Epic Fall (Classic)

2011 World Series will be one of the stories you'd want to tell your grandkids | Credit: ibtimes.com

Baseball. For a lot of people, it is one of the most boring sports. It consumes a lot of time. As baseball is not time-based, a game could last for four to five hours. The game is also low scoring unlike gridiron football or basketball. And with the emergence of both sports, baseball is starting to fade from being America’s national pastime to ‘just one of the major sports.’ Bill Simmons, in one of his recent BS Report podcasts, even mentioned that baseball is a sport that is not that much appreciated by the 25 and below people. It makes total sense with the fast paced life these days. Baseball is so old school.

Add the fact that the popular teams (Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies) were already eliminated before the league championship series, this year’s World Series seemed to be headed for a disaster. But guess what, baseball was not as bad as it appeared to be.

2011 will surely go down as one of the most exciting years in America’s major sporting events. The year began with an amazing conclusion of the NFL Super Bowl. The teams with the most number of American Football championships (pre-Super Bowl and Super Bowl era) faced each other in the largest stadium in the United States – the Cowboy Stadium. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in a thrilling finish where Ben Roethlisberger almost put on a game-winning drive. It was an epic battle because it featured Green Bay’s amazing ascension to the top by winning six straight win-or-go-home games.

8 Random Thoughts of a Very Satisfied Fan

Note: A lot of these are week-old news. Yup, it took me a week before I could publish this writeup. Thanks to my wisdom tooth (or lack thereof) for constantly making me ineffective these past few days.

One week ago, I was frustrated at the demise of my two sports teams. If your two teams had the worst collapses of the ‘more than century old’ Major League Baseball history, you are surely going to get pissed. I woke up as if I just had a break-up the previous day (total lie – I was still able to work and function as a normal being that day, but you get the idea… I was devastated). I barely slept and I woke up as if I had a horrible hangover even if I never drank a drop of alcohol the previous night. Last week seemed to be an awful week in sports for me. Atlanta and Boston collapsed and got eliminated; Smart Gilas squandered a great chance of reaching the Finals and lost in the 2nd runner-up battle; New England lost for the very first time in gazillion years to Buffalo with Brady throwing four picks. The only win from a team I rooted for was from this year’s Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers.

It was a tough week until everything concluded with the Game 2 of the UAAP Finals. The surest bet of the year for me – the Ateneo Blue Eagles – completed their domination of the Far Eastern University Tamaraws. And just like that, I felt relieved and ecstatic. Ateneo now belongs in the four-peat club. History happened for my teams – two horrible outcomes and one amazing result. And from a fan who has been through a lot, I will take this overall outcome any time of the day.

I read Grantland’s list of ‘Most Depressed Fan Bases.’ Both Atlanta and Boston were on the recent list, but you know what, I should not belong on this list (heck, Boston should not even be as the Bruins recently won). I was unfortunate on what happened to Atlanta and Boston, but as Bill Simmons usually remark, “I have no right to feel horribly sad because my sports teams were winning championships the past few years.” The same can be said to Boston. The same applies to me.

This writeup is not meant for gloating purposes. I am just saying that I had an up and down year but for what it’s worth, I should be very happy because two of my teams won championships.