Your sports bucket list

I wonder how much of that attitude about crowds has been changed by the pandemic. I’m no germaphobe, but when someone is talking or singing close to me I notice now when small droplets of spittle land on me.

And I think back to the last college football game I attended — Oregon at UW in the fall of 2019. A great experience, but thinking back to the packed commuter rail ride through Seattle, the packed stadium and the crush of humanity leaving after the game … I think of it all a bit differently after COVID. Doesn’t mean I won’t (and haven’t) attended large events since then, but it’s in the back of your mind.

 

I unliked this just so I could like it a second time.

 

That's why I would only do one of the major mountain stages, where the field gets super spread out and guys in small clusters are climbing past for more than an hour or so.

If you've never been to one of the bigger criteriums in the US -- we have a race here every spring -- they are awesome to watch. Here, it's 60 or so laps around downtown with one decent hill and a bunch of sharp turns. Always leads to fun racing and more than a few crashes.

 

I went to the US cycling championship in Greenville, SC. They climbed the same big mountain 6 times. That made it a good experience.

 

Sporting events or sporting things on my bucket list:

Attend an Aussie Grand Final or any big footy game
Be standing near the peak of Alpe d'Huez when the Tour rides by, which means riding up to the peak myself which would be awesome
A day at the French Open
A day at a British Open
Hike to base camp at Mt. Everest
Play on grass tennis courts
Play a proper links course, maybe Dundonald Links in Troon
Run a trail marathon (a goal for 2025)

 

My No. 1 sports bucket list item? Playing a pickup game with Magic Johnson, catching a no-look pass from him on the break and laying it in for two. The same sports fantasy I've had since the age of 8. Always dreamed of Magic pulling up in my neighborhood in the limo from the Bird commercial, driving me back to LA for us to play hoops (a make a wish type thing but for a healthy, Showtime-obsessed kid). Now, 40 years later...gave up on the limo but would still like to play some ball with him running point.

For this list: Masters for sure. I enter the lottery each year, but no luck.

 

I've never been one for crowds. The best time I had at a Preds game was on St. Patrick's Day. They were hosting the Bruins. For a number of reasons I will not go into here, the BOS fans terrified security and hospitality staff and I was so there for it. (I did call one Bruins fan on screaming some cruel things at Tootoo that had nothing to do with hockey and he apologized and offered to buy me a beer.)

So, one of my general bucket list entries is a St, Patrick's Day game at The Gahden.

 

I’ve never lived anywhere that St. Pat’s Day was a big deal. Did fly out of St. Louis one March 17 and the way the locals were all gearing up made me wish I could stick around to check it out.

 

When they had the Tour de Georgia during the Lance Armstrong/Floyd Landis pre-busted years, one of the legs ended with a climb of the spur road leading to the summit of Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest point. I struggled enough once going up that road in my Hyundai. I couldn't begin to imagine cycling it.

 

Oh lordy, Tour de Georgia. The first year Armstrong rode in it they had a stage in Rome, where I was working at the paper. I might have been interested in going except for a few issues.

• I had a desk shift that evening that started right about the time they would make it into town.
  
• Traffic promised to be brutal.
  
• Our psychopathic ME had us all blowing out the coverage as though UFOs were landing on the courthouse steps; so I was already thoroughly sick of it.

 

On the last climb, I was running alongside the guy just in front of the broom wagon, clapping, shouting encouragement, etc. He said, "Stop clapping and push" so I did. What were they gonna do, relegate him to last place!

 

I've covered a World Series Game 7; a BCS championship game; the NCAA tournament (first two weekends); a U.S. Open (men's golf); NBA and NHL playoffs (early rounds); I've been to multiple English football matches (Premier League and Championship).

So that probably whittles it down to tennis, and specifically, a U.S. Open night session. I toured the Wimbledon grounds and museum and got a taste of what it would be like there, but to me, it seems like a U.S. Open night session with the top seeds playing would be killer. That's probably it.