You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January, 2008.
New Year’s Eve was going to be very different. I wasn’t able to hang out with my friends for the first time in a number of years. A few of them actually went to New Hampshire while others just drank at home. I spent New Year’s Eve with my parents, my brother and his wife and son. Morning was going to come quick. 7:15am was our departure time and we actually left on time. We had some snow to deal with, but for the most part it was clear the entire way to Buffalo. A friend of my that I graduated High School with works for WGR 550 in Buffalo NY and he is somewhat known as the voice of Buffalo Sports. He was doing a live pre-game show from Ralph Wilson Stadium so I said to my brother (who was driving ) I am going to call him and get on the air. I did just that. I had to wait about 20 minutes, but I got on. The phone call was quick, but he remembered me and said it was good to hear from some of his high school buddies. When we arrived in Buffalo the traffic was crazy. We waited about 30 minutes on Abbott road. When we pulled up to the stadium and pulled in the parking lot all you could see was tailgaters. Limos, campers, SUVs all tailgating. Burn barrels and grills dominated the parking lot while some fans played football and others booed Penguin fans as they walked by. I was like a young boy on Christmas morning. I wanted to get over to the stadium, buy some stuff and walk around. They had tents of merchandise, food, and vendors in lot C for the offical Buffalo Sabres Tailgate party. We actually made it for the last half hour, but didn’t partake in any festivities. We basically just walked around. (you can see pictures of this and the game on my flickr site) When 11:00am hit we got patted down and it was off to our seats for a two hour wait for the game to begin. However there was entertainment provided by Kevin and the guys from the shootout, not to mention getting the crowed pumped to go live with CBC and NBC. Everything was great. Our seats were great (we sat in 307 near the jumbo-tron), the game was great, and the fans were great. Yes, the Sabres lost, but it wasn’t about winning or losing. It was about playing the game of hockey outdoors like the players use to when they were younger. This will be a day that I will never forget. I will however forget the 2 hour wait to get out of the parking lot. That was HELL! Lets do it again Buffalo. I’m ready and I know the Buffalo Fans are always ready. Next Year? My friend asked me the other day what is the big deal with the Winter Classic. We play outdoors every game (he is a season ticket holder for the Buffalo Bills) he says. You hockey fans play outside once every 5 years and you think your so special. Bunch of girls I think you are. Gotta play hockey inside, its to cold outside.Any thoughts on this?
How did you spend your New Year’s Eve/Day? Me, well it was nothing more than sitting at Ralph Wilson Stadium watching the Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburg Penguins play hockey in front of the largest crowd to view a hockey game. O yeah did I mention that it was OUTSIDE! (more on the issue in a minute)When I first heard that the Sabres were going to play a hockey game outside like the Heritage Classic in 2003 I could contain myself. First of all its the Buffalo Sabres (if you couldn’t tell I am a huge fan.) and second IT WAS GOING TO BE OUTSIDE.The day the tickets went on sale I was on the phone waiting, as well as my brother and his wife, but to our amazement the tickets sold out in less then 30 minutes. Wait, I don’t think you understood what you just read. 74 thousand tickets sold in less than 30 minutes. Thats insane!!! Well I had to face the fact that I wasn’t going to The Winter Classic. I wanted to be part of history because my team was going to be part of history. Earlier that month my brother and I sat down and picked out the games that we could make. We live in Central New York (myself in Auburn, my brother in Liverpool) so the trip to Buffalo takes about 2 1/2 hours plus we are both very busy after school and on the weekends. We picked some pretty intense games and got some great seats. (you can see pictures from the games on my flickr site)On December 21st we made our way to Buffalo to experience Daniel Briere’s homecoming. It was a calm night. No snow, no wind and everything was good. The thruway was packed because it was the start of Christmas Break for the schools, plus Christmas Eve was Monday. We parked in our normal spot and walked quickly to the Arena. Its Buffalo, it was freezing. Right before we entered the doors my brothers cell phone rang. I remember him answering the phone and smiling. I tried to ask him a number of times what was going on, but he just ignored me. He hung up and looked at me and said “Were going to the Winter Classic.” The owner of the company he works for got him 2 tickets to the winter classic.I couldn’t believe it. We were going to the Winter Classic. O by the way Buffalo beat Philly 3 – 2. If you watch the highlights from that game you can see us when Spacek dropped Danny. It happened right in front of us. to be continued…
Hello Everyone. I guess I first apologize for my long absence. When I first came up with the idea for my blog I thought I was going to post every day. I was going to keep people informed about what is going on in my world, but obviously I was wrong. So maybe I should get you up to date since my last post (quickly). November was a very busy month. First, Buffalo hockey started to turn around and they had a 6 game winning streak. YEAH! Second, I had a number of musical events at school that kept me busy not to mention the end of the marching band season and the beginning of the winter indoor season. December was even worse then November. It just wasn’t Christmas shopping, but it was more concerts, more performances, more everything, but probably the worse was the passing of my grandmother 2 weeks before Christmas. That was Rough. Lets see what January will bring. Maybe a few more post from me.
