Saturday Sports Spectacular

Today is a pretty good Saturday considering that it's not a regular Saturday of college football.  We have the start of bowl season, some good basketball games, and Jets-Cowboys tonight.  I was going to update my bowl name rankings, but it seems that names haven't changed and the only new ones don't have good names (the Cure Bowl and the Arizona Bowl).  Instead, let's go over who I'm rooting for in each game:

New Mexico Bowl:  New Mexico over Arizona.  I don't want to root for Bob Davie, but he's going against Rich Rodriguez.

Las Vegas Bowl:  BYU over Utah.  I like Mormons and independent college football programs.

Camellia Bowl:  Appalachian State over Ohio.  I'll always appreciate Appalachian State for when they beat Michigan.

Cure Bowl:  Georgia State over San Jose State.  If I can avoid rooting for a team named the Spartans, I will.

New Orleans Bowl:  Louisiana Tech over Arkansas State.  Louisiana Tech is the Bulldogs, which was Orel Hershiser's nickname.  And they wear red, white, and blue.

Miami Beach Bowl:  Western Kentucky over USF because we once lost a miserable game to USF.

Boca Raton Bowl:  Temple over Toledo since we played Temple.

Poinsettia Bowl:  Boise State over Northern Illinois.  I was in Boise this summer.

GoDaddy Bowl:  Georgia Southern over Bowling Green.  I don't really care, but Urban Meyer used to coach at Bowling Green.

Bahamas Bowl:  Middle Tennessee over Western Michigan because Western Michigan has ugly colors.

Hawaii Bowl:  San Diego State over Cincinnati for Kyle and Lauren.

St. Petersburg Bowl:  UConn over Marshall.  I can root for Bob Diaco.

Sun Bowl:  Washington State over Miami.  This one is obvious.

Heart of Dallas Bowl:  Southern Miss over Washington.  I'll usually go with a Group of 5 team over a Power 5 team.

Pinstripe Bowl:  Duke over Indiana.  ACC over Big 10.

Independence Bowl:  Virginia Tech over Tulsa.  I have nothing against Frank Beamer and it's his last game.

Foster Farms Bowl:  UCLA over Nebraska.  If I had to pick a Pac 12 team to root for, it's definitely UCLA.

Military Bowl:  Navy over Pittsburgh. This one is easy.

Quick Lane Bowl:  Minnesota over Central Michigan for Courtney and Dennis.  And Lou Holtz coached at Minnesota.

Armed Forces Bowl:  Air Force over Cal.  The military over dirty smelly hippies.  Easy.  But I am considering going to Cal's opener next year.

Russell Athletic Bowl:  Baylor over North Carolina.  I don't like North Carolina.

Arizona Bowl:  Colorado State over Nevada.  One state has legalized marijuana. The other has legalized gambling and prostitution.  I guess legalized marijuana is less bad.

Texas Bowl.  Texas Tech over LSU.  I can't root for Les Miles.

Birmingham Bowl:  Memphis over Auburn.  Group of 5 team against an SEC team.

Belk Bowl:  NC State over Mississippi State.  ACC over SEC.  And Lou Holtz coached at NC State.

Music City Bowl:  Notre Dame over LSU.  Wait, that's what happened last year.  Louisville over Texas A&M.  Again, ACC over SEC.

Holiday Bowl:  Wisconsin over USC.  Barry Alvarez is a former Lou Holtz assistant and Wisconsin's current athletic director.  And USC is USC.

Peach Bowl:  Houston over Florida State.  Even if Everett Golson was playing, it would still be hard to root for Florida State.

Orange Bowl:  Clemson over Oklahoma.  It would be nice if Clemson went undefeated and won the National Championship and we were the team that was closest to beating them.

Cotton Bowl:  Michigan State over Alabama.  Michigan State is nowhere near as evil as Michigan and I can't root for Alabama so this time I will root for the Spartans.

Outback Bowl:  Tennessee over Northwestern.  Tennessee is not as despicable as most SEC teams and I don't like the Big 10.

Fiesta Bowl:  Notre Dame over Ohio State.  Good over evil.

Citrus Bowl:  Florida over Michigan.  Not quite evil over very evil.

Rose Bowl:  Iowa over Stanford.  I really dislike Stanford.

Sugar Bowl:  Ole Miss over Oklahoma State.  I'm mad at Oklahoma State for not helping us and getting destroyed against Oklahoma (our defense didn't help us either, but still).

TaxSlayer Bowl:  Georgia over Penn State.  I have no interest in rooting for Penn State.

Liberty Bowl:  Arkansas over Kansas State.  Lou Holtz coached at Arkansas.

Alamo Bowl:  TCU over Oregon.  I'm assuming TCU's uniforms will be less offensive than Oregon's.

Cactus Bowl:  Arizona State over West Virginia.  Just because West Virginia is a school that has employed Rich Rodriguez and Bob Huggins.


So I'm going to be working on a running diary here starting around 2:00.  New Dodgers' road game broadcaster Joe Davis is calling Auburn-Xavier on Fox Sports 1 right now.  I was listening to an interview with him.  He's 27 years old and he grew up in Michigan.  When he was asked if he was a Michigan or Michigan State fan, he said he grew up a big Notre Dame fan.  I like this guy.  As much as I don't want Vin Scully to retire, I hope Joe Davis is good and takes over for Vin when that very unfortunate day comes.  As for other basketball, Utah is up on Duke at Madison Square Garden right now.  Virginia is beating Villanova.

Let's get the running diary going:

1:59- Utah and Duke are tied with less than a minute to play.  And now Utah can get the last shot.

2:00- Timeout, Utah with 12.8 left.

2:01- Utah's uniforms have a little Houton Rockets thing going on.

2:02- Utah misses an NBA three at the buzzer.  It was a good look, but you have to go to the basket there.

2:05- Notre Dame and Indiana tip off.  This is a big game for us.  If we can go in to conference play with three wins against Big 10 teams away from home, that would be pretty solid.

2:06- Indiana gets on the board first.

2:07- V.J. Beachem hits a three for Notre Dame's first points.  5-3 Indiana.

2:10- Bonzie Colson scores to give us our first lead, but Indiana quickly takes it back with a three.

2:12- Bonzie gives us the lead again and draws the foul as we head to our first TV timeout.

2:13- Utah is up six on Duke with less than a minute to go.

2:19- It's taking several minutes to play the last minute of this Utah-Duke game.  Utah is making their free throws and they're going to win.

2:20- Duke has a chance for a four-point play to cut it to two with 6.7 left.  How do you foul there?

2:21- The free throw is good and Utah had to call a timeout because they couldn't get the ball in.  This isn't over yet.  Meanwhile, Notre Dame is up 25-17 and Bonzie is off to a very nice start.

2:23- Utah turned it over.  This is ridiculous.  They're going to review it, but it's off Utah.

2:25- Duke has it with 6.4 left and they're down two.

2:26- Duke was having it trouble getting it in, but they get bailed out because the clock started running.

2:27- Duke misses a short shot off the back rim.  It was a great opportunity after the defender fell down.  They fouled with 0.6 left.

2:28- Utah misses both free throws, but survives 77-75.  It took fifteen minutes to play the last minute of the game.

2:32- Beachem hits a three to put Notre Dame up 30-21.

2:33- Steve Vasturia completes a three-point play.

2:34- Now that Utah-Duke is over, ESPN goes to the New Mexico Bowl.  Arizona is up 7-3 and Bob Davie is upset about something.  I believe this game is being played across the street from where the Albuquerque Isotopes play.

2:41- We take a timeout up by eight.  I'm going to take a break to get ready for mass after the game.

3:09- I'm back and we're up 14.  Bonzie Colson already has a career high with 18 points.

3:10- New Mexico kicks an extra point to cut Arizona's lead to 14-10.

3:15- Bonzie just got called for a flagrant foul.

3:16- Indiana makes the two free throws and they have the ball.  They're on an 8-0 run right now.

3:17- Beachem makes a three to stop the run and then he gets a dunk after a turnover.  Beautiful.  We're up 13.

3:25- Indiana's gone on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to six, but Bonzie scores again to put us back up eight.

3:30- We're up eight with 7:02 to play.  Indiana is hanging in there.

3:33- Demetrius Jackson just had a pretty nice put back dunk.

3:37- We just had a shot clock violation.  We're up five with five minutes to play.  We need to get it together.

3:38- Indiana just tied it.  This is ridiculous.

3:42- Bonzie gave us the lead again.

3:45- Bonzie is going to the line with the game tied and 1:15 to play.

3:46- He missed both.

3:47- Zach Auguste just fouled out with 57.5 seconds to play and Indiana just went up two.

3:48- We turn the ball over and commit a foul on the other end.

3:50- Steve Vasturia just missed a three.  We foul down four with 26.9 left.  It's not looking good.

3:51- Jackson just missed a three.  We couldn't hit anything from the outside late in this game.  This is a very disappointing loss.  We were in control for most of the game and played terrible basketball at the end.  Indiana finished on a 17-2 run.  But it's a college basketball game in December.  This would have been a nice one to win, but it's not going to keep us out of the NCAA Tournament.  If we get the job done in ACC play, we'll be fine.  This isn't like losing a football game.

3:54- Utah gets on the board first with a touchdown in the Las Vegas Bowl.  Both teams are wearing dark jerseys.  It's a good contrast with Utah's red and BYU's blue.

3:55- They're reviewing the touchdown.  It definitely looks like the ball carrier was down short of the goal line.

3:56- The call stands.  I definitely disagree.  I'm going to a 4:30 mass.  I'm taking a break until mass and I'm eating dinner after.  So I'll probably be back around 6:00.

6:13- Well I'm back.  Arizona beat New Mexico.  BYU couldn't stop turning the ball over in the first half and they were down 35-0.  Now they're down 35-14.  This was one of the more interesting early bowl games, but it hasn't been too interesting so far.

6:16- Appalachian State is up 7-0 and Ohio just punted.  I'm going to take it easy for now and pick up these games again on the diary if they get interesting.  Scrooged comes on AMC at 7:00.  That's Plan B until the Jet game starts.

7:00- BYU is staying in it.  It's 35-21 with 9:30 to play.  During my break I bought my 2016 Big East Tournament tickets.  They are in the same section as last year and one row closer to the court.  Each ticket was $50 cheaper than last year.  I hope the Big East has a good year.  Obviously Notre Dame is my favorite basketball team.  But after us, I would love to see a Big East school win the National Championship.  It's been 31 years since a team that didn't play major college football win the National Championship in basketball (Villanova in 1985).

7:05- Utah has fourth and 1 in BYU territory.  It looks like they're going to go for it after a timeout.  Huge play coming up.

7:09- BYU gets the stop.  They have five minutes to make up the 14-point deficit.

7:11- BYU gets a first down on third and 10.

7:12- BYU completes a deep pass to the four yard line.  First and goal.

7:13- BYU scores, but this is probably getting reviewed.  The quarterback took off, extended the ball, and lost it.  Did he score before he lost the ball?  I think he did.

7:15- The ruling is confirmed.  The extra point is good.  3:23 left to play and it's 35-28.

7:17- BYU's kick goes out of bounds just short of the goal line.  Looking at the replay, I can't tell if that's the right call or not.  It was close.  It will cost BYU ten yards.

7:18- Utah gains six on first down.  Timeout, BYU.

7:19- It's going to be third and about one and a half for Utah.

7:21- Utah picks up the first down on the option.

7:22- Utah gets another first down.  That should do it.  BYU played a really good second half, but when you turn the ball over five times in the first half, you're in big trouble.

7:23- Apparently Utah's coach went to BYU.  I could never ever under any circumstances coach against Notre Dame.  I just couldn't do it.

7:29- The Cure Bowl is underway.  No score with about five minutes left in the first quarter.  Ithink I'm going to take it easy until the Jet game starts.

So I kept my running diary going through the Jets' victory over the Cowboys, but apparently I didn't save that part.  So it's gone.  Here are some quick thoughts:

I was very happy with the Jets going into this game, but still not optimistic about them getting into the playoffs.  Even if they went 3-0 to finish the season, they'd need either the Chiefs or Steelers to lose.  The Chiefs have a really easy schedule and the Steelers have an easy schedule after they play the Broncos today.  The Jets still have the Patriots and Bills left.  They're the most likely team to miss the playoffs, but I'll be rooting for the Ravens and Broncos today.  And Rex Ryan isn't the coach and Mark Sanchez isn't the quarterback anymore.  So things are looking up for the Jets.  It was kind of an ugly performance against the Cowboys, but I'll take the win.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was on last night.  I quoted some good lines.  If you're reading this on Sunday afternoon, it's on again tonight at 7:00 followed by Elf.

Brent Musburger apparently said something about feeling bad for BYU fans not being able to drink when they were down 35-0.  I thought during the game as they were trying to pull off the comeback that it would be lame to celebrate the victory if they could pull it off without drinking.

Appalachian State, San Jose State, and Louisiana Tech won their bowls yesterday.  I've got Temple-Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday night as the best pre-Christmas Bowl left.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch RedZone for the next six hours.  I'm rooting for the Giants, Bills, Ravens, Browns, Titans, Broncos, and Cardinals today.

College vs. NFL

I'm back to tackle a subject I've tackled before:  college football vs. professional football.  I originally wanted to do this for my 200th post, but what I did instead was quite appropriate.  To review briefly, the NFL used to be my favorite sport.  Football in general has dropped behind baseball, but the NFL has also dropped behind college football.  That started when I transferred to Notre Dame, but I was still a bigger NFL fan than college fan while I was at Notre Dame.  Really it was the Jets that made me a bigger college fan.  But that was due mostly to Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan.  By the way, last year I was worried that the Jets would somehow end up with Jameis Winston.  If that happened, I was out.  I would still be an NFL fan, but there was no way I was ever going to root for that guy.  Anyway, Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan are gone and we avoided Jameis Winston, so can the NFL move back ahead of college?  Let's break it down.

Professional Athletes vs. Student Athletes
I'm partial to student athletes.  The problem is that not every school is Notre Dame.  What percentage of SEC football players are legitimate students?  It's probably pretty low except maybe at Vanderbilt.  College football isn't as bad as college basketball where you have Kentucky and Duke with players that have to act like students for only one semester (yes, Duke has become just about as bad as Kentucky), but it's still bad.
Edge:  NFL

Regular Season
College has the obvious edge here, but one of the best things about college football can also be one of the worst.  In 2013, Notre Dame's season was over by the end of September (two losses).  So it's awesome that the games mean so much, but it can also make life as a college fan pretty miserable.  On the other hand, you have the NFL where the regular season matters more than other professional sports except for baseball, but it still doesn't matter that much.  The 2002 Jets started 1-4 and then ended up winning a playoff game (41-0 against Peyton Manning, still the last home playoff game for the Jets).  The 2011 Giants went 9-7 and then beat the cheaters from New England for the second time in four years in the Super Bowl.  I mean that was wonderful, but yeah, I'll take having every regular season game matter.
Big Edge:  College

Method of Determining the Champion
College has come a long way.  They used to vote for the National Champions.  In 1993, Notre Dame beat Florida State during the regular season.  Both teams won their bowl game and finished with one loss and yet Florida State was voted National Champions.  Now we have a four team playoff with the teams chosen by a committee.  It's a big upgrade.  In fact, I don't know if I'd made any changes.  Brian Kelly wants an eight-team playoff, which would be very good for Notre Dame this year.  However, it would make the regular season less important and you'd get a lot of two-loss teams and possibly even three-loss teams competing for the championship.  I wouldn't like that.  I don't think it's perfect, but I don't know how to fix it.  Notre Dame dropped from 4 to 6 in the rankings after an ugly win against Boston College.  As my brother Sean pointed out, in the NFL all you have to do is win.  There's a 12-team tournament where all the spots are determined by record and tie-breakers.  Simple.  There's no debate.  Everybody knows the rules and how to make the playoffs.
Edge:  NFL

Postseason
This is closely related to the last topic, but not exactly the same.  College has made some great changes.  I love the New Year's Six.  College has reclaimed New Year's with the six biggest bowls.  And it's nice to have two of those bowls having a hand in determining the National Champions each year again.  It's also nice to have the bowls on during my Christmas vacation.  In fact, I'm a little disappointed that I'm going to miss the Miami Beach Bowl on December 21 because I have to teach and then coach a basketball game that day.  But really, the only reason I'm interested in it is that it's played in a baseball stadium.  It's 11-2 Western Kentucky against 8-4 South Florida.  The game is pretty much meaningless.  And so are most bowl games.  Was I supposed to be happy two years ago when we won the Pinstripe Bowl?  I mean, it was fun, but I wasn't happy with our season.  One thing that college needs to figure out is how to get the National Championship Game off of Monday night and have it played on a Saturday instead.  The NFL gets the postseason right.  All the postseason games matter.  And they're all well-attended, unlike a lot of college bowl games.  I also really like the first two weekends of the NFL Playoffs when you have two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday.  One thing that would make it better would be if we were always off the day after the Super Bowl (I'm not totally opposed to Super Bowl Saturday, but I'd rather just be off on the Monday), but at least the Super Bowl starts at 6:30 and not 8:30.
Big Edge:  NFL

Not Having a Huge Gap in the Season
We have almost four weeks between the last game for Clemson, Alabama, and Michigan State and their playoff games (almost five for Oklahoma).  It used to be even worse.  In 2006 and 2007, Ohio State had more than seven weeks between their last game and the Championship Game.  And people complain about two weeks between the Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl.
Edge:  NFL

Rules Differences
I don't mind the rules differences.  I like that the rules aren't the same.  One foot down in college, two in the NFL.  A ball carrier being down when on the ground in college, down by contact in the NFL.  The different hash marks.  I'm partial to college's wider hash marks because the field looks nicer and field goals are more difficult, but I can live with the NFL's hash marks.  I also think the NFL's long extra points are silly, but I'm good with either set of rules.
Small Edge:  College

Overtime
This is the exception to the rules differences.  Football has kickoffs and punts.  College overtime doesn't.  In football you have to earn good field position.  Unless you're in overtime in college.  If you want to make sure both teams have a possession fine, but don't take all special teams except for field goals out of the game.
Big Edge:  NFL

Day of the Week
This one is easy.  Saturday is just the best day of the week.  It's not even close.  I don't have to go to work that day or the next day.  It's wonderful.  Sunday is the end of my weekend.  If there's stuff I put off because I wanted to watch college football, I have to do it on Sunday.  And I have to go to work the next day.
Big Edge:  College

Weekly Schedule
I don't like Monday night games.  They end late and I still have four days of work after that left in my week.  So that's not helping the NFL.  Both have games on Thursday nights that I don't really like either.  College has Friday night games which I don't mind, but they're usually not particularly interesting games.  But let's just focus on college's Saturday schedule vs. the NFL's Sunday Schedule.  On Saturday the games start at noon.  You usually don't have great games at noon, but you might have something interesting.  At 3:30, you get most Notre Dame home games, an SEC game on CBS and maybe something interesting on ABC or ESPN.  Then at night you get lots of games on ABC/ESPN and probably Fox also.  Usually the best games are at night.  I love when Notre Dame wins in the afternoon and then I can just drink beer and enjoy the night games.  It's the best.  If you're lucky you might get a good Pac 12 game starting after 10:00.  Good times.  The NFL, on the other hand, ugh.  At most you're getting 14 games on Sunday (except for week 17) because of the Thursday and Monday games.  You have a Sunday night game.  So that leaves 13 games for Sunday afternoon.  For some reason, the NFL has decided to play the vast majority of these games at 1:00.  This weekend for example, we have eleven 1:00 games and two 4:00 games.  This is inexcusable.  If you're playing 13 Sunday afternoon games, at least four of them should be at 4:00.  If you only have two or three late games, you're left with a decent chance that none of those games are good.  And then you have one game at night that might or might not be good.
Big Edge:  College

My Teams
Notre Dame vs. the Jets.  I mean, the Jets had Joe Namath and Curtis Martin, but...
Big Edge:  College

Verdict:  I had ten categories.  (Did I miss anything?)  Of those categories, we have the NFL with the edge in three and a big edge in two.  College has a big edge in four and a small edge in one.  If we're awarding one point for an edge and two points for a big edge (and none for a small edge), college wins by a score of 8-7.  I actually think three points would be more appropriate for a big edge, which would give us college by a score of 12-9.  Yeah, I like college better.

Fenway Football

This is my 200th blog post (this was number 100).  I had another idea for it, but maybe I'll save that for 201 (the blog post that is seen once and then disappears forever).  This is about a trip to my second favorite city in the world to visit a presidential library and historical sites and (more importantly) to see my favorite team (of all the teams I root for) play a football game in my favorite baseball stadium.  So this is appropriate for blog post 200.

I had most of the day on Saturday to myself.  I decided to start the day at the Kennedy Presidential Library.  It didn't have as much as I the other presidential libraries that I've been to.  There was not much on the economy.  The recreation of the Oval Office seemed to be a miniature version (whereas the others seemed to have full size Oval Offices).  The stuff on the Cuban Missile Crisis was out of commission.  It looked like there was a small section in the regular exhibits that was closed and then there was also a bigger temporary exhibit that was also closed.  I definitely would have wanted to see those.  And there was very little on the assassination.  There was just a dark hallway toward the end that said "November 22, 1963" on one wall and TVs showing some of the news coverage from that day and the following days on the other wall.  I walked through it at first and expected there to be more past the hallway, but you just get to the section on his legacy then.  But I did go to the museum at Dealey Plaza, so that was probably as good as it's going to get in terms of the assassination.  And I did appreciate the fact that the museum is not overwhelming.  At the others I've been to there's so much to read that you can't take it all in.  I did learn some good stuff.  Like how carving a message into a coconut saved Kennedy's life during World War II and how he was in Europe right before World War II started.  At the end, I tried to sign the electronic guestbook and quote the South Park Kids by saying "You know, I learned something today," but I kept getting an error message.

Kennedy's Oval Office

One of Kennedy's golf clubs that wasn't bought by J. Peterman

So here are the power rankings of the presidential libraries that I've been to:

5.  Jimmy Carter- It's really not a bad museum, but it's Jimmy Carter.

4.  John F. Kennedy- It left me wanting more.

3.  Harry Truman- It's a very solid library.

2.  George W. Bush- I might have Truman ahead of Bush, but I enjoyed this more because I lived through his presidency and you can walk around the Oval Office and sit at his desk.

1.  Ronald Reagan- The setting, Air Force 1, the Berlin Wall (the Kennedy Library also had a piece of the Berlin Wall), Reagan's grave, it's awesome.

After that, I headed north to check out some things along the Freedom Trail.  Some of them I had seen with John back in 2009 or 2010.  First I walked past the Boston Tea Party Museum.  I didn't go in because I was a little pressed for time and I didn't really feel like paying to see it.  You can see people going on boats and reenacting throwing the tea into the harbor.  I went to the graveyard where Benjamin Franklin's parents, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are buried.  Next I went to the site of the Boston Massacre.  From there, I stopped at the Union Oyster House on John's suggestion, which is America's oldest restaurant.  It only goes back to 1826, so it wasn't around during the Revolution, but Daniel Webster used to drink brandy there.  It has a weird, really old downward slanting bar.  If you order chowder, they set up coasters to keep your bowl from sliding down the bar and into your lap.  There is a flat section of the bar on the edge closer to the bartenders that you can use to keep your drinks on.  I had a Sam Adams Colonial Ale, which is apparently not available anywhere else.  It was pretty good.  My last stop was the Old North Church, which is famous because of Paul Revere's ride.  It's a weird looking church on the inside.  The pews are all in little boxes that look like penalty boxes.

Sam Adams

Sam Adams Colonial Ale at the Union Oyster House

I went back to my hotel to watch a little football and charge my phone.  I went a 4:00 mass at St. Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center.  I definitely don't prefer night games, but being able to go to mass before the game is definitely a benefit.  Speaking of that, what's the best start time?  I like to do two things besides watch football on Saturdays:  go to mass (so I don't have to worry about getting up and going on Sunday morning) and drink beer.  I prefer to drink beer while watching other football games after Notre Dame has won.  By that logic, noon games are the best.  The home 3:30 games work when I go to the game because I can go to mass after the game, but I don't really drink much after those because I don't have a place to stay on campus anymore.  The night games allow me to go to mass, but there isn't much football left after the Notre Dame game is over (you might get lucky and get a good Pac 12 game at 10:30).  If I had to pick a start time, I'd want our games to start at 1:00.  Back in 2005 (my first year there), we didn't have all our home games at either 3:30 or 7:30.  They started at 2:30, 1:30, and 1:00.  Now I think those 2:30 games were really 3:30 because South Bend didn't know what time zone it was in back then, but I think the 1:00 game really was at 1:00 (the Navy game was in November when South Bend was on Eastern time).  A 1:00 start would also mean that there wasn't total overlap with the noon games or the 3:30 games.  But alas, we're stuck with all 3:30 or 7:30 home games and mostly night road games.

Lots of Notre Dame fans at this mass.

Anyway, I walked from mass to Fenway.  I wanted to get in early because I didn't have a ticket.  John told me what gate to go to.  The first guy working there stopped me and asked for my ticket.  When I went to a Red Sox game with John over the summer, I just went in with him when he showed up for work.  This time was different.  I had to be like, "Um, I'm with that guy" as I pointed to John and his mustache.  But I was allowed in.  I applied in the lottery for tickets and didn't win.  The week before the game, I got an email from Notre Dame saying that some tickets had become available.  I texted John to see if it was going to be any issue for him to get me in (especially after the attack at the soccer stadium in Paris) and he said it wouldn't be a problem.  So this was the second major sporting event that I went to without a ticket and both times were thanks to John.  It was also his last event working at Fenway, so the timing of this game was perfect.

I was one of the first fans in the stadium so I had plenty of time to walk around and check out the set up for football.  The field was going kind of from the third base side out to right field (as opposed to Yankee Stadium where the field goes out to center field).  After walking around, I decided that standing on the right field roof was as good of a view as I was going to get.  But I hung out for a little bit right behind the end zone in right field where I had some good views of the Notre Dame offensive skill players warming up.

After all the wide receivers went out for a pass, DeShone Kizer would go out and make a catch himself before doing it again going the other way.

I got myself a Sam Adams Octoberfest before heading up to the right field roof.  By the way, I very much underrated Octoberfest on my Beer Power Rankings.  My friend Bobby once said, "I love Summer Ale and everything it stands for."  I totally agree.  I don't love everything Octoberfest stands for (even though my appreciation of the fall has grown greatly in the last ten years), but it is an excellent beer.  Anyway, I broke one of my rules this day.  I had three beers that were all very spaced out.  If I'm going to have three beers in a day, I'd rather have them in a short period of time.  That way I'll start feeling a little something from the alcohol.  But when I space it out, I just drank a decent amount of alcohol without feeling anything from it.  But how often do you get to drink a Sam Adams beer that's only offered in one place in Boston?  And how often do you get to drink an Octoberfest at a football game at Fenway Park in late November?  The third beer would be a victory beer after the game.  By the way, I think my last Summer Ale on tap this summer was at Fenway in August.

Octoberfest at Fenway

Anyway, I'm not going to spend much time talking about the game.  If you saw it, you know why.  Before the game started, I heard a big roar coming from the bar that was a couple hundred feet from where I was standing.  I knew right away that it must have been because Michigan State beat Ohio State.  During the game, I was paying attention to Baylor-Oklahoma State on the scoreboard.  Thankfully, Baylor won.  What didn't work out for us was Oklahoma holding on by one point against TCU.  TCU went for two at the end to win an didn't get it.  What I learned a couple days later was that they also went for two and didn't get it early in the third quarter.  Two extra points and they win.  If that's what keeps Notre Dame out of the playoff, that's going to hurt.  By the way, it was really cool how they set up the scoreboard on the Green Monster.  They had the score for our game, out of town scores, and they also had the scores of all previous Shamrock Series games.  The picture of Brian Kelly on the Green Monster was a little ridiculous, though.

We won 19-16 while losing the turnover battle 5-1.  And turnovers weren't even the reason it was so close.  The two touchdowns that Boston College scored late weren't off turnovers (although we probably would have scored a lot more if not for the turnovers).  I watched most of the first quarter by myself.  Then John got done working and joined me.  I got on the scoreboard at one point during the first half.  Neither John or I reacted quickly enough to take a picture of it, but John can verify that I was in fact shown on the Fenway Park scoreboard.  I think the camera that showed me was at least 200 feet away by the bar I mentioned earlier.  At halftime Wilhelm and his father met up with us.  The band saluted the Boston Celtics and the Boston Red Sox.  They made a basket and hit a home run over the Green Monster as part of the halftime show.  John was entertained by the performance.  John took us over to the Green Monster for a little bit in the third quarter.  I've seen Wilhelm a lot lately.  I went back to after I graduated for the Navy game in the season that must not be discussed.  The next time I saw him was more than five years later at the National Championship Game.  Our next game after that was Oklahoma in 2013 (which I didn't blog about apparently, understandable).  At that point, I said we needed to stop going to games together if we were going to lose every time.  The Shamrock Series in Dallas got things turned around.  Since then, we've been to wins against Navy (also no blog post), Stanford, and now Boston College (plus I visited him in Texas for a Ranger game).  Late in the game they announced the attendance and John said something like, "It's a little more than that."  This one wasn't pretty, but whatever, we won.  After the game, John and I went to a barbecue place for some delicious food and victory beers.

My view for more than half of the game

Part of the band's performance.  The pitcher pitches it and the batter hits it over the Green Monster.

John and me

Me and Wilhelm

This was our view from the Green Monster after Chris Brown made a nice touchdown catch.

I read a lot of negative feedback about the game at Fenway.  I think that was entirely because of how poorly we played.  If we win this game by four touchdowns, everybody would be talking about how awesome it was.  I'm sure there were a lot of seats with bad views and it's way too small to accommodate the demand for tickets so I wouldn't do this often.  I would say maybe once ever 20 or 30 years (whereas I'd like to play at Yankee Stadium once or twice every ten years).  Here's how I'd rank the Shamrock Series games I've been to:

4.  FedEx Field against Maryland in 2011- It's a distant fourth, but these might have been the least offensive uniforms we've worn since we started doing stupid things with the uniforms.

3.  JerryWorld against Arizona State in 2013- It was a lot of fun and I'm sure some people would rank this higher.  It's the best opponent we've had for a Shamrock Series game (although Miami is historically better).

2.  Yankee Stadium against Army in 2010- I love the history of Notre Dame and Army at Yankee Stadium, even if it's not the same Yankee Stadium.

1.  Fenway Park against Boston College in 2015- Boston College used to play their home games at Fenway Park until the Red Sox kicked them out.  There hadn't been football at Fenway Park since 1968.  It took Notre Dame playing a home game there with "Notre Dame" and "Fighting Irish" painted in the end zones to get football and Boston College back to Fenway.  This game was just making fun of Boston College.  I love Fenway Park and I love Boston.

Surprisingly, this was my first game ever against Boston College.  We played them 19 out of 21 years from 1992-2012.  The two years we didn't play them was when I was a student there.  My record when attending Notre Dame football games is now 29-11.  In games I haven't attended since the start of the 2005 season, Notre Dame is 61-37.  So Notre Dame has a .725 winning percentage with me and .622 without me.  The lesson, as always, I need to go to more games.

Some fans don't like the Shamrock Series in general.  I've been to four games and really enjoyed each experience.  I would like to get some better opponents.  I would be willing to offer schools a more even split in tickets as long as the game stays on NBC (this last one was on NBC Sports Network, I don't know how we let that happen, I don't know if that's the way it's going to be for future Shamrock Series games).  I've thought about where I'd like to see the game played.  Next year we're going to San Antonio (the first repeat site) to play Army.  I have some interest in going to San Antonio, but probably not to see us play Army in a crappy dome.  Put me down as doubtful for that one.  After that, no other sites have been announced.  So here's my wish list of places where we haven't played the Shamrock Series:

St. Louis- But only if it's played in Busch Stadium.  The Cardinals have a great franchise and the football stadium there is a crappy dome.  We could play a Big 12 or SEC team.

Houston- Playing football in Texas is never bad for recruiting.  Again, a Big 12 or SEC team.

Cincinnati- Easy for lots of fans to get to.  Maybe play West Virginia or a Big 10 team there.

New Orleans- Again, playing in the South. SEC or Big 12.

Denver- I would want to play BYU or Air Force there.

Toronto- I guess we could play a Big 10 team there.

Seattle- Oregon is the team I'd want to play in Seattle.

Philadelphia- We just played there for a Temple home game.  We could probably play an ACC team there.

Those weren't really in any particular order.  Here are my top 5:

5.  Atlanta- I am fairly convinced that this one will happen some time after Atlanta gets its new stadium.  It would have to be a year when we don't play at Georgia (we a series with them coming up) or at Georgia Tech.  It's always good for recruiting to play in the South.  We could play an SEC team or an ACC team there.

4.  Los Angeles- I don't think this will happen since we play in Los Angeles every other year.  But I'd want to play at Dodger Stadium (I'm not even sure they could fit a football field in there, but they did play soccer there) against UCLA or any Pac 12 team.

3.  Dublin- We did play in Dublin, but that was a Navy home game, not a Shamrock Series game.  I'm not in a rush to go back.  Maybe 10-15 years from now, but it was awesome.  We could probably play anybody there as long as we space it out enough from the last game we played there.

2.  Green Bay- Brian Kelly mentioned wanting to play at Lambeau Field in a press conference.  I absolutely agree.  That's the one NFL Stadium I really want to get to.  We could play any Big 10 team there.

1.  Rome- The guys on one of the many Notre Dame podcasts I listen to mentioned this one time and they seemed pretty convinced that it's going to happen, but that's the only time I ever heard anything about it.  Boston College should definitely be the opponent if it happens.

Of course, New York, Chicago, and Washington could always host Notre Dame.  I would say New York (as in Yankee Stadium, not the Meadowlands) and Chicago should both get a game every ten years.  And playing in Dallas is always a good idea for recruiting.

Anyway, I hope everybody enjoys my eighth favorite day of the year (although it's probably now behind New Year's Eve/New Year's Day now that college football once again owns New Year's).  I'll be drinking Summer Ale with dinner.  Saturday is a huge day.  Go Oklahoma State!  Go Irish!

Hockey in a Basketball Arena

I went to my second college hockey game since graduating on Sunday.  The first one was at Fenway Park in January 2014.  So I've seen Notre Dame play hockey in a baseball stadium and this game was in a basketball arena that also happens to be the new home of the New York Islanders.  I'm thinking about taking a trip back to campus this winter to see them play at the Compton Family Ice Arena.  We'll see.

Notre Dame was playing UConn at Barclays Center at 2:30.  It was actually game 2 of a doubleheader.  The first game was Army and Bentley.  I was going with Kyle and we definitely didn't have any interest in the first game.  So we met at Barclays Center about 40 minutes before the Notre Dame game.  The crowd was small.  The Notre Dame box score didn't list attendance.  My guess is that it was 2,000, but that might be high.  Most of the concession stands were closed.  I had a cheeseburger that was very very lackluster.  It was okay, but there was nothing special about it at all.  The beer selection at Barclays Center is not great (get some Brooklyn stuff in there), but I had a Blue Point Toasted Lager.

I really wanted to go to this game not so much because I care about the hockey team (I'll be interested if we make it to the Frozen Four, but that's about it), but because I wanted to see hockey at Barclays Center.  Ticket prices weren't too bad.  Kyle and I decided to shell out for really nice seats.  We were around the blue line in row 7 for $61.  I figure if I go to any Islanders games this year (I don't plan on it) or any time in the next few years, I won't be getting seats like that for less than $100.  What we really should have done though was just buy cheap tickets and then moved to better seats.  There were plenty of seats open and nobody was checking tickets.  But whatever.  The setup for hockey is not particularly good.  The arena wasn't built for hockey so they have to take out seats on one end to fit in the hockey rink.  The ice is off center (which you can notice by comparing center ice to the scoreboard in the middle of the arena).  It's kind of weird, but it's not that big of a deal.  The really bad thing is if you're sitting on the end where they have to take out seats.  You can't see one of the goals if you're sitting on that side.  Most of the seats aren't too bad for hockey, but those seats are horrendous.

This was my first look at the ice.  You can't see the goal on the near side.

Our view for the game was very good.

As for the game, Notre Dame dominated UConn.  We beat them 2-1 the night before.  This night it would be 8-2.  I thought UConn was outplaying us early on, but scored the first goal about nine minutes in and never looked back.  It was 3-0 after the first period and then 5-1 after two.  Our seventh goal came on a delayed penalty ... on us.  UConn pulled the goalie for the extra skater and made a bad pass that went all the way down the ice and into the goal.  I don't know if I've ever seen that happen before.  One thing that I learned is that Notre Dame has a player that was drafted by the Rangers in 2011.  He's a senior at Notre Dame now.  He's listed on the Rangers' website on the "In the System" section.  I assume the Rangers haven't signed him to a contract, but still have his rights.  Fogarty scored one of the eight goals.  If he ever makes it to the Rangers, he'll take Ryan McDonagh's spot as my favorite player.

So yeah, it was good to see Kyle and I enjoyed hockey at Barclays Center.  I'm sure an Islander game is a different experience with many thousands of people more in attendance, but I got some idea of what it was like.  If you go to a game, make sure not to sit on the end where they take out seats.  If you do that, your view of the game should be fine.  Just be ready for a not very good beer selection.