Sporting events inspire a lot of emotion around here. It's not always the emotion that you would expect but the passion is there for some aspect of most athletic endeavors (Jack is our newest NASCAR fan. Apparently, you can take the genes out of New Hampshire but you can't take the New Hampshire out of the genes). For some of us, wings, beer, and discarding strict (oh, who am I kidding) "we eat dinner at the dinner table" rule to watch a game is the manifestation of our spirit. For others, it is dressing from head to toe (and accessorizing) with her team's colors. And for others still, passion is shown by wanting to get the heck out of one event to get home to watch hockey (any hockey game will do but if one team is wearing red, well, there you go -- they are the winners. This does not bode well for some dads in our house during this Bruins/Blackhawks series). But, if I thought we were a pretty passionate household when it comes to most sports, we clearly missed the boat when it comes to soccer for one member. I really like soccer and watch a fair amount of it during the Olympics or World Cups, but admittedly, we only watch regular match games in passing. In Seattle, we might be in the minority. This town barely ekes out a showing for the beleaguered Mariners. And while the Seahawks draw sellouts, we can't decide if we want an NBA team or not. But the regulars (all 50,000 of them) at the Sounders games? WOW. No seriously, WOW. They are insane. Cheers, songs, scarves, signs, choreography, bands (yeah band!), fireworks -- it's an entertaining, participatory experience. Molly, John, and I really enjoyed it when we went on Saturday. Jack, unsure of what to make of it all at first, eventually decided (a few minutes into the first half) that he HATED it. He covered his ears, thought everyone was nuts, and begged to get the hell out of there. He was not amused by the excitement, poor thing. Luckily for him, there was some entertainment on the way home.
Go Sounders. I did not (shocker) put this cheerful outfit together. The crazy thing? She didn't look out of place amongst the sea of green-clad fans.
Jack is starting to realize that the crazies are out in full force
Heh, are there any hockey players around here? Maybe an Earnhardt or two?
Maybe I'll wave for my friend Theo, whose seats we are using, but really, this is just insanity. What are those darn scarves for?
Trains on the way home + cotton candy = good game-time escape
Speaking of sports, we'll pretend that the t-ball hustle looks like this all the time.
