on. Hell we’ve even got a football bar and by football, I mean soccer.
I need to find out if I’ll be off work, Fritzypoo. But maybe we can make something happen.
La, it must be a whole different world. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to live in a city with multiple pro teams — in the same sport, no less. Seems pretty cool. I might actually get into some sports that way. I always find that I like live sports even if I don’t give them a second thought after the game.
AND, before anyone goes around thinking I was insulting Mike Miller up there by calling him “Headband,” I just want to go on the record and say that it’s a term of endearment, and I was frankly amazed that the damn thing stayed on his head all night while he was kicking ass.
Pleeeease tell me you at least moved down to some better empty seats at halftime. Those up-high seats give me vertigo!
LOL at “Headband.” Brian calls him the “Leapin’ Lesbian.” With Miller’s luscious locks, Darko’s caveman brow and Pao’s face-scraggle at least the Grizz look distinctive, if nothing else.
when the streamers popped i was thinking “damn i wish i had my camera!”
we were directly across from you :)