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ESPN Page 2 - Caple: A sports fan's checklist
im going to post the whole thing so you guys can copy this and check off what youve done, thought it would be cool
101 things all sports fans must experience before they die
By Jim Caple
Page 2
(Archive | Contact)
Updated: June 25, 2007, 5:53 PM ET
Summer officially began Thursday, but it unofficially began with the true sign of summer's arrival: the first pitch of the College World Series.
The CWS is just one of "The 101 Things Every Fan Must Experience Before They Die," a worldwide list of sporting events ranging from the Olympics to the Coney Island hot dog eating contest. The big (the World Cup) and the small (Minnesota town ball) are here, as well as the familiar (the World Series) and the obscure (the veterans wheelchair games), the expensive (the Masters) and the free (a Little League game).
I've attended many of these events while friends and fellow writers swear by the ones I haven't. The rankings are based on the total experience, including the event itself, the participants, the setting and the atmosphere for the fans. Personally, I could fill the list up with nothing but baseball and college football games, but to keep things manageable and varied, I've limited the repetitions within any one sport as much as possible. That's why only two college football rivalries make the list (Ohio State-Michigan and Alabama-Auburn), though many more certainly could have been included. Same with big soccer rivalries.
This is by no means a comprehensive list -- there are just too many games in too many sports for that -- but it does include a full range of national and international competitions well worth camping overnight on the sidewalk for a ticket. In fact, camping out is No. 63 on the list.
The 101 Things Sports Fans Must Experience Before They Die:
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]1.[/FONT] Summer Olympics (every four years in a different city). With 10,000-plus athletes from 200 nations, this is the world's biggest party (did I mention the 130,000 condoms they give to the athletes?). The host city is almost always worth the trip itself (well, maybe not Atlanta) but the 17 days of exhilarating sporting performances will provide memories that will last long after the $24 souvenir T-shirt has faded. Guaranteed, you will see something that makes you proud to be human and call yourself a citizen not of one specific country but a citizen of the world.
TEN EVENTS TO AVOID
1. The Super Bowl. The cost-to-enjoyment ratio is the highest in American sports for this overhyped, outrageously expensive event. You'll enjoy the game more on TV while saving your money for a far more rewarding experience.
2. NFL exhibition games. Why would anyone willingly buy tickets at full price for meaningless games in which the main objective is to play the starters only long enough not to get them hurt? The answer: No one. Which is why teams require that their season-ticket holders buy tickets for these miserable games.
3. NBA draft lottery. Drafts are bad enough, but at least players are actually picked there.
4. Baseball old-timers game. The desire to see your favorite player on the field again is understandable, but don't give in to the temptation. There is nothing worse than seeing a former hero so fat and out of shape that he can't bend over, let alone bend over to scoop up a grounder.
5. Pro Bowl. If you want to go to Hawaii, just go. No need to mix in your vacation with a game that not even the players chosen to play want to attend.
6. World Series of Poker. Poker is not a sport. It's gambling. And your money isn't on the line, so why would you care?
7. WWE. Real sports don't need scripts.
8. Rhythmic gymnastics. Is an explanation really necessary?
9. The Wing Bowl. The contestants may not feel like throwing up at this annual Philadelphia eating competition, but you will.
10. Dogfight night at Michael Vick's house.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]2.[/FONT] World Cup (every four years in a different country). Look, Americans shouldn't feel guilty about not liking soccer any more than we should for not using the metric system. But whether you're a fanatic about the sport (a lot of the world) or are bored by it (the U.S and Canada, Down Under, and the Coalition of the Unwilling), we can all appreciate a huge international party filled with fans so passionate they set themselves on fire to inspire their team before the game (as opposed, say, to Detroit fans, who set others on fire after the game). Look at it this way: The World Cup was such a spectacle last summer that Germany was actually afraid it would run out of beer. And if a team actually scores, so much the better!
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]3.[/FONT] Winter Olympics (every four years in a different city). Definitely smaller and obviously colder than their summer counterparts, the Winter Games are in some ways more appealing. Because they are smaller, they are also more manageable, relaxed and intimate. Plus, it's hard to beat finishing up a day with a mug of mulled wine or hot chocolate mit schuss at a world-class ski resort overlooking snow-capped peaks. Or, in the case of Bode Miller, beginning the day there.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]4.[/FONT] The World Series (every October, various cities). No championship can match the dramatic moments regularly produced each October (and occasionally November). Willie Mays racing with his back to the plate. Bill Mazeroski waving his cap as he comes home. Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair. Kirk Gibson limping up to pinch hit against Dennis Eckersley. Jack Morris stomping to the mound for the 10th inning of Game 7. Derek Jeter lining a drive into the bleachers. There's a reason they call this the Fall Classic, and it's not because of all the Fox B-list celebs.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]5.[/FONT] NCAA subregional (March, various sites). The only problem with March Madness is that the championship game too seldom lives up to the previous two weeks of cuticle-devouring excitement. For the best experience, steer clear of the actual Final Four and go to a subregional instead. You get more games (four the first day), more upsets, more spirit and enough excitement to leave even Dick Vitale hoarse.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]6.[/FONT] Spring training (February-March, Florida and Arizona). Even in this cynical, jaded world, all of us are officially allowed to be naive and optimistic about the coming year when the crack of the bat mixes with the smell of sunscreen. If there is a more enjoyable way to pass a spring afternoon than at a Cactus or Grapefruit league game, man has yet to find it. Heck, even Royals and Pirates fans feel good here.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]7.[/FONT] NFL conference championship (January in various NFL cities). You may have noticed that the Super Bowl is not on this list. How can the most-watched American sporting event not make the list? Easy. The Super Bowl is a bloated, overhyped, outrageously expensive, often dull and drawn-out event best watched at home, where you can discuss the telecast's most interesting aspects -- the commercials -- with friends. Unlike the other major championships, there is not a passionate crowd rooting for the home team at the Super Bowl because the stands are filled with CEOs who couldn't care less about who wins or loses. Fortunately, the conference championships are much, much different. This is the NFL at its finest. The games are better and the atmosphere is more rabid than a pack of Michael Vick's dogs.
Getty Images
This is about as close as you'll ever get to Amen Corner.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]8.[/FONT] The Masters (April, Augusta, Ga.). You should get down on your knees at Amen Corner if you're able to get the toughest ticket in American sports. Then get behind Tiger or Phil and follow him all 18 holes -- it won't be difficult, the day will feel so sublime you'll practically float above the azaleas and dogwoods.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]9.[/FONT] Wimbledon (late June-early July, London). Like Augusta and the Masters, Wimbledon is not so much a sporting event as a destination. It's a place where you don't really care who is playing so long as you're there to see them. It's such a marvelous, timeless place that you want to preserve it in shrink wrap. Not that you need to, because it's already literally bombproof -- Nazi bombs fell on Centre Court in 1940 but did not destroy it. What with the setting, the tennis and Maria Sharapova, you won't even mind the price of the strawberries and cream.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]10.[/FONT] Tour de France mountain stage (July in various rotating cities in France). Can you trot around the bases with Barry Bonds? Dive into the end zone with LaDainian Tomlinson? Go to the hoop with LeBron? Of course not. But you can run alongside the best cyclists in the world as they struggle up the remaining agonizing kilometers of a mountain stage. It's an all-day party (and frequently all-night as well) set among spectacular Alps and Pyrenees scenery, and best of all, you can fill your water bottle with a great French wine or Belgian beer (or, if you're competing, something stronger).
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]11.[/FONT] Premier League Soccer game (fall-spring, England). Imagine what Yankees or Red Sox fans would be like if there weren't football, basketball and hockey teams to distract them. That might give you some idea of how passionately the English take their soccer, but to really understand it, attend a Chelsea-Arsenal match. Just be sure to wear your Kevlar replica jerseys. (Or, if you really want a taste of bitter rivalry, go up to the Scottish Premier League for a Rangers-Celtic clash.)
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]12.[/FONT] Rose Bowl (New Year's Day, or thereabouts, Pasadena, Calif.). There were 32 bowl games last year, ranging from the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia to the Tostitos BCS Championship, but the best one remains the Granddaddy of Them All. No matter what teams are playing, crowding into the grand Rose Bowl with 90,000 other fans on a New Year's afternoon with the sky as blue as a UCLA jersey is college football's finest outside of the USC cheerleaders.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]17.[/FONT] Michigan-Ohio State football (November, Columbus, Ohio, or Ann Arbor, Mich.). Few rivalries can match the intensity of this one. Fewer can match the huge crowds at these historic stadiums. Fewer still can match the national stakes on the line virtually every year. In fact, why are you still reading? You should be looking for a parking spot to tailgate right now.
Cont'd ...
Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached here. His Web site is at jimcaple.net, with more installments of "24 College Avenue." His new book with Steve Buckley, "The Best Boston Sports Arguments: The 100 Most Controversial, Debatable Questions for Die-Hard Boston Fans" is on sale now.
im going to post the whole thing so you guys can copy this and check off what youve done, thought it would be cool
101 things all sports fans must experience before they die
By Jim Caple
Page 2
(Archive | Contact)
Updated: June 25, 2007, 5:53 PM ET
Summer officially began Thursday, but it unofficially began with the true sign of summer's arrival: the first pitch of the College World Series.
The CWS is just one of "The 101 Things Every Fan Must Experience Before They Die," a worldwide list of sporting events ranging from the Olympics to the Coney Island hot dog eating contest. The big (the World Cup) and the small (Minnesota town ball) are here, as well as the familiar (the World Series) and the obscure (the veterans wheelchair games), the expensive (the Masters) and the free (a Little League game).
I've attended many of these events while friends and fellow writers swear by the ones I haven't. The rankings are based on the total experience, including the event itself, the participants, the setting and the atmosphere for the fans. Personally, I could fill the list up with nothing but baseball and college football games, but to keep things manageable and varied, I've limited the repetitions within any one sport as much as possible. That's why only two college football rivalries make the list (Ohio State-Michigan and Alabama-Auburn), though many more certainly could have been included. Same with big soccer rivalries.
This is by no means a comprehensive list -- there are just too many games in too many sports for that -- but it does include a full range of national and international competitions well worth camping overnight on the sidewalk for a ticket. In fact, camping out is No. 63 on the list.
The 101 Things Sports Fans Must Experience Before They Die:
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]1.[/FONT] Summer Olympics (every four years in a different city). With 10,000-plus athletes from 200 nations, this is the world's biggest party (did I mention the 130,000 condoms they give to the athletes?). The host city is almost always worth the trip itself (well, maybe not Atlanta) but the 17 days of exhilarating sporting performances will provide memories that will last long after the $24 souvenir T-shirt has faded. Guaranteed, you will see something that makes you proud to be human and call yourself a citizen not of one specific country but a citizen of the world.
TEN EVENTS TO AVOID
1. The Super Bowl. The cost-to-enjoyment ratio is the highest in American sports for this overhyped, outrageously expensive event. You'll enjoy the game more on TV while saving your money for a far more rewarding experience.
2. NFL exhibition games. Why would anyone willingly buy tickets at full price for meaningless games in which the main objective is to play the starters only long enough not to get them hurt? The answer: No one. Which is why teams require that their season-ticket holders buy tickets for these miserable games.
3. NBA draft lottery. Drafts are bad enough, but at least players are actually picked there.
4. Baseball old-timers game. The desire to see your favorite player on the field again is understandable, but don't give in to the temptation. There is nothing worse than seeing a former hero so fat and out of shape that he can't bend over, let alone bend over to scoop up a grounder.
5. Pro Bowl. If you want to go to Hawaii, just go. No need to mix in your vacation with a game that not even the players chosen to play want to attend.
6. World Series of Poker. Poker is not a sport. It's gambling. And your money isn't on the line, so why would you care?
7. WWE. Real sports don't need scripts.
8. Rhythmic gymnastics. Is an explanation really necessary?
9. The Wing Bowl. The contestants may not feel like throwing up at this annual Philadelphia eating competition, but you will.
10. Dogfight night at Michael Vick's house.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]2.[/FONT] World Cup (every four years in a different country). Look, Americans shouldn't feel guilty about not liking soccer any more than we should for not using the metric system. But whether you're a fanatic about the sport (a lot of the world) or are bored by it (the U.S and Canada, Down Under, and the Coalition of the Unwilling), we can all appreciate a huge international party filled with fans so passionate they set themselves on fire to inspire their team before the game (as opposed, say, to Detroit fans, who set others on fire after the game). Look at it this way: The World Cup was such a spectacle last summer that Germany was actually afraid it would run out of beer. And if a team actually scores, so much the better!
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]3.[/FONT] Winter Olympics (every four years in a different city). Definitely smaller and obviously colder than their summer counterparts, the Winter Games are in some ways more appealing. Because they are smaller, they are also more manageable, relaxed and intimate. Plus, it's hard to beat finishing up a day with a mug of mulled wine or hot chocolate mit schuss at a world-class ski resort overlooking snow-capped peaks. Or, in the case of Bode Miller, beginning the day there.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]4.[/FONT] The World Series (every October, various cities). No championship can match the dramatic moments regularly produced each October (and occasionally November). Willie Mays racing with his back to the plate. Bill Mazeroski waving his cap as he comes home. Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair. Kirk Gibson limping up to pinch hit against Dennis Eckersley. Jack Morris stomping to the mound for the 10th inning of Game 7. Derek Jeter lining a drive into the bleachers. There's a reason they call this the Fall Classic, and it's not because of all the Fox B-list celebs.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]5.[/FONT] NCAA subregional (March, various sites). The only problem with March Madness is that the championship game too seldom lives up to the previous two weeks of cuticle-devouring excitement. For the best experience, steer clear of the actual Final Four and go to a subregional instead. You get more games (four the first day), more upsets, more spirit and enough excitement to leave even Dick Vitale hoarse.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]6.[/FONT] Spring training (February-March, Florida and Arizona). Even in this cynical, jaded world, all of us are officially allowed to be naive and optimistic about the coming year when the crack of the bat mixes with the smell of sunscreen. If there is a more enjoyable way to pass a spring afternoon than at a Cactus or Grapefruit league game, man has yet to find it. Heck, even Royals and Pirates fans feel good here.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]7.[/FONT] NFL conference championship (January in various NFL cities). You may have noticed that the Super Bowl is not on this list. How can the most-watched American sporting event not make the list? Easy. The Super Bowl is a bloated, overhyped, outrageously expensive, often dull and drawn-out event best watched at home, where you can discuss the telecast's most interesting aspects -- the commercials -- with friends. Unlike the other major championships, there is not a passionate crowd rooting for the home team at the Super Bowl because the stands are filled with CEOs who couldn't care less about who wins or loses. Fortunately, the conference championships are much, much different. This is the NFL at its finest. The games are better and the atmosphere is more rabid than a pack of Michael Vick's dogs.
This is about as close as you'll ever get to Amen Corner.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]8.[/FONT] The Masters (April, Augusta, Ga.). You should get down on your knees at Amen Corner if you're able to get the toughest ticket in American sports. Then get behind Tiger or Phil and follow him all 18 holes -- it won't be difficult, the day will feel so sublime you'll practically float above the azaleas and dogwoods.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]9.[/FONT] Wimbledon (late June-early July, London). Like Augusta and the Masters, Wimbledon is not so much a sporting event as a destination. It's a place where you don't really care who is playing so long as you're there to see them. It's such a marvelous, timeless place that you want to preserve it in shrink wrap. Not that you need to, because it's already literally bombproof -- Nazi bombs fell on Centre Court in 1940 but did not destroy it. What with the setting, the tennis and Maria Sharapova, you won't even mind the price of the strawberries and cream.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]10.[/FONT] Tour de France mountain stage (July in various rotating cities in France). Can you trot around the bases with Barry Bonds? Dive into the end zone with LaDainian Tomlinson? Go to the hoop with LeBron? Of course not. But you can run alongside the best cyclists in the world as they struggle up the remaining agonizing kilometers of a mountain stage. It's an all-day party (and frequently all-night as well) set among spectacular Alps and Pyrenees scenery, and best of all, you can fill your water bottle with a great French wine or Belgian beer (or, if you're competing, something stronger).
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]11.[/FONT] Premier League Soccer game (fall-spring, England). Imagine what Yankees or Red Sox fans would be like if there weren't football, basketball and hockey teams to distract them. That might give you some idea of how passionately the English take their soccer, but to really understand it, attend a Chelsea-Arsenal match. Just be sure to wear your Kevlar replica jerseys. (Or, if you really want a taste of bitter rivalry, go up to the Scottish Premier League for a Rangers-Celtic clash.)
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]12.[/FONT] Rose Bowl (New Year's Day, or thereabouts, Pasadena, Calif.). There were 32 bowl games last year, ranging from the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia to the Tostitos BCS Championship, but the best one remains the Granddaddy of Them All. No matter what teams are playing, crowding into the grand Rose Bowl with 90,000 other fans on a New Year's afternoon with the sky as blue as a UCLA jersey is college football's finest outside of the USC cheerleaders.
[FONT=Arial Black,Helvetic,Verdana,sans-serif]17.[/FONT] Michigan-Ohio State football (November, Columbus, Ohio, or Ann Arbor, Mich.). Few rivalries can match the intensity of this one. Fewer can match the huge crowds at these historic stadiums. Fewer still can match the national stakes on the line virtually every year. In fact, why are you still reading? You should be looking for a parking spot to tailgate right now.
Cont'd ...
Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached here. His Web site is at jimcaple.net, with more installments of "24 College Avenue." His new book with Steve Buckley, "The Best Boston Sports Arguments: The 100 Most Controversial, Debatable Questions for Die-Hard Boston Fans" is on sale now.
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