Trigger

Every time I play golf in the morning I still feel like I'm in tournament mode. Even if its just a casual round with one of my friends or family, once i hear the mowers mowing or see the dew glistening off the blades of glass, I think back to the countless summer mornings that I spent competing in junior golf tournaments. Its not necessarily a trigger to all good memories because sometimes I think about the staggering humidity and miserable conditions I had to play in also. Its not just on the golf course either, if i'm just riding my bike in the morning and see the dew on the grass or hear a lawn mower it takes me back to that time also and makes me think about golf.

The poem and the essay both have a very similar concept in that they are basing culture off of sports teams. The Lakers and Celtics have a tremendous rivalry and the essay explains how both teams have total opposite influences on culture which stems from the two teams being on complete different ends of the spectrum in all aspects including the players on the teams. It's not just the Celtics and Lakers who affect the surrounding cultures, its every city that has a sports team; mainstream or not it doesn't matter. There are tons of towns that revolve their entire culture around even the smallest of teams including high school athletics. For example, in my home town you dont even have to ask anyone what they're planning to do with their Friday nights because you already know that everyone is going to the high school football game. The days leading up to that are spent anticipating the kick-off and talking about matchups and how "we" look stacked up against our upcoming opponent. I put "we" in quotes because when we talk about the game or sport in general we always refer to the fans as "we" even though we will have no affect on the outcome of the game. But the surrounding culture is so into the game and the team that we all consider ourselves part of the team when we really aren't.

Steve Bartman

Dear Steve Bartman,

Dude... you ruined the only chance we had man! I've been a loyal Cubs fan my entire life and the one glimmer of hope you gave me and the Cubs nation, was shot down by you merely wanting a souvenir. I mean I remember when I was eight years old and wore my glove to a game to maybe catch a foul ball but I never thought I'd ruin a teams only chance at winning a world series. If I talk to anyone about what happened that game they always respond with "awh come on man, give the guy a break, all he was trying to do was catch a foul ball!". Yeah, I get that but do you know what it feels like to be a fan of a team that hasn't won a world series since 1908!? All you had to do was stay seated and listen to your damn headphones like you were doing the entire game. By the way... why in the hell were you listening to headphones at a baseball game?

You know everyone in Chicago hates you when after you got numerous beers, and food thrown at you and the security guards didn't even help you because they themselves were just as pissed as the rest of the fans. But I hope you're doing okay now after you got chased out of the city and had to change your name because of the numerous death threats, and hate mail like this. By the way, the "Bartman curse" is in full affect now because we are in second to last right now, so congratulations man...you win.


Sincerely,

Ryan Muzzonigro

Blog #3

Throughout my life I have been an avid participant and spectator in sports. Growing up, I used sports as  a tool for making friends, keeping busy, and having fun. As my life progressed so did my participation in competitive sports. I started weening out the sports that I couldn't see myself focussing on and one day decided to put my full attention into Golf. From ages 10-18 I competed in many tournaments and spent every day working on improving my game, so when it came tournament day I'd be ready to face anything that came at me. My hard work paid off and I had the option of continuing my competitive career in the collegiate level, but I realized what was more important and mattered more to me, and that was to get a good education. If i would've gone down the collegiate path it would've been at a smaller school where I wouldn't be able to get the full college experience, and honestly I would've gotten burnt out of golf very quickly. So now I still enjoy a more recreational style of sports just to stay involved and keep in shape. The spectator side of my life has always been constant throughout the way and I don't see that changing at any point in my lifetime. I feel like most high-school athletes (at least at my former school) don't even enjoy playing the sport they are doing, and I think thats wrong. They keep playing it every year even though they hate going to practice just because there parents pressure them. If you dont enjoy the sport you're playing then why play it? I never let anyone else influence my decision to either stop, or continue playing a sport and I think more kids should do that because I'm tired of hearing "ughh I really don't want to go to practice today, I cant wait for the season to be over"

Blog #2

The poem and essay are both similar in a sense that they are both in the past and now we are just reflecting on them. The juco basketball game was un-noticed for so many years until we realized how significant the victory was, and how the UT team had to overcome numerous disadvantages to come away with a win, the game didn't affect the surrounding culture too much because no one knew about the game in the first place. The poem on the other hand was just a general summarization of high school football season in the fall and how the game itself influences the surrounding environment and culture. Personally I think the poem is more universal to culture in the United States because the majority of the country has the same general feelings toward football in the fall, what i dont understand is the reference to "Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville" because honestly I don't even know if they play football in Poland. The basketball game isn't as universal because in this particular instance, the surrounding culture could care less about the game of basketball and didn't even realize the significant victory that the UT jack's had and it was in their hometown! Most small towns would at least care enough to know if their hometown team won or not.

The great thing about sports in general are the memories that it leaves in our head. If you're a die hard seminoles fan you know that they were National Champions in football during the 1993 and 1999 seasons, and you can always say that. For example, i guarantee people who stopped paying attention to college football for the past couple years would still say that Miami is still a dominant football team just because of how good they were in the 80's and that sticks into the mind of many football fans that paid attention in that era. Memory is very important to sports.

If i was going to use one of these pieces in my first essay I would use the essay about the basketball game because I think its an interesting story and i can relate to it more since i grew up playing basketball. Honestly the poem was more confusing to me also.