An Introduction Blog
Where do I begin…
We’ll get the easy stuff out of the way first and start with the present day.
I hope you’re comfortable, this might be a while.
Late twenties, white male, single, works to live, introvert, addicted to watching sports. Nothing really out of the ordinary there and pretty much nothing out of the ordinary in general. This blog was always going to happen… the next step in my mid-life crisis will be to trade in the hybrid I bought in 2020 that gets ~40 mpg (humble brag) for a Tesla…
But for right now I’m sitting in an old recliner that sounds like it needs a gallon of WD40 applied to its joints every time I go to adjust myself, because my lower back is acting like we just got done working a 12 hour shift in construction, and writing my first post on a blog that will make my friends and I billionaires in a few years. Right?
I live in Chicago, have a job, and among other things, am a devoted follower of five teams that I literally build my life around, as sad as that sounds (and is). I got to choose two of these teams (was old enough to make my own decisions), the other three are major Chicago sports teams that I was born into.
Yes, born into. Unless there is a family history or direct personal connection to an out of town team, in my eyes, it’s a cardinal sin to be anything other than a fan of the teams you grew up closest to geographically.
@ LeBron fans.
I was born and raised in the suburbs just north-west of the city, my parents were as well, so naturally my family are fans of the local teams. I don’t know how they ended up choosing the Cubs (my grandma grew up in current day Back of the Yards), but thank God they did because I’m not sure I’d still be here to write this if I was a Sox fan. And of course the Bears and Bulls. The Blackhawks dynasty run was great, but I’m not going to act like I know anything about hockey or the NHL, I just tune in for the playoffs.
Get Bedard some help though, please?
—
I played baseball growing up so of course the Cubs became my favorite team of the bunch. Can’t say I remember a specific moment or game that was my first memory of watching them, but I can tell you that I had the whole lineups batting stances’ memorized and would routinely put them on show for anyone who would watch in my parents backyard in the early-mid 2000’s. The Cubs will always be my #1. I had full season tickets in 2022 and 2023 and I’m hoping one day it will be worth it to claim that again. I’ll happily place my name on a waiting list as I did sitting in AP Biology during my senior year of high school. I still have the email. I was 77,538th in line on March 23rd, 2016.
I’ve realized now how naive I was sitting at that desk in high school entering my name into the waiting list… I knew we had a good, young team that had the chance to be competitive for a long time. I knew the Ricketts were buying every square inch of Wrigleyville they could get their hands on and would be able to keep the team competitive through free agency, I mean… just 3 months earlier they signed Jason Heyward to an 8 year, $184 million contract. Great.
Arreita’s second no hitter in 7 months, Kris Bryant putting up an MVP type season and eventually winning the award, winning 103 games and the NL Central.
The 2016 postseason run was incredible to watch. The series v San Francisco proved to Cubs fans that this team was ready to make a deep run, they just had to get by the Dodgers in the NLCS and they’d be in the fall classic.
NLCS Game 1, tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 8th. Two outs, bases loaded.
STAGE LEFT: enter Miguel Montero
The rest is history…
Of course, we all know, the Cubs went on to win the World Series. One of the happiest moments of my life and the pinnacle of my sports fandom. I was a freshman in college, watching on a probably-smaller-than 32 inch tv screen that the three of us shared in our dorm room. I was sitting two feet away from the screen on a folding lawn chair that ended up broken by the end of the night. We all know what happened so I won’t drag you through events during the game. The Cubs won the World Series. The team was young, fun, full of stars, full of confidence, & now with something to show for it… we were on top of the world. The celebration in Chicago was going to be legendary…
The only problem was that I was almost 1,200 miles away in the middle of Florida because I thought going to college to play D2 baseball was a good idea. I mean typing that out right now going to college in Florida to play baseball sounds like a fucking perfect idea but we were talking about the Cubs not my baseball “career”… I digress…
I missed the parade that five million people attended downtown, missed celebrations on college campuses by Cubs fans across the midwest, but honestly didn’t think too much of it because I thought that this team would provide me with plenty of moments in the near future that I would be able to enjoy and celebrate… boy was I wrong.
—
I have a one core memory of watching the Bears play in the Super Bowl. I was 9 years old and my mom had put a large picnic blanket down on our family room floor so we could all sit together around some snacks and watch the game. The Colts kicked the ball off, Devin Hester did his thing and we were off and running…
Side bar: I was just thankful to have actually been able to see Devin Hester return the opening kickoff live. One of the most vivid early Bears memories I have was from October 16, 2006. About 4 months before the Super Bowl, it was a Monday night game and the Bears were in Arizona to play the Cardinals. The Bears were getting blown out on national television (20-0 at halftime… shocker) and it was a school night, and yes I had a bedtime at 8:30p. Off to bed I went. Then… I was laying there, probably about to fall asleep, and heard my dad, who really doesn’t care about sports, SCREAMING with joy. I threw the covers off and ran halfway down the stairs to peek over the railing and look at the screen. He was out of his seat and looked over to me speechless. Devin Hester, you are ridiculous. Would’ve been cool to see that live though.
I don’t remember much about the Super Bowl other than the kick return. Probably because we lost and I instantly threw that memory in the garbage. Looking back, that was probably a bad idea because that garbage is now overflowing with many more much worse memories.
The things I’d do to watch the Bears play in a Super Bowl again. It’s laugh out loud funny to even type out those three words in the same sentence. Bears. Super Bowl.
Lmfao.
—
I loved watching Derrick Rose play for the Bulls.
Drafting him is one of the only good things that front office had done since lucking into the best basketball player to ever live during the 1984 draft. So drafting Derrick Rose is one of the only good things I’ve ever seen the Bulls front office do.
And I didn’t want it to happen.
I was on my friends driveway shooting hoops sometime before the 2008 NBA draft. Google says that the draft happened on June 26, 2008, so we were 10 years old and must have just gotten out of school for the summer. Just some guys talking ball on the driveway. I was adamant that the Bulls should take Michael Beasley with the #1 pick. I don’t know if I could tell you why I felt so strongly about it…but maybe it was because he averaged 26 and 12 and was gonna be the lefty LeBron. Duh.
Thankfully they didn’t draft Michael Beasley and we soon were able to witness the youngest MVP in NBA history do it in his own backyard. I’m very glad he had his day at the United Center last week and will be getting his #1 hung in the rafters next year.
I’ll be honest, the Bulls take up little of my time these days. I know Jerry is more than happy to put out a 41-41 roster every single year, make the new play-in tournament, lose soon after and call it a year claiming that we had as good a chance as any.
—
At the start, I told you that I got to choose two teams that I follow religiously and that the other three were the local Chicago teams.
After my first semester of college playing baseball in Florida, I transferred to (and yes, surprisingly ended up graduating from) the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. No, I did not play baseball there too, thanks for asking.
Since I became an Illini in the spring of 2017, I must say, *knocks on wood* things have been going pretty well. Both football and basketball programs have been consistently improving and preparing to try and take that important next step in each respective sport.
Our football program just beat South Carolina in the Cheez-It Bowl for its first ten win season since 2001. With the 12 team playoff’s inaugural season coming to a close next week… dare I make a way-too-early prediction for the Illini in 2025-26? No.. I won’t do that yet. Let us enjoy celebrating winning ten games in a season first.
Our basketball program is coming off an Elite 8 appearance and is gearing up right now for an important stretch in the B1G. We keep recruiting elite talent, this year’s team might be the most talented we have had. They are very young and inexperienced, but they seem to be improving every game. Big game tonight in Bloomington.
I’m being careful with my words because the Illini have generally been good to me and I don’t want that going away any time soon. Don’t want to jinx anything.
As a former baseball player (have I mentioned that yet?) I’m very superstitious and will do anything that I think improves my team’s chances of winning any given night.
—
While a student at Illinois, I began playing the FIFA (soccer) video game a lot and becoming more and more interested in the English Premier League specifically. Then, in 2019, the top young American soccer player, Christian Pulisic, was bought by Chelsea. A team in the English Premier League.
Perfect! A young, up and coming, American, soccer player would be playing for one of the most popular clubs in the world. I began following Chelsea and never looked back. Two months after signing Pulisic, Chelsea received a two-window transfer ban. Hot start for me and my new club. However, two years after the transfer ban, in May 2021, Chelsea lifted the Champions League trophy in Porto. The biggest trophy in club football (soccer, I know, sorry).
Thank you Thomas Tuchel, you are truly a miracle worker. Incredible.
One year after winning the biggest trophy in the sport, Chelsea were forced to be sold because Russia invaded Ukraine, and among other things, the clubs previous owner was a Russian oligarch. I’m not one to get into politics, but really Putin? He clearly wasn’t thinking of Chelsea fans and how difficult the impending sale would make our lives. Sorry if that’s too much… how much $$ should I send over to make up for that terrible joke? Sorry. Sorry.
Chelsea were purchased for £4.25b by a group of Americans in May 2022. Yay! More Americans! Right? Right????????????
(Pulisic was sold to AC Milan in the summer 2023 transfer window and for me, it was sad to see him go, but it was the best thing at the time for him and for Chelsea. He is absolutely tearing it up in Serie A for AC Milan right now. I can’t wait to watch him in the World Cup in 2026.)
I’ll write a Chelsea specific post at some point, but long story short, since the new owners took over, it has been a fucking rollercoaster. Chelsea finished 12th in the Premier League table in the 2022-23 season. There are 20 teams in the league and each team plays the others home and away. 38 matches a season. Chelsea scored 38 goals in the whole Premier League season. One goal a game. To put it into perspective, it took them 18 games to score 38 goals this season. I was waking up for 6a and 9a matches on Saturday and Sunday mornings and I KNEW I was going to watch a loss and Chelsea not score and look like dogshit. The guys that the new owners hired to find/sign new players literally do their jobs like I play career mode on FIFA. They have bought and sold so many players, the numbers are ridiculous. It is absolutely electric though and I generally support their strategy in the long term. They finished 6th in the table last year and are currently sitting 4th at the time of writing.
I’ve seen them play live twice. Both on pre-season summer tours in the United States. First was a 1-1 draw v Dortmund in 2023 at Soldier Field (sorry Christo, I still don’t know why they scheduled a soccer game at Solider Field). Then I saw them lose 4-1 to Celtic at Notre Dame over the summer.
For someone who was born and raised in Chicago and never played soccer competitively, I care way too much (and think I know way more than I actually do) about a professional soccer club halfway across the world in London.
That’s just me in a nutshell, makes no sense.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Important match in a few hours v Bournemouth. I might do a little recap of the game for my next post along with some transfer news thoughts. Never a dull moment as a Chelsea fan while the window is open…
Stay tuned.
—
So yeah, I think that covers it.
If anyone actually made it this far, I sincerely thank you. I hope you keep coming back so that my friends and I can quit our 9-5’s and retire off of this blog in a few short years.
I’ll be posting mainly about the teams above, but you (and I) never know where I might stray off to. I’ll try to keep it under control… no promises.
Welcome to Better Luck Next Time.
I’m Buddha.
—
Song of the Day
Can’t Stop – Red Hot Chili Peppers