South Bend, IN - The Leprechaun

10/04/08 - Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Notre Dame Stadium

Love them or hate them. There is no in-between with most people when it comes to two sports teams - the New York Yankees and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. As you can probably guess from the rest of this blog, I'm not most people. I can appreciate Notre Dame as an important piece of the college football landscape. You can't discuss the history and tradition of the sport without them. On the other hand, losing every bowl game for a decade shows that you may be a touch overrated. Bottom line is that if you are a true college football fan or just a sports road-tripper, you need to witness at least one game at Notre Dame Stadium in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus (He's painted on the side of the library overlooking the stadium). As an interesting side-note, taking this picture is closer than I got to either a church or the library during my four years at college.

This trip was my second to South Bend, both with my old college roommate. He is a die-hard Notre Dame fan (currently owns 18 signed ND mini-helmets) who was born and raised in Penn State country. We went in 2001 to see them beat Purdue and when the opportunity came to go again, I wasn't about to pass it up. We drove into town Thursday night and spent Friday playing 18 holes at Warren Golf Course on the ND campus. It's a challenging course that's well worth the money but if you're going to try to play on a gameday weekend, make sure to get your tee time in advance because it fills up quickly. After a couple of rounds on the patio to help forget my round on the course, we headed in town to the College Football Hall of Fame. Full of the usual interactive exhibits, plaques of enshrined players, and memorabilia, the Hall of Fame is a nice afternoon activity (skip the movie though - it was pretty bad). If you time your visit right, you might even get to take the tour with Notre Dame's weekly opponent. Most teams walk through Friday afternoon when they're in town and we shared our visit with Stanford. (It was recently announced that the Hall is relocating to Atlanta within the next 3-4 years so if you're planning a trip, make sure it's still there)

Campus on gameday is what you'd expect it should be. Since the stadium is right in the middle of campus, parking is mostly offsite and requires shuttle buses to get you there. Although this is inconvenient at the start and end of your day, it means that once you're there it feels like you're back at school. You can walk the quads where students are playing. You can buy food from the different campus clubs that set up tables around the stadium. I even saw one place that you could get your face painted and get a smoked bratwurst, all in one transaction. A few hours before kickoff, there is a pep rally in the basketball arena - complete with activities for the kids, the cheerleaders and, of course, The Leprechaun. About the same time, you may hear the sound of police sirens and helicopters. Don't be alarmed, that's just the police escort for the ND team bus reminding you that in this town on a Saturday in the fall, everything stops for the football team.

Tickets to see Notre Dame, either home or away, are pricey and almost always bought through ticket agents. If you are fine seeing a mid-level opponent (think Purdue, Stanford, Michigan State), you're looking at a few hundred dollars for a decent seat. If you want to see a top level opponent (USC, PSU, Michigan), expect to sell the rights to a vital organ. A few year's back when ND hosted #1 USC, I recall seats listed for upwards of $3000 each. My advise - hang on to your spleen for when you might need it, grab some upper level tickets to a mid-level opponent and enjoy the experience. Men in kilts march onto the field ahead of the team. There are no jumbotrons. Omnipresent advertising is nowhere to be found. It's just a classic, one-level bowl design stadium in the middle of rural Indiana. Notre Dame won that day and although it made the ride home better (imagine driving 11 hours with someone who's team just lost to a school who's mascot is a tree), sometimes the outcome of the game isn't the point. Love them or hate them? It doesn't really matter. If you call yourself a football fan or even a traveller who likes sports, South Bend belongs high on your list of destinations.

Goodbye until Spring, Independent Baseball

This coming weekend marks the final regular season weekend for the Atlantic League, an 8 team independent professional baseball league located in CT, NY, NJ, PA and MD. Even though these teams are not affiliated with major league organizations, their rosters are filled with ex-major league players and AA and AAA talent trying to work their way back to the show. We spent last night bidding adieu to the home schedule of the York Revolution, located in York, PA. They had giveaways galore and yours truly was chosen to be Velcroman. Basically, they strapped me to the right field wall for three innings and told me if I catch a ball, I win $5,000. I didn't win any money but did have the best seat in the house for about an hour.

Prior to this league, we had no previous exposure to independent baseball but it is definitely worth the price of admission (which is typically under $10). They have frequent giveaways, constant between-inning entertainment and the fact that the hitting talent is a bit more advanced than the pitching usually yields some high scoring games. We've seen all of the teams in the Atlantic League and have captured half of the mascots so far. Maybe once spring comes, we'll track down the rest. Just 218 days till Opening Day 2010!

Finley of the Camden Riversharks

Downtown of the York Revolution

(yes, we were at a bar - everyone should have a giant, neon green drinking buddy)

Pinch of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs

Cylo of the Lancaster Barnstormers

Spanish Soccer Live Bear Tryout

OK, so this guy may not end up being the day-to-day mascot for Spanish soccer's Real Valladolid but you have to admit, he aced the tryout. He's got spirit (he plays the horn), he's got athletic ability (look at those somersaults) and he definitely has referee interaction down to a science - pay special attention to seconds 15 through 17. Wouldn't it be great if you got a treat every time you flipped someone off.

Virginia Cavaliers Mascot Mishap

It's been a rough start so far for the University of Virginia football team. Two weeks into the season the team is 0-2, including a loss to William and Mary and one to Texas Christian University. But possibly worse was the riding of the mascot, Cavman, on his horse, Sabre. Apparently, the horse became spooked when it realized that it was about to gain a first down, something not very common so far in Charlottesville.

Welcome Back NFL Football

The National Football League Season begins tonight with the World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Tennessee Titans. A special thanks to the friends and family division of Mascothunter for this picture of the Steelers' mascot Steely McBeem. No word yet on whether or not they are paying ex-head coach Bill Cowher royalties for the use of his jaw.

Tuscaloosa, AL - Big Al

11/15/08 - Alabama Crimson Tide - Bryant-Denny Stadium

After many years of watching college football and hearing everyone talk about how the SEC football experience was a level above the rest of the country, we decided that the big college football trip for '08 was going right into the heart of SEC country. A little research of the schedules and local eateries brought us to a pretty easy decision - Mississippi St vs. Alabama in mid-November to go see Big Al.

We flew through Atlanta and into Birmingham on Thursday ahead of the Saturday game and were immediately met with a state obsessed with college football. Every other car seemed to have either a 'Bama sticker or an Auburn sticker on it and with Auburn hosting Georgia that weekend, the state was in full tailgating mode. We drove into Birmingham on Friday and toured around the city. As lunchtime descended, we headed to the corner of the UAB campus and a little BBQ joint with a big reputation, Dreamland Bar-b-que. It's one of those places where the menu is on the wall and they only serve about 6 things but they are all wonderful. We split a slab of ribs, a side of mac and cheese and banana pudding for desert. Words can't describe how good this food was. I sat in the rental car in the parking lot afterwards, breathing heavily and wiping my forehead from the meat-sweats. If you find yourself within a tank of gas from this place, go there.

We headed into Tuscaloosa late Saturday morning and wandered the campus a bit. Unlike many schools where tailgating takes place in the parking lot, the bulk of the pregame festivities is front and center right on the quad and about a block from the 92,000 plus seat stadium.

And tailgating at Bama isn't just beer and throwing around a football, this is satellite dishes and flat screens. Seemingly the whole quad was watching the Auburn/Georgia game (and rooting against Auburn). The southern hospitality was as-advertised and we seemed to amuse some of the locals as we munched on some boiled peanuts and explained to them about our sports-related travels. All this lead up to The Million Dollar Band (and of course Big Al himself) leading the crowd from the quad to the stadium in a tradition known as the Elephant walk. It's basically tens of thousands of fans following behind the band and walking together into the stadium about an hour before kickoff. If that doesn't get you ready for the game, nothing will. #1 Alabama rolled to an easy victory over Miss. St. between the hedges and ultimately into the Sugar Bowl. The fans were amazingly friendly (and quite dedicated), the atmosphere was as it should be for an SEC football game under the lights and the food was great - what else could you want. We learned a few things:

1. Airline tickets to Birmingham through Atlanta are $50 a ticket cheaper than the same flight stopping in Atlanta. In other words, they paid us $50 each to keep going once we got to Atlanta.

2. "Roll Tide" is a saying with many uses in this great state. It can be a greeting, as heard on the quad or the post-game call-in show, where people begin conversations "Roll Tide." It can be used as an addition to a refrain, as the student body adds "Roll Tide Roll" in between "Sweet Home Alabama" and "where the skies are so blue". And it can be used as a reason to wear rolls of toilet paper on your head and Tide boxes on your chest for the day.

3. We can't wait for our next trip to SEC country.

ROLL TIDE!

Miami, FL - Billy the Marlin

05/20/09 - Florida Marlins - Landshark Stadium

Is there any better way to spend a vacation than dodging unpredictable May Florida thunderstorms and hanging out with Billy the Marlin? We couldn't think of one so we headed down the Florida coast and into Miami for the day. The scheduled night game turned into a doubleheader after a rainout earlier that week but we decided to avoid the early game and head into Miami for the day. First stop: South Beach. Although South Beach does include the stretch of sand that it is famous for, I was interested to find out that it also stretched inland for about a dozen blocks for what has turned into a pedestrian-only area of shops and restaurants. We had lunch at a little Cuban restaurant (where else, it's Miami) and wandered the shops and the road next to the beach until it was time to go see Billy.

Landshark Stadium (formerly Dolphins Stadium, formerly Pro Player Stadium, formerly Joe Robbie Stadium...) is a football stadium. Period. The scoreboard is football-size huge, all of the seats face forward (as opposed to angling towards home plate) and I'm pretty sure the upper deck isn't even open for baseball. As you can see from the background of the picture, it was "come dressed like an orange seat" night at the game, which seems to be a popular promotion at Marlins games. To be fair, although it was probably the smallest crowd I've seen at a big league game, the fans that showed up were really in to it. The team has been involved in a long running dialogue with the city to get a baseball-only facility closer to the city (Landshark is a solid 30 minute drive from downtown) and it looks like that will be happening in the next few years. Hopefully that will increase the fan base because this team has won 2 World Series in the last 15 years and its a shame to see a big league team having to play in front of 70,000 empty seats.

Billy spent the game hanging out in the luxury box area in left field so we snuck up the ramp and into his section to get our picture. You can't tell in the pic but his snout is pretty long and pointy and I was a little afraid to make any sudden noises for fear that I'd get a skewered eyeball. Fortunately, we made it out of there with a good picture and without getting shishka-Billyed and headed back to our seats.

The only advantage to poorly-attended teams is you can usually score some good seats cheap. We landed front row by the visitors bullpen for the whopping sum of $17 and the bullpen catcher was nice enough to give Mrs. Mascot Hunter a ball. Here's hoping that Billy gets a nice new home and that baseball survives in South Florida. Miami is a great city and its great to be able to catch a ball game when you're in town.