Tickets (Part 1)
A boss of mine, when I was working at GEICO,
had some tickets for some college ball (S.D.S.U., baby!) that he wasn't
going to be able to use. So he gave them to me. So my
roommate Aaron and I (both basketball freaks) took 'em
down and traded them in for wheelchair-access seats...which
ended up being right behind the hoop...with the cheerleaders.
Sweet! Aaron ended up on TV holding up a letter. That was
my first college ball game.
Back when the Kings were first starting to hit it during
the Vlade/C-Webb/J-Will era, Tim and Aaron and I drove down
to L.A. from San Diego and caught a game with them beating
down on the Clippers (you could get Clippers tickets. No WAY to
get Lakers tickets). My big moment was hanging outside behind
Staples Center afterward, waiting for the Kings bus to come out,
and seeing Kareem drive by me (he was a Clips assistant coach at
the time). Big hero of mine from when I first started the NBA love.
About the only way you could afford to see a Kings/Lakers
game in '01 was to see a pre-season game. So Tim and Aaron
and I hopped a plane to Vegas and did just that. Great game,
even though they didn't use the starters as much as they would
have otherwise. At least I can say I saw Vlade flop on Shaq live.
Padres, baby! Until I moved to San Diego, I had never
had my own baseball team, so was never really into
baseball. San Diego life changed that. Here was my first
game, back when they were still playing at Qualcomm, a
few months after I moved there. I seem to recall that we won,
but really, when it comes to seeing a live baseball game? That's
almost secondary. The experience alone is your reward.
Went to this one with Aaron and Russ.
Better dead than Reds! Wait, wrong decade... This was my
second Pads game in 1999. Still at Qualcomm.
And my final game was days before I left San Diego, just after
they FINALLY finished the all-new baseball stadium (and then
went and called it Petco Park...). My pal Russ traded up his season
tickets for wheelchair seats. And the seats? Wow. We were pretty much
ON the grass. Right up there next to second base, up against the barrier,
front row ground. Reds pitcher Todd Jones was sitting near there in a
folding chair and came over and started talking with us, and we rapped
with him right up until the 7th, when he had to...you know, go pitch. Great
game, great experience, and a great way to say good-bye (sniff) to S.D.
And in '99, when I was still living in San Diego with
Aaron, his friend Stephanie came to town from Seattle,
and our friend Greg was visiting, and Aaron and Steph
dragged us to a Pet Shop Boys concert downtown. Hell of
a show. Those guys go all out. And it was a unique experience,
too, us being pretty much the only four straight people there...
And in 2002, San Diego got its own arena football team!
Sweet! Aaron and I just had to be part of the opening game,
so we got tickets and went. Huge fun. You know you're in a sport
that's really going to take off when your team is up against
teams like Bakersfield...
I became a Star Wars freak back in '77 when I saw the first
(or was it fourth?) one as a kid. Did I keep THAT ticket stub?
Noooo... I had to keep the one from the crappy first prequel
film instead. But, still...it was a Star Wars movie on opening day, and
I hadn't gotten to have that experience since Jedi, so I soaked up
the whole event atmosphere and got to feel like a young nerd
again. The Fox fanfare. The "roll". The crazy, rabid crowd. A
lot of fun for both me and Russ, who both took work off to make
the opening. Would have been a perfect day if the film hadn't
sucked like a black hole...