A Super Week at FirstEnergy Park
It has been another busy week here at FirstEnergy Park, with everyone trying to get set for the 2008 season (56 days until Opening Day!). But this week was a little different than any I had experienced with the BlueClaws so far, mostly thanks to Eli Manning and his friends.
One of the great things about working in sports is that nearly everyone you work with is, quite obviously, a sports fan. And around here most are Giants fans and pretty vocal about it. The week leading up to the game was actually a little calmer than I expected and most of the trash talking was being done by our one die hard Pats fan, who was clearly brimming with confidence.
And then they played the game…
As a neutral observer, Monday was a lot of fun. I haven’t experienced a major sports championship since the 49ers won the Super Bowl in 1994, so it was really incredible to see how happy the Giants fans were around here. No one, except maybe the most optimistic Big Blue supporters, gave them much of a shot and yet they managed to pull it off. Pretty awesome. Except for everyone’s favorite Patriots fan, who has been hearing it non-stop from all sides for the last four days. I would feel worse for him if it weren’t for those three Super Bowl championships in the last seven seasons. Winning like that kind of dampens my sympathy.
A bunch of the guys ended up heading using an off-day on Tuesday to head to Manhattan to see the championship parade. From talking with a few of them who went, it sounds like it was an incredible experience. Few cities celebrate a championship like New York and this time around, it was maybe even bigger and more emotional because of the scope of the upset.
Just one final comment on the Super Bowl before I get to a little baseball stuff: this Super Bowl rocked.
Again, I’m a Niners fan. I’m resigned to the fact that my team is giving away its top pick in this year’s draft to the Patriots and probably won’t be good for a long, long time. But as an impartial observer, this was the best Super Bowl I had ever seen. Think back to the other great championship games in the last 15 years: 1997 when Elway won his first Super Bowl as a massive underdog, 1999 when the Rams held off the Titans, 2001 with Tom Brady and New England coming from no where to stun St. Louis, 2003 when the Pats squeaked it out against Carolina. In my book, none of these comes close to this year’s game in terms of great plays, pure excitement and an unexpected result.
So, congratulations Giants fans. Hang on to that feeling.
Do you have a cool Super Bowl story? Share it with your fellow BlueClaws fans in the comments section below.
On the baseball front, we are coming ever closer to pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in Clearwater. The first Spring Training exhibition game is February 26, meaning that we are just 19 days from seeing our first professional baseball of the new year.
The Phillies have put out the bios of everyone in their minor league system, but we’ll still have to wait a while before we get a definitive look at the 2008 BlueClaws roster. The Phillies have not been afraid to put top talent in Lakewood and this year should be no exception. The Phillies picked up a pretty solid crop of players in the 2007 Draft, including standout Rice lefthander Joe Savery, and we could see some of those players on the field at FirstEnergy Park this season.
What are your hopes for the 2008 season? Any players you are hoping to see in a BlueClaws uniform this year? Give your two cents in our comments section.
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