Hi, I went to Delaware

It took me until May to get to a baseball game this year.  In the last 11 years, I've been to at least one April game every year except for 2011 (when my first game was Dodgers-Mets on May 6).  I had the four-day weekend for Ascension Thursday and took my nearly-annual Ascension Thursday trip.  In 2012, I went to San Diego.  I was in school on Ascension Thursday in 2013 to make up days because of Hurricane Sandy.  In 2014, I went to Toronto.  And last year, I went to Birmingham and Cincinnati.  So this year, I went to ... wait for it ... Wilmington, Delaware!  Why?  Well, I'm nearly done with Major League stadiums and it's unclear whether I'll get to the two I haven't gotten to yet (Oakland and Tampa Bay), it was just a train ride away, and Delaware might have been the most questionable state as to whether or not I should get credit for have been to.  I had been thinking about that.  Of the 47 states I've been to, there were 14 that I had never spent a night in (in blue on this map).  So let's go through those states:

Mississippi and West Virginia are probably the least questionable.  I just went to both to see historic sites and spent several hours in both.  There are several states that I've been to where eating a meal is pretty much the only thing I've done:  New Hampshire (a year before the blog, but I also drove through it again on the way to Maine), Wyoming, Oregon, and Maine.  I saw Mickey Mantle's house in Oklahoma and then drove north through Kansas and stopped at the place that inspired the movie Cars.  I made a point of going to a Gulf War memorial in Nebraska and then drove north through South Dakota and stopped at a winery last summer.  I've driven through Rhode Island a few times in recent years.  I think the only time I've every actually spent time in the state was when I went with my brothers when they visited Providence in 1995 (I'm pretty sure we went right to Boston from there and didn't spend a night).  So that one is getting a little questionable.  I might take a trip there this season for a Pawtucket Red Sox game.  That leaves Kentucky, Tennessee, and Delaware.  Wilhelm, Jon, Dennis, Chris, and I drove through Kentucky and Tennessee on our way to and from the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game in 2006.  We stopped at an Arby's in Kentucky on the way there and Dennis was fascinated by the accent of the cashier.  And we stopped somewhere in Tennessee to eat on the way back (it might have been a Waffle House, but I think we went to a Waffle House in Georgia, so I don't remember).  And it took probably a couple of hours to drive through both of those states.  So they might be a little bit questionable, but I'm counting them.  But as for Delaware, I had only been there on my way to and from other places (usually Washington, DC).  I had probably been to a rest stop or two in Delaware, but I had never really done anything in the state.  So I was off and I hadn't been to a baseball game yet this season, so why not Delaware.  I thought of this Wayne's World clip:

I got in to Wilmington around 2:30.  The game was at 6:30.  So I killed some time by walking around by the Christina River.  Then I went to the Iron Hill Brewery, which wasn't far from Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.  I had a Dunkelweizen and a turkey burger.  I would have liked to have tried more of their beer, but I wasn't looking to drink too much.  The beer and the food were solid.  After that, I walked around a little more and then headed to the stadium shortly after the gates opened at 5:30.

I haven't reviewed anything on Yelp in years, but I'd give it four stars.

Outside the stadium

The Wilmington Blue Rocks play high-A ball in the Carolina league.  They're an affiliate of the Royals.  They were taking on a Cubs' affiliate, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.  The stadium is small.  You don't have the 360 degree concourse.  But you do have a great beer selection for the minor leagues.  Seriously, they had a better beer selection than some Major League stadiums (I'm looking at you, Yankee Stadium).  And there was a pretty good food selection too.  Even though it was 55 degrees, I resisted the temptation to get a Summer Ale on tap.  I got a Copperhead Ale from the Fordham and Dominion Brewing Company, which is located in Dover.  I figured if I was going to be in Delaware, I should get a Delaware beer that I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to drink.  It was no Summer Ale (nothing is), but it was quite good and I would definitely drink it again if I saw it anywhere.  And to eat, I got crab fries from Chickie's and Pete's.

This was my view for the first few innings.  I moved down and closer toward third after a few innings.

This seat remains unoccupied in honor of more than 92,000 unaccounted for American soldiers since World War I.  That's a nice job by Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.

Wilmington scored two in the first and two in the seventh.  They won 4-0.  Their starter pitched eight and gave up six hits, no walks, and had 11 strikeouts.  Pretty impressive performance.  The game only took two hours and 16 minutes and allegedly there were 3,919 people in attendance.  Capacity is 6,404.  There is no way that it was more than half full.  I'm saying the real attendance was 1,000-2,000.

After the game, I walked back to the train station and I got home around 1:30 in the morning.  So I still haven't spent a night in Delaware, but I made a point of going there.  I hope to get to some other nearby minor league games this year.  So far, I think I've been to minor league games at eight different stadiums (seven affiliated teams, one independent team.  One was G. Richard Pfitzner Stadium, where the Potomac Cannons (now Potomac Nationals) play, back in 2003.  I don't really remember that too much, but let's rank the other seven:

7.  Dehler Park in Billings.  It was a cool location and there was some really good food.  But it was a rookie ball park and everything about it said rookie ball.  It was small and you had goofy things going on between innings (which every minor league park has, but this was the goofiest).  I'm ranking it last, but it wasn't bad (unlike US Cellular Field, which is just bad).

6.  Arvest Ballpark in Springdale.  It was named baseballpark.com's 2008 Ballpark of the Year, but it really wasn't anything all that special.  Pretty good beer selection, not much of a food selection.  It was fine, but I liked several others more.

5.  Memorial Stadium in Boise.  It's old and set up differently than every other minor league ballpark I've been to.  There really is no concourse where you can see the field.  The seats go up higher than other minor league ballparks (which I liked).  But the food and beer were very good (the selection of Idaho beers I had was outstanding).

4.  Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo.  No 360 degree concourse, but it had a solid food and beer selection.  And it had a Maury Wills Museum and the field had the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium.

3.  Isotopes Park in Albuquerque.  It's the biggest minor league stadium I've been to.  I loved the Simpsons theme, but long lines were an issue, which was disappointing considering the stadium was only a little more than half full.

2.  Daniel S. Frawley Stadium.  The only drawback was the lack of a 360 degree concourse.  But food and beverage options were outstanding and quick and easy (I guess it helped that the crowd was so small).

1.  Regions Field in Birmingham.  It was a little bit of a funky stadium, but it had a great crowd and a great beer selection.  Very solid.

"Big" Daddy's Town

Before I get to my latest trip, some quick words on yesterday.  I picked the wrong year to do a running diary of Opening Day and the National Championship Game in college basketball.  The Dodgers dominated and Clayton Kershaw was at his best.  And the basketball game was as good as you could hope for.  I was definitely rooting for Villanova.  You had a Catholic school from the Big East that's had a 100% graduation rate six years in a row against North Carolina, a school with fake classes for athletes.  The last time a team that didn't play Division I-A/FBS football won the national championship in basketball was UConn in 1999.  And they were one football season away from going to I-A.  Before UConn, it was Villanova in 1985.  It was a close game all game long and it had a classic finish.  I certainly wasn't expecting this after seeing them lose to Seton Hall.  On the other hand, I saw them dismantle Iowa a week later.  And unlike Syracuse, they certainly didn't have an easy road.  The last four teams they beat were ranked 10, 1, 7, and 3 going into the tournament.  And they destroyed every team except for Kansas and North Carolina.  My other thought is that college basketball is the only sport where I actually like teams other than my team.  I legitimately like all the Big East schools.  In the other sports, I have plenty of teams that I root against, but I don't really like any teams other than mine.  So I was as excited as I could be for a result other than my team winning the championship.  Of course, it didn't compare to how I would feel if Notre Dame won the championship.  I didn't have a victory beer and I had a fairly productive day of work today.  If Notre Dame had won last night, I would have had several victory beers and I already would have arranged to take off today.  But it was a fun college basketball season.  It got me through to baseball season.

Anyway, Easter vacation is always a time that I like to go away.  I like to get to baseball games and/or go to places I've never been to before.  Let's review my last three years:

2013- Opening Day at Dodger Stadium and Milwaukee
2014- Los Angeles and San Francisco
2015- Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and Dallas

Sadly, the early Easter this year meant that there would be no baseball (actually, there almost was baseball, we'll get there).  But I was able to get to two new states, which brings my total to 47.

I decided to go to New Orleans and combine that with a trip to Mississippi.  So I just had to figure out what to do in Mississippi.  I really wanted to go to New Orleans for the National World War II Museum.  That's all I really wanted to do.  I ended up combining that with a couple other things.  As for Mississippi, I thought about going to Vicksburg.  One of the most important battles of the Civil War was fought there.  But going to Vicksburg would have required twice as much driving as going to Biloxi and I was planning on driving there and back in one day.  My trip was from Monday-Wednesday.  Monday was in New Orleans.  Tuesday was the Mississippi portion, but I needed to drive back to New Orleans and stay there for the night because my flight back was at 6:00 in the morning on Wednesday.  So I went to Biloxi.

I got to New Orleans early on Monday and after getting to my hotel, I went right to the World War II Museum.  Why is the museum in New Orleans?  It is because a very high percentage of the boats used by the US Navy were designed and/or built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans.  It was a good thing to see the day after Notre Dame was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.  I was disappointed, but I handled Notre Dame's elimination pretty well.  We lost to a team that was clearly better and we were competitive for the first 30 minutes.  After making it to the Elite Eight for the second straight season (and getting to see two tournament wins in person), I can't complain.  But visiting the World War II Museum really puts things in perspective.  It's hard to be upset about basketball when you're thinking about World War II.  The museum has different buildings that you go through.  If I remember correctly, most of the interesting stuff to see was in the third building.  But the second building had Beyond All Boundaries, a short movie produced by Tom Hanks.  You have to pay $5 more to see it, but it's worth it.  As I sat there watching it, I was crying.  I admit it.  As somebody who didn't live through World War II, it really is horrifying to think about how many people died in that war and the sacrifices our soldiers made.  Of course, stopping the Germans and the Japanese was absolutely necessary and lots more people would have died if we didn't stop them.  I have said that the Allies won for three reasons:

1. Churchill refused to surrender.  In June 1940, Britain had no major powers as allies.  Sure, they had Canada, Australia, and some other former colonies, but these were not major powers.  France had surrendered.  The Soviet Union and United States had not joined the war yet.  Which leads me to our other two reasons.

One of my favorite people in history

2. Hitler made a huge mistake and invaded the Soviet Union.  Suddenly the British had a major power as an ally to fight the Nazis and the Soviets did the fighting in Eastern Europe.

3. The US got involved after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.  The British and Soviets were almost fighting separate wars against Germay (and they weren't really fighting the Japanese).  The US could help the British in North Africa and Western Europe and fight the Japanese in the Pacific.

In the third building, you had the first floor dedicated to the war against Germany and the second floor dedicated to the war against Japan.  You go through them chronologically until you get to the surrender.  One of the artifacts from the war against Germany was a Nazi Flag taken as a souvenir by American soldiers.  They signed it.  One of the names on there was Lt. Leslie Schultz from Greenlawn, NY.

I spent about five hours there and I would have spent more time there, but they closed at 5:00.  Actually, I was ready to leave, but then I found an exhibit in the first building that was kind of hidden.  I checked it out and there was hardly anybody else there because it was so hidden (and because the museum was about to close).  I had to run through it really quickly.  They had a cool display comparing the size of the US Army to Germany and Japan at the start of the war.  One thing I learned was that the US had the 18th or 19th largest army in the world at the start of the war.  I think they said 18th in the Tom Hanks movie and at one other spot in the museum, but when I googled it I found 19th.  I couldn't find a list ranking the armies, but we were behind Romania and Portugal.  That's amazing.

And we beat them both.

This is why I study history.

After that, I took a walk to the Courtyard Brewery.  It reminded me a little bit of the Sand City Brewery in Northport, which John and I went to back in December.  It's small and kind of hidden.  But they had a wide selection of beer (some of which wasn't their own).  I had the Blanch de Orleans, which was fine, but nothing special.  I'm pretty sure it was my first ever Louisiana beer.  I'll have to do a blog post soon with the states I've had a beer from.  I have to be at more than half by now, but I've never really taken the time to figure it out.

My next stop was another Man vs. Food location, Mother's Restaurant.  I had what Adam had on the show, which was the Ferdi Special.  It had ham, roast beef, their debris with real au jus sauce (I tried to find the video of Kramer celebrating selling his stories to Peterman, but I don't think it's on YouTube).  It was good, but it's not like I'd make a point of going there again if I was in New Orleans (as opposed to say the Vortex Bar and Grille in Atlanta, which was excellent).  I think this was my 16th Man vs. Food spot.  I'll finish this post with some thoughts on some of those places.

The Ferdi Special

The last thing I had planned was Knicks-Pelicans.  Unlike last year when I went to Salt Lake City and saw the Jazz, I didn't have this planned originally.  I was going to New Orleans for the World War II Museum and then I decided to check the NBA schedule and the Pelicans were home.  This game isn't really worth talking about much.  Jerian Grant didn't score.  They had a commercial clock in the arena like baseball does now and every time a 20 second timeout was called, they put one minute on the clock.  The box score said the attendance was 17,000.  I was there and it wasn't close to that.  There weren't 16,999 other people at the game.  The upper level was more than half empty.  At most, there were 12,000 people there.  And the last two minutes of the game took way too long to finish.  The Pelicans won 99-91.  That's all I need to say about the game.

Two bad NBA teams

After the game I took a walk down to Bourbon Street.  I figured I should see it.  Like Las Vegas, this was not my scene.  I like drinking with my friends, but large crowds of unruly people that I don't know are not my scene (one of the many reasons I never need to go back to Las Vegas).  One of my favorite nights ever was Thursday, March 18, 2010.  It was the night after St. Patrick's Day and the night before the weekend.  Pete and I went out in Huntington and the town was dead.  But we watched basketball (it was the first night of the NCAA Tournament), drank a lot of beer, and had a great time.  Twelve Bars of Christmas was another great night.  It was me and six other people on a Sunday night in Huntington and it was great.  Anyway, back to New Orleans, how many people get really sick from drinking way too much?  I'm glad I didn't go to the Sugar Bowl in January 2007.  My friends tried to get me to go, but I think my response was something like "Isn't New Orleans worse than Detroit right now?"  The city was still a mess from Hurricane Katrina (it's not anymore), we got destroyed by LSU, and Bourbon Street would have been ridiculous.  So I'm glad I didn't go back then.  I walked down Bourbon Street to Spirits on Bourbon (from Bar Rescue) just to see it.  I didn't have anything to drink and I just walked back to my hotel.

Bourbon Street

The next day, I took a shuttle back to the airport to pick up my rental car.  And the driver looked and sounded a whole lot like Charles "Big" Daddy from "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase."  And then I was off to Biloxi.  I stopped when I first got to Biloxi and took a quick walk on the beach and dipped my hand in the Gulf of Mexico.  It was not nearly as nice looking as the Gulf of Mexico was when I was in Tampa five years ago for Greg's wedding.  My next stop was Beauvoir, which is the last place where Jefferson Davis lived.  The property has the house and the Jefferson Davis "Presidential" Museum.  Most of the buildings on the property were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but the house was still standing.  The house wasn't huge, but it was elegant.  I took a quick tour of the house and then checked out the museum.  I'm no fan of Jefferson Davis, but I learned some things about him so I'm glad I went.  He had a pretty impressive career before becoming a traitor.  He had been Secretary of War, he arranged the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, and he was put in charge of expanding the Capitol building.  He also pushed for using camels in the military, which is why there was a camel that lived on the property.  There was a statue of Davis by the museum.  I was happy to see that from the statue, you had a view of the American flag, but the Mississippi State flag (which includes the Confederate battle flag) was blocked by trees.

I hope that traitor enjoys his view of the Stars and Stripes.

The house where he lived.

This piano was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

I told you there was a camel.

My next stop was the Half Shell Oyster House.  I had the Shrimp Orleans and a Beach Blonde from the Biloxi Brewing Company.  Both the shrimp and the beer were very good.  From there, I walked to MGM Park, which is the home of the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers.  I just wanted to take a walk around the park and check it out since the minor league season hasn't started yet, but it turned out there was a college game there that day.  I was there at 2:30 and the game didn't start until 4:00.  I thought about sticking around for the game, but I had to drive back to New Orleans so I didn't feel like waiting around for an hour and a half.  But I was able to sneak into the stadium and watch a little batting practice from right center field.  I didn't push my luck and try to walk around on the inside, but it did look like it was a pretty nice minor league stadium (it opened last year, so it should be nice).  And that was Biloxi.  So now I just have South Carolina, Hawaii, and Alaska left.  Hopefully I'll get to at least one more before the end of this year and maybe finish it off next year.

This was excellent.

Batting practice at MGM Park

I was thinking about doing a Man vs. Food locations power rankings, but I can't really do that.  Some I went to so long ago that I barely remember them.  And then there's one spot where I only had a drink.  But I'll go through each spot that I've been to in a somewhat chronological order:

Syracuse- Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.  I went there with Brother Robert on our trip there for a camping conference in January 2007.  I'm pretty sure it was really good, but it was more than nine years ago and I was really sick so I don't remember it too well.

Washington- Ben's Chili Bowl.  I think I've only had it at Nationals Park when I first went there in 2008.  So does that count?

Boston- The Barking Crab.  I went with John in 2009 or 2010, but we were only drinking.  It was a great summer day and I was drinking Summer Ale.  So if I did power rankings, this might get the top spot.

Chicago- Gino's East.  I think we wanted to go there when we were in Chicago for a Cubs game in 2008, but the wait was too long.  But I did get there in 2010 with my brothers.  It's probably my only real experience with Chicago pizza.  It's kind of hard to consider New York pizza and Chicago pizza the same food.  Chicago pizza is kind of like a cheese pie.  If I had to pick New York or Chicago pizza, it's easily New York pizza.  But if I had to pick between pizza from Gino's or pizza from the best spot in some random city, I'd go with Gino's.  Other cities probably try to do an imitation of New York pizza and don't come close.

Los Angeles- Felippe's and El Tepeyac.  I went to Felippe's in 2011 with my brothers and El Tepeyac last summer with Pete.  Felippe's had some good French Dip sandwiches.  El Tepeyac was good Mexican, but I feel like there are lots of places where you can find good Mexican food.

Pittsburgh- Primanti Brothers.  I went with Jon in 2012.  They have sandwiches with fries on the sandwich. This is one of the few places where I had exactly what Adam had.  I remember it was good, but there was a fried egg on the sandwich, but the meat kind of overwhelmed the egg so you didn't really notice it.

Phoenix- Alice Cooperstown.  I remember that Adam had the Big Unit Dog, which was a two-foot long hot dog with all sorts of stuff on it.  I had a burger, but I can't really remember it.

Atlanta- Vortex Bar and Grill.  I went with Dennis in 2013.  Adam had the Triple Bypass Burger.  I had a burger with blue cheese.  It was really good, probably the best food of all these places that I can remember.

Detroit- American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island.  I went in 2014.  These two compete with each other.  I had the Coney Island Dog at both places and liked Lafayette's better.

Salt Lake City- Bruges Waffles and Frites.  I went last year and had what Adam had, the Machine Gun sandwich, which also has fries on the sandwich.  I didn't love the sandwich, but the fries and sauces were good.  But they weren't quite as good as European Republic's fries and sauces.

Cincinnati- Tom and Chee.  Grilled cheese and tomato soup for dipping.  It was simple, but good.

Minneapolis- The 5-8 Club.  I went with Dennis last summer.  I had the Juicy Lucy with blue cheese.  It was good, but not as good as the burger at Vortex in Atlanta.

Boise- Big Jud's.  I wish I had known to ask for no mustard on my burger.  The burger was good, but New Yorkers do not like mustard on burgers.  It would rank behind Vortex and the 5-8 Club.

New Orleans- Mother's Restaurant.  You just read about this one.

So he did a Long Island episode, a New York episode, and a Brooklyn episode and I haven't been to any of those places.  I also haven't eaten at a Boston location or been to a Philadelphia location, and it's debatable whether my Washington spot should count or not.  Maybe I'll get to some more spots soon.

Happy Baseball Season!

The Pflueger Pflick

I once ranked my ten favorite days of the year.  The first four days of the NCAA tournament took the number four spot (I cheated).  It's my policy that I don't work that Friday.  The first Friday of the tournament for me is like when it rains for Newman.  I've been teaching for eight years now.  I get two personal days a year.  My first year, I didn't take any personal days because my principal was crazy.  I've taken the first Friday of the tournament every year since then with one exception.  The exception was 2013 because I used my two personal days for the National Championship Game.  So instead I used a sick day (one of the three sick days in eight years, everybody was cool with it) and went to the tournament in Philadelphia.  So I knew I'd be taking last Friday off before basketball season even started.  Then Notre Dame ended up playing Brooklyn that day.  It was a night game so it didn't really matter if I was off or not, but I preferred the night game anyway.  I had been enjoying some age-appropriate beverages the night before while watching the games.

I got off to a great start in this tournament.  I had the first 15 games right.  Gonzaga beating Seton Hall was the only one I was wrong about.  Days 2-4 were not as good, but I ended up winning the first round in my pool at work.  But the only games I really cared about were the two games we played in.  I really don't care too much about my picks.  I just want Notre Dame to win.  My feelings for Michigan are well-known.  We beat them 31-0 (but really 37-0) in our last football game.  I'd be perfectly happy never playing them again in anything.  But the tournament committee had other ideas.  I was rooting against Michigan in the play in game because I could take losing to Tulsa, but I couldn't take losing to Michigan.  Of course, Notre Dame ended up playing Michigan.

Kyle and I bought tickets for the tournament shortly after the selection show.  Friday was a wild day of basketball, but I missed most of the exciting games.  I listened to the end of the Michigan State-Middle Tennessee game in the car on my way to the Hicksville train station.  Actually I stopped first at Chopt because it was a Friday in Lent and I figured there wouldn't be great meatless options at Barclays Center.  By the way, now that there's a Chopt on Long Island, I think it gets the number 2 spot on my Fast Food Power Rankings.  It's delicious and it's healthy.  I also missed the half-court shot by Northern Iowa to win and the late dunk that would have sent the St. Joseph's-Cincinnati game to overtime.  And that's one of the reasons that I don't love the idea of going to the tournament, especially during the first round with so many games going on.  I wouldn't have gone if Notre Dame wasn't in Brooklyn.  But a Notre Dame win would make missing some exciting finishes worth it.

The first game was West Virginia-Stephen F. Austin.  For the session we went to, Michigan had the most fans, we were second, West Virginia third, and Stephen F. Austin was last.  Wilhelm described Stephen F. Austin people as "backwoods folks" who "don't leave the state.  But neutral fans were definitely on their side.  I got there early, but Kyle was stuck at work.  Early on, I thought West Virginia was clearly better and they were on the verge of blowing Stephen F. Austin out.  They were up 20-11.  But Stephen F. Austin hung around and by the time Kyle got there, I think it was 20-19.  They really controlled the game from there.  Thomas Walkup was the story of the game for Stephen F. Austin.  He finished with 33 points (19-20 at the line), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block.  Stephen F. Austin won 70-56.

Our view from the last row

Then it was time for the main event.  Mike Brey made a lineup change with Matt Farrell in the starting lineup.  I still don't get it, but we've now won two tournament games with Farrell in the starting lineup, so whatever.  We played a pretty ugly first half and trailed 41-29 at halftime.  But I wasn't really too worried.  We've beaten good teams after getting down double digits (North Carolina, Louisville, Duke) and this was Michigan.  The second half was a different story.  Steve Vasturia didn't play a great game, but he made some plays early in the half.  V.J. Beachem played the best game of his college career (18 points, 7-7 shooting, 6 rebounds).  Rex Pflueger played some good defense.  Beachem gave us our first lead with a three that made it 51-48, but Michigan came right back with two threes to retake the lead.  Beachem later tied the game at 56 with a three.  When it was tied at 59, Beachem hit another three to give us the lead for good.  After making a mistake and taking a bad shot after getting an offensive rebound that gave Michigan the ball back down three with 44 seconds to go, Bonzie Colson hit two free throws to ice it with 11 seconds left.  We ended up defeating the forces of evil 70-63.  I got home around 2:00 in the morning.  I didn't care after a game like that.

I knew I was going back on Sunday.  Kyle ended up not being able to make it.  My dad was going to go, but he wasn't feeling good Sunday morning.  It was the earliest session of the day so I listed the extra ticket on Stubhub before going back to sleep.  My plan was to get up later and see if I could find somebody to come if the ticket hadn't sold.  But it sold for a profit of about $20 before I got up again.  So I went by myself on Sunday.  The first game was Villanova-Iowa.  This time, Villanova easily had the most fans, we were second again, and Iowa was third.  When I walked around Barclays Center, I didn't see a single person wearing a Stephen F. Austin shirt.  But again, the neutral fans would go for them (except for maybe Villanova basketball/Notre Dame football fans or Villanova fans who follow my policy of rooting for Catholic schools first).  Villanova pounded Iowa.  It's not worth talking about that.

Our game with Stephen F. Austin ended up being a classic.  A lot of fans left after the first game, so I moved to a seat near half court (still high up).  During pregame introductions, I applauded the Notre Dame players of course, but I also applauded Thomas Walkup for his performance on Friday night.  In this game, Walkup was very good, but he wasn't as dominant as he was against West Virginia (he did draw three fouls on one possession, but 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists wasn't going to kill us).  It was a back and forth game.  We went into halftime up 42-41 when V.J. Beachem made a three at the buzzer.  We got a couple of five-point leads in the second half and led by seven at one point, but Stephen F. Austin just wouldn't go away.  After getting that seven point lead, that was when Walkup drew three fouls on one possession and finished it off with a three-point play.  That started an 11-2 run for Stephen F. Austin.  We went back up 70-68, but then it looked like Stephen F. Austin was taking over.  Walkup hit two free throws to make it 75-70 with 2:05 to play.  Stephen F. Austin didn't score again.  Demetrius Jackson got a layup on an inbound play with 1:35 left.  Jackson hit two free throws with 47 seconds left to make it a one-point game (unlike last year against Kentucky, Brey went two for one, good call).  We got the ball back with 23 seconds left after Walkup missed a jumper.  Brey didn't call a timeout (good call again) and Jackson drove to the basket and missed.  Zach Auguste got the offensive rebound and missed (he was probably fouled, but he's not a great free throw shooter anyway).  Then Rex Pflueger scored his only basket of the game on a tip in with 1.5 seconds left (by the way, Dennis gets credit for the title of this post).  I gave a big fist pump and yelled out "Yeah!" when it went in.  Stephen F. Austin missed a heave that would have won it (it wasn't close).  Beachem had 15 points and 7 rebounds, Auguste had 16 points and 15 rebounds, Jackson had 18 points, and Pflueger had the two biggest points of the game.  It was pretty special.

My view for Notre Dame's win over Stephen F. Austin

It's probably the best basketball game I've been to.  I've never been to a game with more on the line (I've never been to an NBA playoff game, these are the only two games I've been to this deep into the NCAA Tournament).  I've seen some good games, but this one meant more, it was back and forth the whole game, it had a great finish, and my favorite team moved closer to a championship.  I think it's kind of like the basketball version of the 2014 Stanford game.

So this NCAA Tournament experience was pretty awesome.  I might try to go next year to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight at Madison Square Garden.  Notre Dame has made it to consecutive Sweet Sixteens for the first time since the 1970s.  And we're not done.  We play Wisconsin tomorrow.  That's a game that could go either way.  If we win that, we play a team that we've beaten once this year (and got blown out by, but check out what happened in our three games against Duke last year) or a team we should have beaten.  We definitely aren't the favorite to come out of this weekend, but making the Final Four is not impossible.

Three notes about the NCAA Tournament to finish.  First, they fixed the naming of the rounds (I was ready to make some joke about how Brey's streak of making it to at least the second round in four straight tournament appearances could be snapped this year).  We don't have 60 teams getting a bye into the second round anymore (out of the 64 that play in that round).  The other thing that they sort of fixed was the courts.  I absolutely hated those bland standardized courts.  The courts this year are better, but they should just have one color out of bounds (other than whatever writing there is).  And I don't like the key being white (any other color would be better) and the free throw semicircle being a different shade from the rest of the non-key area inside the three point line.  It's much better than what it was, but they really should just let each arena use its own court.  If you want to slap a March Madness logo at halfcourt and some NCAA Tournament decals out of bounds, I'm fine with that, but they each arena should have its own personality (like Brooklyn's black theme).  And the last thing is not selling alcohol.  It's ridiculous.  This is America.  An adult should be able to buy a beer at a basketball game.  Whatever, there was plenty of beer waiting at home for me to celebrate.

We're not done yet.  Go Irish!

Bill Murray and Basketball

I wasn't planning on blogging the Big East Tournament this year.  I was only going to three games and I've blogged about the Big East Tournament before (2013, 2014, and 2015).  Two years ago, I went to seven Big East games.  Last year, I only did five, but I also did the two Atlantic 10 semifinal games.  The only games I planned on going to this year were the Thursday night doubleheader and the championship game on Saturday (the Big East Championship starting at 5:30 made the Saturday triple-header that I did last year impossible).

So why am I doing this post?  On Thursday night, I went with Vin for the fourth time in five years (he sat out in 2013 because he got sick).  After watching what I could of Notre Dame's awesome win over Duke on my iPad, I got to Madison Square Garden shortly after the start of the first game (thanks to the other middle school teachers at my school who let me skip our last parent-teacher conference because she was running late and I had a train to catch) and Vin got there maybe ten minutes after I did.  We were sitting in the same section as last year, just one row closer.  Xavier beat Marquette pretty easily in the first game.  Seton Hall won a more competitive game over Creighton.  We actually stayed for the entirety of the two games.  That doesn't often happen (especially when I go on the Thursday night and I have work the next day).  Cole Huff had 35 points of Creighton.  Isaiah Whitehead had 24 points and 12 rebounds and Khadeen Carrington had 27 points for Seton Hall.  Staying for the whole thing turned out to be perfect timing because we ended up walking out of Madison Square Garden right as Bill Murray was walking out of the Garden.  His son is an assistant coach with Xavier.  Vin caught up to him and was talking to him as I walked behind.  Bill wouldn't stop for pictures, but he allowed Vin to take pictures as they walked.  And you can see me in the background of one of the pictures.  I ended up missing my train as a result and had to take one about a half hour later.  I got home around 1:45 and got to sleep around 2:00.

My view for the Big East Tournament

Phil?  Phil Connors?

The other reason I wanted to blog about the Big East Tournament is that although I couldn't do a Saturday triple-header, I was able to do a Saturday double-header.  Stony Brook was playing in the America East Championship Game for the fifth time in six years.  They had never made it to the NCAA Tournament before.  They were hosting the game on campus at 11:00.  Their website explained how they were selling tickets.  Season ticket holders got tickets first and a certain amount were allotted for students.  Then I think university employees could buy tickets.  If there were any left, they would go on sale to the public on Thursday, but you had to buy them in person.  If there were any left after that, anybody could buy them on Friday.  They didn't even get to the public sale on Thursday, but you could send an email to be put on a waiting list.  I figured I wasn't likely to get tickets, but it was worth a shot.  On Friday morning, I got a call from Stony Brook.  I got another teacher to watch my class so I could call and get tickets.  So I went to Stony Brook on Saturday morning.  I've mentioned it before on the blog, but I spent a year as a student at Stony Brook.  Look, I have no allegiance to Stony Brook because of that.  Not only did I never attend a Stony Brook sporting event as a student, I had no idea what was going on with Stony Brook sports other than the fact that they were Division I.  The only reason I wanted Stony Brook to win was because I wanted a local team in the tournament (sadly, Hofstra blew a 12 point lead in the second half of their championship game).

So my dad was going to come to Stony Brook and the Big East Championship with me, but he got sick.  So I went to Stony Brook by myself.  Unlike the Big East Championship, this was a game that actually meant something (Villanova and Seton Hall were both going to the tournament either way).  Stony Brook's arena was recently renovated and it only holds a little over 4,000.  It was nice and it was a great atmosphere.  Besides the game actually meaning something, everybody there really cared.  Stony Brook was taking on Vermont.  I wanted to see Jameel Warney and he didn't disappoint.  Also, Stony Brook's starting point guard went to Harborfields (Lucas Woodhouse), but he only scored two points.  Early on, Warney was the only one doing anything for Stony Brook.  Vermont led by 15 in the second half, but Stony Brook battled back.  Carson Puriefoy started helping out Warney and he finished with 23 points.  But Warney couldn't be stopped.  He had 43 points (18 for 22 shooting) and 10 rebounds.  Stony Brook ended up winning by six.  I took a video of the last couple of seconds and the aftermath because I knew the students would storm the court.  It was really cool.

My view for the Stony Brook game

As for the Big East, my dad was still hoping to go, but by the time I got back from Stony Brook, he had decided not to go.  I had to run out quickly for my train, so I quickly listed my other ticket on Stubhub.  My plan was to text a few of my friends in the city once I got on the train to see if they wanted to join and then delete the listing on Stubhub if I could find somebody, but it sold before I even made it to the train station (fortunately I made a profit).  So after going to mass at St. Francis right by Penn Station, I headed back to Madison Square Garden.  It was nice having two old Big East teams playing for the championship.  The game was announced as a sellout (the first in the Big East Tournament since all the football schools left) and the crowd was into it.  It seemed to me like there were more Villanova fans, but Seton Hall was well represented also.  Seton Hall played a great first half.  Villanova came back and took the lead late.  But Isaiah Whitehead had a three-point play to give Seton Hall the lead again with 18 seconds left.  Whitehead finished with 26 points.

For Seton Hall, it was there first Big East Championship in 23 years.  It was nice to have the Garden really excited.  There are five teams in the Big East that will bring a lot of fans to the Garden (the old teams:  St. John's, Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, and Providence), and five teams that won't (the new teams:  Xavier, Butler, DePaul, Marquette, and Creighton).  So I always prefer to see the old teams because that will get the Garden excited.  What we really need is for St. John's to be good.  St. John's now has the longest Big East Championship drought (2000 was their last one).  And the new teams haven't won any yet (and Marquette and DePaul have been in the conference for a while now).  I would still love to see the Big East add two more teams to improve the Wednesday night of the tournament (it was a dreadful pair of games this year).  Ideally, they'd add teams that would draw to the Garden.  Holy Cross would be great if they committed to basketball again (they could make up for their mistake of not joining in 1979).  They probably could take anybody they wanted from the Atlantic 10, but they only school that would bring fans to the Garden share markets with teams already in the Big East.  Dayton and St. Louis make some sense for financial reasons, but they probably won't bring too many fans to the Garden.

I don't really know what I'm going to do next year.  The ACC is coming to Brooklyn at the same time as the Big East Tournament.  I think my plan is to try to get tickets for both and then decide what I want to go to (hopefully getting to at least one session at both, but it could really depend on what Notre Dame's schedule is) and sell the rest.

So let's get to my annual tournament rankings (here are 2014 and 2015).  This has very little to do with how good I think the teams are.  It is entirely based on what I want to see happen.  You know who's number one and you should know who's number 70 (yes, I know, it's a 68 team tournament).  Here we go:

70. Michigan
The worst case scenario.

69. Michigan makes the championship game and some catastrophic event prevents the game from being played without anybody dying.
68. Michigan makes the championship game and it's determined before the game that all of their players are ineligible and so the game is never played.
Definitely better than Michigan winning.

67. Syracuse
66. Kentucky
Boeheim or Calipari.  Which is worse?  Tough call.

65. USC
Notre Dame's one true rival in football.  I don't hate them the way I hate Michigan, but I don't want to see them win either.

64.   North Carolina
63.   Duke
I hate both of these teams.  Duke gets the edge for caring about academics and because Notre Dame owns them, so they can win a championship, but Coach K knows that his former assistant owns him.  We're 5-1 against Duke since joining the ACC (3-3 against North Carolina, not bad).

That's right.

62. Indiana
61. Wisconsin
60. Purdue
59. Maryland
58. Iowa
57. Michigan State
I had the Big Ten teams ranked behind Duke and North Carolina last year, but that was wrong.  I was rooting for Wisconsin to beat Duke in the championship game.  But I do still hate the Big Ten.

56. Oregon
55. West Virginia
Ugly uniforms and Bob Huggins.

54. Pittsburgh
Notre Dame had a solid year in basketball, but we lost to them on my birthday.  And they're usually annoying when we play them in football.

53. Tulsa
52. Chattanooga
51. Stephen F. Austin
50. Weber State
Tulsa would be in a much different spot because they do play Michigan in the first round and I would love to see them beat Michigan, but winning the championship would mean that they would beat Notre Dame also.  These teams are only really here because they're in the same bracket as Notre Dame.

49. Cal
Dirty smelly hippies.

48. Miami
Convicts.

47. Connecticut
I used to hate Connecticut a lot more, but Jim Calhoun isn't there anymore.  I have nothing against Kevin Ollie.  Their women's team is as detestable as a women's basketball team could be.

46. Cincinnati
A non-Catholic school from the old Big East.

45. Colorado
A state with terrible drug laws.

44. Oklahoma
Their football program has no academic standards.  I imagine the basketball team doesn't either.

43. Iowa State
42. Vanderbilt
41. Oregon State
40. Utah
39. Arizona
A bunch of power conference teams that I have no thoughts about.

38. Temple
Whatever.

37. Kansas
Paul Pierce went to Kansas.

36. Fresno State
We're getting into teams that don't play in major conferences.

35. Hawaii
It would be pretty cool if a team from one of three states in the entire country without a professional baseball team (Alaska and Wyoming are the others) did anything and they're playing the dirty smelly hippies from Cal.

34. Middle Tennessee
33. Buffalo
More teams that don't play in major conferences.

32. Virginia
Thomas Jefferson's school and a school that cares about academics.

31. Texas Tech
30. Baylor
29. Texas A&M
28. Texas
Don't mess with Texas.

27. UNC Ashville
26. Northern Iowa
25. Little Rock
24. Wichita State
23. VCU
22. South Dakota State
21. Cal State Bakersfield
20. Green Bay
19. UNC Wilmington
Now we're getting into schools that don't play major college football.  We haven't had a team like that win a National Championship in basketball since Villanova in 1984.

18. Yale
They haven't been to the tournament since 1962.  I'm not much of a fan of the Ivy League, but they do care about educating their athletes.

17. Southern
16. Fairleigh Dickinson
15. Austin Peay
14. Hampton
13. Florida Gulf Coast
I would love to see a 16 seed win a game.

12. Butler
The non-Catholic Big East school (I used to root against those teams, but not Butler) and the team that Brad Stevens used to coach.

11. Stony Brook
I already covered them.

10. Gonzaga
9. St. Joseph's
8. Dayton
7. Iona
6. Holy Cross
We're getting into the Catholic schools.  I know some people who went to Holy Cross.  Iona is a somewhat local team.  Dayton plays Syracuse in the first round, which puts them ahead of the other two.  Gonzaga has been in the tournament plenty over the years and they haven't done much in the tournament recently, so they're behind St. Joseph's.

5. Xavier
4. Villanova
3. Providence
2. Seton Hall
The Big East Catholic schools.  Seton Hall won the Big East Tournament (that might be my new determining factor for who gets number two on the list or number one if Notre Dame isn't in the tournament).  Xavier is last of the four because they're a new Big East team.  Providence goes ahead of Villanova because Providence plays USC in the first round and Villanova has been disappointing recently in the tournament.

1. Notre Dame
Of course.

I was planning on seeing Notre Dame play next year at the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn, but the NCAA took care of me.  We play on Friday night in Brooklyn.  Of course, it's my policy that I don't work on the first Friday of the tournament (this will be seven straight years), so I could have gone if we were playing Friday afternoon, but I like this better.  I'll watch the afternoon games at home and then I'll head to Brooklyn for the night session with Kyle.  It will be my second trip to the NCAA Tournament (I went in Philadelphia in 2013), but my first with Notre Dame playing.  Go Irish!