Miscellaneous - Aaron Torres Sports
As we get ready to close out another year, expect to get bomarded with top 10 lists from 2009. It always happens around this time of year..
The Top 10 Sporting Events of 2009. The Top 10 John Mayer Hook-Up's of 2009. The Top 10 Lindsay Lohan Rehab Visits.
But much like Mark McGwire at baseball's Congressional hearings, I Aaron Torres am not here to talk about the past. Especially when there's so much to look forward to in the future.
So join me, as I look at Part I of my Top 10 Sports Storylines of 2010.
And remember, be sure to visit AaronTorres-Sports.com again on Wednesday, where I will unveil Part II of this list.
Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!
As many of you know, last Wednesday, yours truly was in New York City. I went to the UConn-Kentucky game that night, and on Thursday came home and wrote a column about it, which also doubled as maybe the only sports story on the entire internet that day which didn’t include the words “Tiger Woods,” Jamie Jungers,” or “Ambien sex,” in it.
However, despite being at the best college basketball game of the young season, that is not in fact, why I was in New York. Nope, on Tuesday, my uncle got invited to a seminar on the “Internationalization of Professional Sports,” hosted by ESPN personality Jay Bilas and sponsored by the Duke Law School, a place from which he graduated in the mid-1980’s (And, no my uncle isn’t Tucker Max).
Now I know what you’re thinking: Globalization of Professional Sports, huh? That’s right up your alley AT!!!
Not so fast my friend.
Nope, when I got the invited, I hemmed and hawed like a 16-year-old girl trying to pick out a prom dress. I tried to come up with excuses, but unfortunately nobody believed that I had to wash my hair, and that it “was just that time of the month (God damn political correctness).” I even contemplated faking my own kidnapping, but during this holiday season, I just couldn’t do that to my mom (Although, what an emotional Christmas morning reunion I could have turned that into!)
The fact remains, I just didn’t want to go. But why?
Hello to all the guys, gals and others out there who’ve been nice enough to follow AaronTorres-Sports.com over the last year.
For those of you who don’t know, this site started off with humble beginnings last January, as basically, well a way for me to fill my ever expanding free time (Yes ladies, I’m single!) and yap about sports.
During most of its infancy (wait, it’s not even a year old, is it still considered infant?), AaronTorres-Sports.com was basically a forum for me to write a few thoughts on last night’s game, as well as a place for my friends to make fun of me, and allow my mom to keep tabs.
I would have never guessed at any point that it would grow into anything more than that, but through a little hard work, and a lot of luck, it has.
It all started with an innocent phone call.
No, not from Tiger Woods to some L.A. cocktail waitress. But from my buddy Steve to me, during Monday night’s Patriots-Saints game.
The conversation started out like I knew it would, with us both wondering whether the Patriots could slow down Drew Brees and get back into the game. I thought about it for awhile and danced around the subject a bit, not wanting to tell Steve what I really thought: The Patriots were dead in the water.
So we chatted some more, exchanged pleasantries and were just getting ready to wrap up when Steve caught me off-guard and asked, “So, you gonna write about Tiger Woods?”
“Naw, I don’t know what happened and I don’t wanna know,” I said. “Besides, I’m not TMZ.”
I guess Tiger Woods isn't perfect
after all.
I’ve been to a lot of sporting events in my time. Professional and college, men’s and women’s. Those involving jello and mud, and those which don’t. I thought I’d seen just about everything.
But until the holiday weekend, I’d never been to a professional tennis tournament.
So when a friend proposed that we head to the U.S. Open on Sunday afternoon, I jumped at the opportunity.
And boy am I happy I did. What other spectator sport combines top flight athletic ability, alcohol and the opportunity to make fun of people with funny names and accents from six different continents? I thought so.
It was a good time, and because of that, I want to share my experience, with you my loyal readers. So sit back, relax and enjoy, as I take you through the “Idiot’s Guide to the U.S. Open.”
A week ago, I laid out some changes if I were in charge of sports. "How I'd Change Sports: Part I," can be read here.
I am here now to present you, "How I'd Change Sports: Part II
no commentsI watch a lot of sports, and when something needs fixing, I make note of it. So when a friend recently asked me what I’d change, I reeled off several things off the top of my head. To get us through the long summer months, in no particular order, here is Part One, of everything I'd fix in the sporting world.
no commentsI watch a lot of sports. I mean a lottttttttttt of sports. Replays of blow out bowl games? I’m there. Bowling on Sunday afternoons? You better believe I’m skipping church. If there’s anyone in a uniform or a chubby guy breaking a sweat, I’m usually locked in, remote control in hand.
One of the things that I’ve grown to accept about sports is that rarely does the hype match reality. We long to see upsets in the NCAA Tournament, but almost always on cue, the better team wins. Heck we have to go back almost a full decade to find a National Champion that wasn’t favored heading into the Big Dance.
We spend two weeks dissecting every angle of the Super Bowl, up to what the starting right tackles are eating for breakfast. Then the game is played and we quickly become more engrossed by what the food spread is at the party we’re attending, than anything happening on the field.
And finally there’s the Masters. You can’t go anywhere during the month of March without seeing commercials previewing golf’s premiere event. You know the one’s, “A Tradition Unlike Any Other. The Masters on CBS.”
Now listen, I’m not a golf enthusiast and am by no means trying to bash the sport and certainly not CBS. But what exactly makes the Masters different from the other three majors and every other tournament that takes place over the course of the season? Whenever I turn on golf I see a bunch of pale white guys, a little lefty and a Tiger, with a lot of mismatched polo shirts and too tight khaki pants mixed in. What exactly makes the tradition unlike any other again? The Green Jacket? The azaleas? Augusta National?
If you want a tradition unlike any other I’ll give you one. Skip Augusta and drive north, really north. And when you get there, keep driving. Better yet, you just may want to take a plane.
For a tradition unlike any other go to Fairbanks, Alaska on June 21 of any year. Go to the Midnight Sun game.
no commentsI’ve seen technology improve 5000 fold since my youth. I don’t consider myself old, but still remember when it was cool to compare your latest mix cassette tape with friends in elementary school. And if you don’t think Will Be There by Michael Jackson was on my favorite mix cassette, well you’re sadly mistaken.
In my lifetime I’ve seen health changes like eating habits improve, smoking decrease and illegal drug use become more frowned upon.
But more than anything, the biggest change I’ve seen, is that here in 2009, we live in much more of a “what’s next kind of world.” And what I mean by that is, we’re so busy getting excited for the next big thing, we seem to always take what we’ve got in the present for granted.
We wish away our weeks one at a time, when on Monday we’re already thinking about plans for Friday. We do the same thing in the winters waiting for the warmth of summer.
Every day someone tells me “they can’t wait for,” the next movie premiere, new pair of Air Jordan’s or latest model of the iPhone, practically disregarding the newest version the day it comes out.
Heck in our current world, fast food isn’t fast enough, we need a drive thru. And having every piece of information we could ever want at our fingertips on the internet isn’t even acceptable in 2009. Because lets be honest, who among us can live without high speed?
Sports is no different.
We knew LeBron James as a superstar sophomore at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s High School, and Tiger Woods was the world’s most famous active golfer before he even turned professional. This past spring Washington Nationals fans followed Stephen Strasburg’s junior year of college more ferociously than their own team’s early struggles, patiently waiting for the San Diego State pitcher to ride across country on his white horse and save the franchise.
All the hype and hoopla surrounding those three will eventually be outdone though. And it will likely come courtesy of the sporting world’s newest phenomenon and latest next big thing, Las Vegas baseball superstar Bryce Harper.
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I couldn’t tell you the first time I saw Michael Jordan hit a game winning shot.
Or share a story about falling in love with a Peyton Manning spiral or Albert Pujols opposite field home run.
I have no initial memories of Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez or Tom Brady either.
My reality is reality, which is why I don’t have any starry eyed memories and love at first sight moments with any of my favorite athletes.
Well that is, except for one: Roger Federer.
I remember the first time I watched Federer- I mean really watched him- more clearly than I do any childhood activity, school event or family members parole hearing. It wasn’t just a tennis match, but one of the defining moments in my life as a sports fan.
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