Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Selling my collection of soccer shirts

Going to sell off all my shirts except the Chelsea ones. Collection includes Liverpool, Real Madrid (Raul), Ajax, Valencia, Sevilla, Al Ahly - all authentic!

Red Sox on fire lately

Red Sox have actually slumped a little in last 10 games (6-4) and have lost the last 2 but they are well back in contention and are currently tied with the Yankees.  As it seems every year in New England it is hard to watch the Red Sox until the weather gets warmer.  Well the weather is warmer now and the Sox are in contention again!  Anyone not think that Gonzalez was worth every penny?

Took a break from my Bruins gear to get the Red Sox gear on to watch the game.

Oh that's right the NBA finals start tonight...

Man the NBA finals drag on.  I have been so caught up with the Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals I forgot that the NBA finals are on.   I was really hoping that the Bulls were going to knock off the Heat but Derek Rose just couldn't do it himself.  I was really hoping the Celtics were going to knock off the Heat but I have to admit the boys looked a little old at the end there.  After all the bullshit with Lebron in the off season and taking his talents to South Beach I was so hoping (along with many other Heat fans I bet) that the Heat would be a failure.  Well that is obviously no the case and they have gotten stronger and stronger through the playoffs.  On the other side the Mavs have shown top form knocking off the Lakers (great result, too bad Kobe) and too good for a young Ok City team).  Dirk deserves a championship and the big question is does he have the supporting cast to top the Heat?  I hope so.  GO MAVS!!!

Stanley Cup Game 1 only 1 day away!

Hockey is quite a new sport for me and I only really got into it about 5 years ago.  Of all the major American sports it was the last to catch on for me but now I am a huge fan.  Interesting side note:  my mother who lives in Brisbane Australia came to visit me in Boston 5 years ago for the first time and was obsessed with hockey which she watched for the first time! My interest in the Bruins was accelerated due to 2 main factors in the last few years:

1.  When I met my wife her brother, father and her sister's husband are all huge fans and I watched many games with them
2.  We bought a 50 inch HD TV and I could see the puck a lot clearer!

This season I had the fortune to buy into a share of Bruins season tickets with my brother in law and his cousin and I went to about 10 regular season games.  Then when the playoffs began we got the whole set of playoff tickets so I went to some great games in every series.  Now they are in the Stanley Cup which starts in Wednesday and we have tickets to all the games!  Talk about luck!



View from our seats Game 2 Bruins v Lightning which the Bruins won 6-5!

As mentioned a couple of posts ago I am going to wear an item of sports clothing from a team or individual that I follow to either support an upcoming game or to celebrate a big win (link to post here).  With the Stanley Cup coming up tomorrow today I am going to wear Bruins gear in support of their first Stanley Cup finals appearance in 21 years!  Maybe I will be good luck again and bring another title to Boston? (Since I lived here the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics have won titles!)


Today's posts are brought to you by buddha!


(note the small transistor radio with which I listen to WEEI every morning)

Details of the sports fan challenge

OK in the previous post I explained my obsession with sports which spans 2 hemispheres.  Coupled with this obsession is another obsession which involves collecting sports paraphernalia associated with these teams.  This includes primarily items of clothing : hats, shirts, jackets, etc.  And I wear them almost every day!  Almost always I wear the clothing associated with the team that is playing that day or in commemoration of a great win the night before.  At the very least they have to be currently playing in their respective seasons. For instance once the Patriots are out of the running for the Super Bowl then all the associated clothing is packed away until the next season and I move on to teams that are still in the running.  As you can see from the previous post I have a lot of teams on my follow list so almost every day I can wear a different teams colors.

Therefore I came up with a idea for posts that would also give a glimpse into my sports world.  Every day (this is the goal!) I will post a photo of myself wearing clothing associated with a sporting team or individual that I follow.  The selection of the clothing will depend on whether they are playing a big game that day or to celebrate a great win the day before.  I will explain my reasons for the selection in the post.

Think I am up for the challenge?

This is how obsessed I am about sports!

For those of you that don't know me I am quite obsessed with sports.  Just ask my wife.  I could watch sports all day every day and pretty much not watch anything else.  Part of this obsession is the fact that I follow sports in multiple countries, in particular the US and Australia.  I grew up in Australia loving sports like cricket and rugby as a kid.  All through my life I have continued to follow these sports as best I could but now that almost all games are available on TV it has made watching them much easier.  Below I is a list of Australian sports and sporting teams that I follow closely:

CRICKET
Australian national team
Queensland Bulls

RUGBY LEAGUE
Australian National team (Kangaroos)
Queensland Maroons
Cronulla Sharks
Brisbane Broncos

RUGBY UNION
Australian National Team (Wallabies)
Queensland Reds

SOCCER
Socceroos (Australian National Team)
Brisbane Roar

Added to these teams I also follow Australian tennis, golf, track and field athletes, triathletes, swimmers, cyclists.

Since I moved to Boston I have latched on to the Boston teams like I grew up here and have supported them all my life (I have lived here for 12 years, never lived in another US city and have seen then Patriots, Celtics and Red Sox win titles in that time, my Boston friends consider me a good luck charm!).  Therefore to add to the list above are the Boston teams that I follow:

NBA
Celtics

MLB
Red Soc

NFL
Patriots

NHL
Bruins

Now to make the list even longer I also lived in England for 18 months (about 14 years ago) and while I was there became attached to a few teams in the English Premier League.  I lived in Sheffield so I followed those teams and Chelsea was favourite area of London so I also latched on to those teams.  Lets add those to the list:

Chelsea FC
Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday

So now the list is quite long and covers both summer and winter sports in the northern and southern hemispheres.  Therefore in the northern winter I follow sports such as basketball, hockey and soccer while in Australia I also follow cricket at the same time.  To keep all these sports I have a collection of apps that send me alerts, notifications etc.  I also set up a schedule on google calendar with all the teams that I follow (which includes rivals to my teams, for example Red Sox rivals: Yankees and Rays).



Every morning I check the calendar and the various apps that I have to catch up on sports that may have happened overnight (in Australia or southern hemisphere) and to see who is playing that day and to make arrangements for possible games that I may want to watch.  There is an introduction into my world of sports.  Just be thankful you aren't married to me (my poor wife handles it all very well).

Saturday, May 28, 2011

What a great sports week!

OK I haven't written anything for a while but this week has really inspired me because it was such a great week in my sporting world.

First and foremost was the Bruins win last night in Game 7 v Tampa Bay which secured their first Stanley Cup finals appearance in about 20 years.  I have to admit of all the American sports hockey was the last that I caught on to.  It was so foreign to me and I have never even been ice skating before!  But over the years my interest has grown and I now rate it my second favourite American sport (sorry NFL is still the first).  I love the physicality and the spontaneity.  The last few years I have really latched on to the Bruins which was in part due to my wife's family particularly my brother in laws (wife's sister's husband and wife's brother) who are big fans.  This year I even had a share of season tickets (actually went to about 10 reg season games and 2 playoff games).  Now I have a chance to go and see a Stanley Cup game!