Little League World Series Visit
I had a chance to knock off one more event from my bucket list yesterday with a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. Looking for a quick and cheap option to get to Williamsport I 
decided to rent a car from www.rentacarnow.com a web site that lists the best deals on rental cars in different cities across the country. I got an incredible deal from rentacarnow.com from a Hertz location right near my apartment. I picked up my rental car at 6:30 a.m. and headed out of New York City expecting a four or five hour drive. Google Maps predicted it would take roughly that long to get there with no traffic. I was really surprised that the directions were actually quite simple. In fact I probably didn’t need to write the directions down. Then again knowing me I could get myself lost on a one lane highway. According to Google Maps all I needed to do was pick up Route 80 West after crossing the George Washington Bridge and head like two hundred or so miles before I would hit Williamsport. Fortunately I got there in two hours and forty five minutes without even a speeding ticket. 
The first thing I did was to drive up to the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum as I was scheduled to do a book signing for 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live. I had no idea but the museum parking lot over looks the famous Howard J. Lamade Stadium. I was so excited I literally ran up to the fence to take a peek at the stadium which I have seen on television for the last thirty years.
Seeing Lamade Stadium for the first time in person was an incredible feeling. I have grown up watching this event from its early days on ABC Wide World of Sports. I always dreamed of playing in the Little League World Series. I actually still do.
After a long nice look at the field I headed into the museum for my signing. An automated announcement from someone like Vin Scully greets visitors at the museum explaining the origins of Little League Baseball. Having the opportunity to do my book signing in the main room I still have the spiel ingrained in my head after hearing it all day. I know a lot more about little league baseball now for sure.
Before the signing I took a quick tour of the museum myself. I really loved the huge panoramic photo of the 1982 Little League World Series crowd that greets visitors in the main room. What scary styles we were all wearing back then! I was told by Janice Ogurcak who runs the show over there that many people have actually come to the museum and looked at the huge photo and recognized family members. No joke, one kid saw his grandpa in the photo one time. His mother didn’t believe him until he pulled her over to take a look and she almost fainted.
The museum is definitely a treasure for all of those who know what sports and little league specifically mean to children. It was great to see so many families enjoying the museum and having a great time. One of my favorite parts is that you can actually “play ball” in the batting and pitching areas, and then watch your form on instant replay. You can also experience the “hands-on” components of the museum such as the running track, push-button quiz panels, and the opportunity to do your own play-by-play commentary on a World Series game. Pretty cool for adults, I mean kids.
After the signing I headed down the hill to go see Lamade and the stadium grounds. There were hundreds of kids sliding down the hill on these cardboard boxes a neat tradition at Lamade. I wanted to do it myself and then thought better. Just behind the stadium there were tons of licensed vendors and Little League World Series sponsors offering up different promotional items for sale and give away. Having all these kids and families in one place is sure sweet for all those cookie and candy sponsors who were giving away tons of stuff for free. I had a press pass so I got to watch the game from the first row behind home plate. I got to see some of the Georgia/Washington game. The kid from Washington had a nasty curveball. I really was impressed. Remember also these kids are only batting from like 45 feet away which is really tough. After checking out the sights from behind home plate I had to go lie down on the grass in the outfield as well. I took a seat in right field and watched a little more of the game from there.
All in all the Little League World Series is a spectacular family event. I would definitely recommend as a great family summer vacation. I can’t say enough good things about the staff at the museum and all the volunteers who pull this one together.
No Comments »New York City Marathon in August?
It was great to get out and watch the New York City Half Marathon this past weekend. I have one of those built in “baby” alarm clocks so I am always up strolling the neighborhood at 6 a.m. on weekends. This actually made heading over to Central Park for the first several miles of the race no sweat Sunday morning.
The race started at 7:00 a.m. with over 10,000 runners participating. It is incredible to think that this race which was created just a few years ago is drawing these types of numbers. The New York Road Runners Club has done a tremendous job promoting this relatively new event. Although the crowd support is no where near New York City Marathon day there are still enough supporters cheering on the runners to make it a quality race atmosphere.
The race route actually takes runners through Times Square which is another nice perk of the event. Even during the New York City Marathon you don’t get to run through Times Square the heartbeat of the world. I didn’t make it down to Times Square to watch but fortunately I was able to witness some really good runners battle the ninety degree weather and high humidity. At least come November when the NYC Marathon, number six event on my top one hundred sporting must see list, comes up the weather should be much more inviting for runners. Being able to come out and cheer on runners last weekend gave me a little taste of the New York City Marathon in August. I can’t wait to start cheering on all those runners come November.
1 Comment »Canton: A Must See For Football Fans
Even though a tour of the Football Hall of Fame isn’t a sporting event per se, it is still something every respectable football fan needs to experience at least once in their lifetime. Since I consider myself an NFL die hard as well as a forever suffering Jet’s fan of over 30 years, I jumped at the chance to go to Canton last week.
I arrived in Akron Ohio on Tuesday, more excited than a ten year old girl at a Jonas Brothers Concert; I couldn’t wait to check out all of the players I had idolized growing up as well as the legends I had heard my father talk about. I thought back to the jerseys I wore as a kid. Ken O’Brien, Kenny Anderson, and Richard Todd. Not a line up for Canton. Why couldn’t I have picked the New York Giants as my team growig up?
The first thing you notice when you walk up to the building is a huge football sticking out of the roof. I have seen it for years on T.V but I never realized it was actually a football. I thought it was just some ugly building design. I probably should have put two and two together. One thing for sure is the football is really huge and pictures just don’t do it justice.
Also on the side of the building is a mammoth banner of Sweetness, Walter Payton, running the ball. The Chicago guys with me got really excited at this point so we had to stop to take pictures for twenty minutes.
The cool thing was that the area around the Hall was still buzzing with vendors as the 2009 inductions had just taken place the Sunday before. The 2009 class included Wide receiver Bob Hayes, guard Randall McDaniel, defensive end Bruce Smith, linebacker Derrick Thomas, owner Ralph Wilson, and defensive back Rod Woodson. Even though I would have loved to be there to see the actual ceremony and knock off a top 100 Sporting Event, it was nice to be able to walk around with far less people then would have been there over the weekend.
The decorations from the induction ceremony were still up so I got to see all of the banners of the 2009 inductee’s hanging on the side of the football stadium. That was pretty neat. Once I got inside I could feel the history of the building seeping in every time I took a step. I really didn’t think I would be so overwhelmed with emotion reading about the history of professional football. What was really amazing were some actual old time uniforms from Red Grange and Ernie Nevers. I am really surprised there were not more injuries in the early days of pro football with the lack of protection the players had back then. I can’t imagine getting hit by guys like Sam Huff or Dick Butkus with modern day pads on, let alone with just a tiny little helmet with no padding; I cringe at even the thought of it. It was also interesting to see all of the information they showcased on the different pro football leagues like the USFL and WFL who both only lasted a few years and were never real competition for the NFL. Reading about the AFL and their competition with the NFL for nine years before eventually forcing the NFL into a merger in 1970, was really informative and timely with the induction of Ralph Wilson this year.
Next I headed into a video room where you could watch highlights of every player in the Hall of Fame. I stood there for about an hour watching videos 
of Montana throwing to Rice, Barry Sanders making one guy miss after another, and of course a ton of Joe Namath. There is one thing that us Jet’s fans have to hang our helmet on, “the Guarantee Game”. Broadway Joe guaranteeing victory, in Super Bowl III, against the legendary Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts and pulling it off, in what is my opinion, the greatest upset in the history of the game. Too bad it’s been all crap since then.
After the video room we walked around for a little bit, checking out some of the displays they had for players like Jim Kelly and Harry Carson; for some weird reason there was a lot of stuff on both of these guys. I then strolled into the brand new, Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery. This room just opened on Saturday and cost $2.4 million to construct; it was the largest renovation ever at the Football Hall of Fame. They truly did an unbelievable job in honoring Lamar Hunt with the game he created.
Nowadays as an American, it is implanted in your DNA to love football. You have no choice. We like to think of it as our game. The rest of the world can have soccer, rugby and many even play baseball. I don’t care what anyone says there is no sport on the level of American style football. Knowing this you have to figure the United States has the most people watching the Super Bowl each year? Wrong, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 300 million Chinese people watched the Super Bowl last year. Holy crap more Chinese watched the Super Bowl then the total number of people in the United States! This stat blew my mind when I read it. The game has really turned into a worldwide spectacle. 
The Pro Football Hall of Fame, definitely should be on every football fans “to do” list. You think you have seen everything and then there is a whole other section of the building which you haven’t even touched yet. If you love football, you will never get bored looking at all the old uniforms, learning about all the teams, touring the Lamar Hunt Room, or viewing the shrines of those who once played this great game. It’s like if you got the chance to go to the Play Boy Mansion, there is always going to be something there you want to look at and touch around each corner; there is just no grotto in the hall. At least I couldn’t find one. I did find a dedication to the only woman in the hall of fame for her work in broadcasting, the beautiful, talented and lovely Lesley Visser. That was good enough for me on this trip.
No Comments »The Holy Grail at the New Giants/Jets Stadium
If you are a Jets or Giants fan or just a Springsteen fan, you have something incredible to look forward to next year! The new stadium, set to open in time for the 2010 season will revolutionize the way people attend major events in the tri state area. Last week I got a private tour of the new Giants, um I mean Giants/Jets Stadium and I am excited to share with you what I learned.
The day started out with us driving to the stadium from the Premiere Global Sports office on 34th Street on the west side of Manhattan. It’s so nice that it only takes fifteen minutes to get to the Meadowlands when there is not a game. On game day that same trip takes about an hour and a half. 10 minutes to the stadium and another hour and twenty minutes in the parking lot.
I should know that even when there is not a game going on things are never easy. For instance right off the bat we pulled up into the Giants new corporate offices which are now located on site. Pretty cool to see their offices right there in the complex; has to make coming to work a bit easier with nice new state of the art offices. Once we realized we were in the wrong place to meet our guide we pulled into the stadium parking lot which is a complete construction zone. We proceeded to get into an argument with one of the parking officials who asked us what our mission was? When was the last time someone asked you what your mission was? I told him our mission was to find the Holy Grail inside the old Giants stadium and proceed to bring it into the new stadium. He didn’t like that one but let us park in the back anyway.
The new stadium is only built maybe 90 ft away from the current one, and the size of it is overwhelming. We met the Giants Stadium VP of sales, Kevin Frattura, so he could show us around the current stadium. We were led down the back hallways and then through the tunnel onto the field where the maintenance crew was actually putting in real grass over top of the turf, for the upcoming international soccer games to be played in Giants Stadium. As I stood on the field I was imagining all of those historic games, players, and plays that happened on this field like the miracle at the meadowlands ala Herm Edwards or the Giants clinching Super Bowl berths and then I thought about my Jets who have made me suffer for the last thirty years and that’s when I got very excited to get the hell out of the place. It’s nice to know us Jet fans will finally have a home to call our own, or at least half of one.
Next we were taken up to the luxury suite level in the old stadium. Surprisingly the lounge areas were first class, but they just weren’t up to par with facilities of a newer stadium. This is no one’s fault, but with this surge of new stadiums being built there is nothing the Giants Stadium team could do to compete. We were then led into a room in which is only for luxury suite ticket holders. It is one of the primary stops the front office makes when showing a free agent around the facility. This room included an exact replica of what the new Giants, urrr Giants/Jets stadium will look like. The model was so detailed. It had everything from each blade of grass to the four major video screens in the stadium working. I couldn’t help but think to myself, of the movie Zoolander with Ben Stiller, when they built him a model of what his library would look like and he screamed in anger, “what is this a center for ants?” but I didn’t think that would be to professional if I told them that. I did let our tour guide know that the model was getting me very excited for fantasy football.
So far every part of the tour I kind of expected to happen, but I didn’t anticipate what occurred next. With a flip of a switch the model stadium started to lower and a video screen came down from the ceiling. Then he showed us a five minute video of every new and innovative idea which the stadium is going to offer, filled with video and radio clips of famous Jets/Giants plays of the past, that would have given “The Terminator” goose bumps. I felt like I could have suited up right then and there and played a couple downs with LT himself. That’s the original LT who I mean. 
One of the really neat parts of the tour is when we got to walk through an exact model, to scale, of what one of the luxury suites in the new stadium is going to look like. The Giants Stadium workers had ripped out one of the old luxury suites and re-built it to what it will look like in the new stadium. This suite is first class all the way, with multiple flat screens, luxurious sofas and chairs, and the actual seats you watch the game in which are nice and cushioned. I was thinking to myself who was going to get this suite, the only redone one in the whole stadium for the coming season. It’s like the guy who builds a mcmansion and all his neighbors are still living in ranch homes around him.
We finally headed into the new stadium, and like I said before this thing is HUGE! It is 2.1 times the size of the old stadium with more than twice the amount of luxury suites also. The great part is plenty of bathrooms as most of the extra space is in the corridors and hallways. We then got to walk right onto the future 50 yard line construction hats and all. You can’t even imagine how intimidating it was to see how monstrous the stadium seems. The field is lower than all of the seats and because of the new architectural capabilities, even the upper level seats are close to the field so it feels like everyone is on top of you standing on the field. I was intimidated just standing there with a no one in the stadium; I can’t even imagine what it is going to feel like for an opposing rookie coming in there with 75,000 screaming fans. It is going to be ridiculous. One of the coolest features of the new stadium is going to be a field level luxury suite area.
These are the only fans that will have field level access and it is a patio type thing that extends onto the field right behind the bench. If you are lucky enough to have one of the designated tickets for that area, you are in for a treat. Ticket holders can walk out, basically on the field, and be right behind the player’s benches. There are no seats in this area, it is just for “hanging out” and once fans have had enough, they can go back up to their cushioned luxury suite seats. Can you imagine? Hey Rex you want a beer to get over that missed field goal?
Some other new innovations to this stadium include, a private road being built for luxury suite owners only so they don’t have to deal with the regular traffic flow. Hell I don’t care what price you charge for that. It is not enough! A new train exit/entrance letting you off 20 feet from the entrance to the stadium. How great is that for those of us coming from NYC? Dozens of additional access roads are also being built to lessen the heavy flow of traffic. I think there will now be eighteen access points to come and go.
For those of you who take the train into the stadium and don’t get to experience the pre-game tailgating, there is going to be a specific area constructed just inside the stadium gates that includes live music, food, beverages, games and much more. And what if you don’t have a ticket but want to experience the atmosphere of the game? No problem, there are gigantic video screens located all around the stadium that can show multiple games at once.
New York football fans aren’t just going to a game anymore, they are going to a spectacle every time inside or even around the new stadium. I want to thank Kevin Frattura and the Giants Stadium Crew for showing us around and giving us an inside look of what the future is for New York Football. I can’t wait until they flip that little switch and the stadium turns green. In the meantime how about going after JetBlue airlines as the naming rights sponsor for this building. Could anyone be better suited to house Big Blue and Gang Green?
4 Comments »