Containing My Excitement

Good God I love opening day. I love baseball. In a few short hours I'll be getting in my seat for a roller coaster ride I swore I'd never ride again after last year.
There I sat in my parents kitchen in Plymouth, MN last October minutes after the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Cubs out of the playoffs. I had tears in my eyes. This was just another in a long line of red flags my girlfriend at the time, Andrea should've recogninzed. She should've said to herself, "this guy is crying because his team lost in the playoffs, maybe I should look for someone more stable". Well, as mentioned before, she agreed to marry me so she obviously didn't learn her lesson. Then again, what are the chances of this year's Cubs team making me cry again? Slim I'd say. There is no way this season can be a bigger gut punch than last year...right? Right?
Uh...
The answer to that question is no. There is no way last season's finish can be topped. No way. Ask any Cubs fan who lived and died with the team last season. Ask them if it was worse than 2003 (where an overachieving Cubs team came within 5 outs of the pennent). There is no comparison. The 2008 Cubs were expected to win the pennent. They had the best team in the National League (record wise). Home field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. This was the team expected to finally break though.
I suppose the 1984 Cubs finish was gut wrenching enough. There are factors that can be pointed to for fans to use as excuses. The fact that the Cubs lost home field advantage because they didn't have lights at Wrigley Field (thus giving the Padres three straight home games to close the series out). There's also the fact that the first four games of that series used collegiate umpires due to an umpire strike with Major League Baseball.
I have a copy of the 1984 Cubs division clinching game in Pittsburgh and Game 1 of the NLCS along with an end of season "wrapup show". The consensus that I've come to with that team was that Cubs fans were just happy to be in the playoffs. Something that wasn't the case in 2008.
When the Cubs went out with a whimper last season, I put all of my Cubs gear into a closet (wearing only my hat in the last month or so). I went through "Cubs-Detox". I promised myself and Andrea I wouldn't think or talk about them until spring training. For the most part, I succeeded in this department. The plan was a success. I didn't get too worked up over the offseason. I put the Cubs out of sight out of mind (even playing with the Red Sox, Twins, and even the Giants when I fired up the PS2). I just needed a break.

Well so much for that.

I woke up this morning with my stomach in knots again. I'm back in the roller coaster car and without even realizing it, the car is making it's way up the first hill and there is nothing I can do about it. I'm just going to enjoy the ride and hope it doesn't make me cry again.
On paper though, this team shouldn't make me cry. They have one of the most lethal lineups in the NL and along with a deep pitching staff, shouldn't have a problem winning their third straight division championship (something this franchise has never done). Never forget though, this is the Cubs we're talking about...in my gut I'm terrified of a sub .500/4th place finish. There is no rhyme or reason for this fear but you gotta embrace these things as a Cubs fan. Last season I was positive they were going to win the World Series. For the 100th conseceutive season, they did not. Oh well. Like the old saying, hope springs eternal.
Baseball is back and I'm ready to do it all over again.

Remember Where You Were

I'll briefly set the scene. I'm sitting on the couch in my den playing NCAA March Madness 07 on PS2. The contest was a heated conference tournament game between Loyola-Chicago and Butler. My phone beeps. I let the phone sit for a moment as I finished up my possession in the game. Pause game. Look at text message. It's from my buddy Husby.
Husby (4:30:45)- Bears got Cutler.

I stop everything I'm doing and stare at the text message. I read it again. Bears got Cutler. My first reaction after the message sinks in is simple and straight to the point...no they didn't. So I responded to Husby with a one word text: WHAT?
I check the date on my phone thinking I got the dates mixed up and it was April Fool's Day. Nope, that was the day before.
I spend the next thirty seconds or so pacing around my living room looking out the porch window and back at my phone. Then...My phone beeps again. This time, the message comes from my unusually NFL-neutral friend Dan Craigie. His message is straight and to the point:

Dan Craigie (4:31:56)- Shit.

Less than 20 seconds later, my phone beeps again...and again....and again...and for good measure, it beeps again. I look down and see 4 new messages (mind you, these all arrived within ten seconds of each other).
Text messages begin pouring in from all over...the first one, the text I've been anticipating for a long two minutes or so...from ESPN. It's now official. Bears finally have a quarterback.
Now, I will associate Loyola-Chicago vs. Butler in college basketball with one of the most exciting moments of my sports life (and it's not even a basketball moment).
I don't doubt that I will remember where I was when I got the Cutler news twenty years from now. Even if the trade is a bust for the Bears, it is one of those moves that can get an entire fanbase geeked at the same time.
This is something that doesn't come with being a Bears fan. The Bears don't make offseason deals for top 5-7 NFL QBs. This doesn't happen.
There have been other moments that I can remember where I was for. The first one I will mention was back on October 9, 1993.
I was getting dressed in the second locker bay from the teachers office in the Plymouth Middle School boys locker room. It was the second or third period of the day. As I got ready for gym class, my friend (and the only other person I knew who loved the NBA as much as I did) Johann came running into the locker room.
"Michael Jordan is retiring!"
Apparently, Johann overheard someone in the halls talking about it--quite honestly, I don't know how he found out--we were in sixth grade. For me, an 12 year old sprinting into the boys locker room was as solid of a source as I needed at the time. We got dressed and went into gym class and we had to walk laps around the gym for warm up. I remember feeling an impending sense of doom. Michael Jordan, the best basketball player in the world on the best team in the world (incidently, my favorite team as well), was walking away...and he was only 32 (at the time 32 was old to me...just not too old to play professional basketball).
Now, at age 26, I realize this is an overreaction. But look at it from the perspecitve of an 11 year old. Sports at the time were larger than life itself. My bedroom was covered with Michael Jordan posters and Chicago Bulls pennents. My closet consisted of no less than 5 Jordan/Bulls shirts or jerseys (probably a incorrect estimate...there were probably more). Every day after school, I would go into the basement and act out NBA situations on my Hutch door basketball hoop. Some of the situations involved Mike Ricci winning the NBA Finals on a last second shot, however, at the time, most involved me as Michael Jordan winning the title (not sure what this said about my self esteem at the time, given that I was dreaming about OTHER people getting the glory, but I digress).
The point I'm getting at is this: as a kid, I had very little worries in my life. The fact that my favorite athlete in the world was leaving the game and team I worshiped was unfathomable. My life, for all intents and purposes, was over. That is why I remember everything about the moment. Sure, if the same thing happend today (say I was a lifelong Cleveland Cavaliers fan and Lebron James decided to up and retire one day), I would remember where I was when I heard the news and I would be crushed. Just not crushed in the same way that I would've been at age 11. My thought process would go from "Lebron retired!? The world is over!" to "Lebron retired...oh shit! I forgot to pay the rent. Is the post office still open?!".
Obviously, 9-11 is one moment where everyone remembers where they were (just as the assassination of JFK left a definitive "Where Were You Moment" for the Baby Boomers). So was the announcement of America's involvement in major wars. To this day I remember my elementary school principal going over the intercom system in second grade and telling us that we were at war in the middle east, thus kicking off the Gulf War...but it isn't as vivid as when I found out Jordan was going to retire a few years later. I also remember playing basketball on the backyard court of my neighbors when someone mentioned that the "guy from Nirvana" shot himself...however, I was still in my top-40 phase and this had no serious impact on me.
Sports-wise, this Jay Cutler trade is right up there with getting the news about Jordan. I'll always remember where I was when I got the text from Husby. Obviously sports don't hold the same "life and death" weight as they did when I was in sixth grade (except with the Cubs and the playoffs but that's a whole different posting for another day).
I would have a tough time explaining to non-sports fans the impact of the Bears trading for Jay Cutler. Since I just got another refill of coffee at Caribou, I have the time and I'll try.
Let's say you live in an apartment building that has been notorious for not having air conditioning (a good quarterback). You're building managers have been especially conservative in years past (perhaps keeping the same ceiling fans from when Carter was President). Every year, you hope that they upgrade and equip all of the units with a window fan at the very least. Finally, after years of ceiling fans that only throw interceptions (Rex Grossman---sorry, I can't find a non sports analogy to what Grossman did)...your building, out of nowhere mind you, decides to shell out the extra cash and get central air conditioning!
Yeah, it's weak, I know. But if you didn't expect central air, you'd probably be floored on a hot sunny day when you feel icy cold air blowing through vents...ok, ok YOU come up with a better comparison. I can't...trust me, it's freakin' exciting!
By the way, Butler held on to beat Loyola-Chicago.

The First Post

When I decided to get back to my writing for sanity purposes I tried to think how I'd go about it. Was I going to continue using The Reach Blog? I decided against it. Decided to go for a new start.
Some of my favorite features from the previously mentioned site will still be here, including the periodic music video clip.

The title comes from a conversation my buddy Thompson and I had while we were working together a few months back. Since my nickname for about as long as I can remember has been Reach, he thought it would be great if he and I wrote a sitcom titled "Pardon My Reach". A slight rip off from the short lived (and yet highly amusing) Comedy Central show "That's My Bush". All the episodes would revolve around my character doing something offensive or stupid and would end with Thompson's character telling the offended party, "Please...pardon my Reach". Freeze frame. Audience applauses. Roll credits. Emmys hand over fist.

Well, said TV show never came to be because we live in Minnesota and don't have the motivation to go to LA, pitch the idea and get rejected. So here we are.

So we kick things off on St. Patrick's Day. Sadly, I do not come to you with crazy stories of my misadventures in St. Paul today...no, unfortunately. That would probably provide each of you with more interesting fodder than the actual goingson in my life today.

This may also be a good thing as I will be giving my brain, liver, and stomach a run for it's money this weekend as we are about to start the greatest time of the year...March Madness. Look, you don't have to love basketball to get into this weekend (although it DOES help). Think of it, if you're a non sports fan, as an excuse to get together with your friends at 11am on a Thursday and drink beer, grill meat, mow down Utz Cheez-Balls and get belligerant until your heart's content (or until you keil over during the west coast night games)...sleep, repeat on Friday.

What makes this year more anticipated than years past? The possibility of seeing my Golden Gophers play two highly touted programs in Texas and Duke during the same weekend? Maybe. The plan to get in the Metrodome for the opening round games on Friday without having to purchace a ticket? Possibly. What makes this so highly anticipated is the project that is going to be undertaken by one Jon "Pete" Petersen and I. 32 hours of televised basketball between Thursday and Sunday--and (unless we end up at the Dome on Friday) we plan on watching every hour of it.

Now, I should mention that this past weekend I proposed to my girlfriend of three years, Andrea. She said yes...this was (in my mind) the only acceptable step to take before taking on 32 hours of college basketball on week later. We're talking committment here. A diamond ring. A diamond ring that says, "I love you, I'll spend the rest of my life with you...just give me these 32 hours".

Anyhow, back to the engagment. For those of you who have gone through the process, you'll know what I'm talking about...you'll understand. For the rest of you? I could try and explain that it is the most surreal out-of-body experience. Truth be told, I don't remember much of what was said...I should have a vague idea, because...well, I WAS there. Well, she did say yes (I remember that much). So that's good.