There are a lot of things I will NEVER do. Yes, there have been a lot of things I have done. This goes for sports as it does for life. Since this is a sports-oriented blog, I will confine my don'ts and wont's to sports.
I will never make it to Augusta for the Masters. For that matter, having seen the U.S. Open in 1993 just a mile away from my home for 7 hot days, I will never see another golf tournament. I will never see the French or Australian Opens and probably not Wimbledon. I have been to the U.S. Open numerous times in Flushing Meadows, but my inclination is not to go there again for a hot, draining day. I like to play tennis, not to watch it in the heat for hours and hours.
No more MLB playoff games or World Series games for me. Been there, done that much earlier in my life. No more All-Star games in the Big 4 sports--I have seen hockey and baseball and leaving it at that is okay with me.
I have seen the NBA Finals in Philadelphia, the subject of a previous blog post. Ditto the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I saw the New Jersey Devils raise the Cup after winning in 1995, so there is nothing more to see.
I will not see NCAA Division I Men's Championship Regional or Final in most every sport except for the outside possibility of attending the College World Series in Omaha. Nor is the College Football Bowl Championship on my radar. I most likely will not go to another college bowl game--we went to the 1996 Peach Bowl in Atlanta with Clemson and LSU as opponents (a whole lot of Tigers there). And outside of Rutgers football home games, I most likely will not see another FBS game except if I get to see the University of Georgia play--a bucket list item for my birth state team or Penn State hosting Rutgers--a second, special bucket list event based on my allegiance to RU and my daughter being a PSU grad.
I don't see me going to a conference championship tournament for Division I basketball teams--I went to many a Big East Tournament game at Madison Square Garden in the 1980's into the early 2000's. I especially do not think I will make the ACC Tournament, the biggest and best of all of the conference showdowns.
It is highly doubtful that I will be going to a WNBA game soon, if ever. As much as I might like to see UConn's women's team, I do not believe that I will see the Huskies play real soon--if at all.
I will not make it to a major international soccer match (men's and women's) nor even a Major League Soccer event. Rugby, cricket, badminton fail to interest me enough to go watch. College squash was a significant sample of that sport for me.
Auto racing has a different dilemma for me. I have an interest to see the spectacle of a race, but the fact that it goes on for hours with the same loud engine noise and being stuck in a particular spot for so long causes me great angst about ever attending. That applies for Grand Prix or NASCAR. I cannot see myself at Funny Car or motorcycle races.
Forget about beach volleyball or surfing competitions. Not my cup of tea. Winter sports are not in my sights, either. Who needs the cold?
Gymnastics and fencing--I have seen a lot of low level gymnastics thanks to my daughter and I did attend a college fencing tournament at Drew University when my nephew participated as a member of Duke's team. I can confidently state that I will not see anymore of those sports.
The Olympics and the Pan American Games--simply not interested in the sports or the prices or the venues.
A title fight in boxing--especially the heavyweight division--is not going to happen. I saw some fights in New Jersey--at lower weights and involving heavyweights and that was more than enough for me.
WWE wrestling--if it truly is wresting--is another thing I will pass on. It look great on TV, but being there is another story. I do love Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson.
Poker tournaments--I find them boring and besides, when I go to a casino, I play draw poker on a machine which invariably beats me. Who needs more of that? Chess or checkers--I am not very good at either.
Jet skiing, boat racing, sumo wrestling, martial arts, curling, paint ball, pool, darts. Nah. Australian Rules football--a leap of faith if I ever get to Australia. Any kind of animal fighting is insane and barbaric. I will not participate in hunting or fishing contests for the same reason. Shooting of weapons does not thrill me at all. I have seen dog racing. No more for me. Same goes for Jai Alai, which I think is fixed.
While I have seen careening bobsleds and ski jumping, they are no longer an attraction for me.
to the Boston Marathon is not something I yearn to do. I cringe at the thought of the carnage.
I don't go out of my way for horse shows despite the gracefulness of the animals. I grew up watching elite equestrian performers at Johnson Park in Piscataway in my youth and I more recently saw some competition at the New Jersey State Fair. My niece is a top trainer in Maine, so if she makes it to this area or if I am in Maine when she is at a show, then I could see a horse show. That is more of happenstance than anything else.
I have seen the quarter horses perform. I have been to harness racing at Johnson Park, Freehold Raceway and the Meadowlands. However, no rodeos on the horizon
Additionally, I have been to Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands to see thoroughbred racing. What I have not been to and will never go to is the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing--the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. For the record, I will not go to another horse race because I do not feel like betting on races when I have no idea who might win. Such, to me, is mindless and dumb.
Yet this weekend we just completed the second leg of the Triple Crown--The Preakness Stakes in Maryland. The pageantry for all three races is steeped in tradition. The Run of the Roses at venerable Churchill Downs. A laurel of Black-Eyed Susans for the Preakness winner. This is not the time of year for those flowers, so they are not the real thing. White carnations adorn the horse who wins at Belmont Park. Those 700 flowers for the Belmont wreath are imported from Colombia.
It is a pageant from start to finish. Fashion is big and so are mint juleps for the Kentucky Derby. The walk from the stables to the saddling of the horses to the post parade is imbued with history. The songs of the 3 races are equally ingrained in our heads. "My Old Kentucky Home' and "Maryland, My Maryland" (sung beautifully every year by the Unites States Naval Academy Glee Club are anthems. So was "The Sidewalks of New York," until the New York Racing Authority decided that "New York, New York" fit better--and that came with a side trip to the Alicia Keys' "New York State of Mind" in 2010.
The Belmont Stakes is the oldest of the three races. It is also the longest--a mere 1 1/2 mile endurance test for the horses. Invariably, the hype leading up to the Kentucky Derby as to the eventual winning horse is morphed into a quest for the Triple Crown if that horse can win The Preakness. It becomes gripping sports news when the horse has won the first 2 races, with the speculation as to whether or not there will be a Triple Crown winner this year. Moreover, the Belmont Stakes, "The Crown Jewel of the Triple Crown," is in the economic and media capital of the United States. You win in New York, it has been said, you win BIG.
In my lifetime, there have been four Triple Crown horses--the great Secretariat in 1973; Seattle Slew in 1977 followed by Affirmed in 1978 until a long drought ended with American Pharoah's win in 2015. Because so few horses have attained this lofty goal, the media gets the public into a frenzy. Combined with betting away from the track, there is seemingly a vested interest in having a Triple Crown champ.
Make no mistake--thoroughbred racing is a world-wide, billion dollar industry akin to the NFL, NBA, MLB and NBA. It is, first and foremost, and industry. Tons of money is to be made with investments in young horses who have a lineage which is linked to racing success. Stud fees for winning horses are outrageous.
There are major pitfalls within horse racing. There is an epidemic of cheating and drug abuse. Some of the people involved with horse racing have been from a shady element. Horses are abused. PETA monitors the situation closely. Plus, as much as the big races attract fans, the everyday races are not drawing as well as in other years. Thoroughbred horse racing's upside is in the money, not in the sport itself.
I know this--that I would be hard-pressed to attend these spectacles. Large crowds at Met Life Stadium, for Yankees games or even at the RAC annoy me. When you are talking about 100,000-150,000 coming together for revelry for hours on end in the heat and humidity, the rain or the chill, with long lines at the rest rooms and over-priced concessions, I can feel the excitement the way NBC Sports portrays the action on my HD television in the comfort of my very regulated and comfortable den. With food of my choice, and all the liquid I require to avoid dehydration. My idea of watching the three great American races differs greatly from those who go to the track--just like the revelers who populate Times Square in cold and sometimes wet conditions to ring in the New Year.
It was great to watch the crowds at Pimlico Race Track for the Preakness. But would they have rather have been at home, able to watch the Yankees battle the Rays? The Ducks and Predators meeting in the Conference Finals? Or seeing the Golden State Warriors take on the Spurs in San Antonio in Game 3 of their 7 game series? I think not. I found myself to be right in my happiness zone with the remote readily available.
So this is why I will no longer go to a horse race nor be at a Triple Crown race in my lifetime. Too many other sporting events have priority in my world. Or for that matter, a nice meal, a good movie or some sleep will substitute just fine. Even on the first Saturday in May, the third Saturday in May and the first Saturday in June. I will be at my television as late afternoon turns into early evening. Watching and hoping for another Triple Crown winner.
That suits me just fine. Because there will be no Triple Crown winner in 2017, rendering the Belmont Stakes a non-event for me anyway.
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