Boston Trip 2004
...or How to Get Lost Yet Again Without Really Trying

Wednesday, 7 April 2004

Evening flight to Manchester. Uneventful. Relaxing even. Rental car attempt. Very frustrating. The family in front of me in line attempted to rent two cars. Without reservations. The clerk was unaware that their system would not allow two rentals to the same driver's license. I ended up waiting in line for 35 minutes. And then I had a 45 minute drive to Waltham for the hotel. This was a a Shatner-recommended location in an obviously over-hoteled area. I got it for $35 a night.

Thursday, 8 April 2004

Semi-final day. Clearly the best hockey day of the year. You get two games. And even though these games are supposed to "sell out", they never do, since the first game never gets full attendance and the second game never seems to either, even if two local teams are in attendance. First game pits two teams from the West, Minnesota-Duluth and Denver. UMD, having their first flirt with the Frozen Four since the Brett Hull year, look like they're going to win the game, since Denver looks out of it. However, UMD was unaware a third period was to be played, completely fall apart, and pretty much hand Denver the trip to the finals. A team that couldn't even get out of the first round of their conference finals is now one win away from being the champion of the land.

The between game Hockey-L dinner was a bit of a bust, not because of anything the organizers did, it was just that the venue was too small and probably too far away from the arena. But, as I learned on Saturday, there's not many options around the Fleet Center that could handle 100+ people.

Game #2. Boston College vs. Maine. I felt really sorry for Mark, who was using my other ticket on this day. It would be like someone giving me a trip to a Michigan State vs. Ohio State tilt. It was a lot like the Michigan-BC game. BC dominates the chances, Maine gets the puck for a minute and scores, with the difference being that Miami's defense is a little better than the Michigan 'D', so the Black Bears (who don't have any black on their uniform) win 2-1. So, it's Maine vs. Denver in the finals. More on that on the Saturday page. I thank Mark for being a great travel partner for the day, navigating me through the difficulty of the Boston commuting system. The designated hockey guy™ on the T on the way back was CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos.

Friday, 9 April 2004

Up until 1989, there was one semifinal on each day and then a finals, meaning three games over three days. They realized that was unfair so they put two games on the Thursday and one on the Saturday. Which then leaves us college hockey fans with "Awkward Friday". Since there was no SPAM Museum nearby like Minnesota, I thought I would go visit the ancestral home of the first of my incredibly cross-pollinated lineage to hit the North American shores. This would be Hadley, Mass. It turned out to be a bust. I couldn't find the cemetery, and although the Library was open, City Hall was closed, which was odd, since school was in session. Since I had time to kill, I thought I would go visit the home of the Hartford Whalers. Nothing much there, and got caught in traffic. At 3:30 PM. In Hartford. What goes on there besides insurance? And do you really all need to be so densely populated in the information age?

The Friday night activity was to see the Worcester Ice Cats of the AHL. What a sad site. The big downtown attraction was an outlet mall. An indoor outlet mall. An at best 30% filled three-story outlet mall. A mall that even the city wants to go away. I figured this would also be the time to put the Mexican restaurant part of the trip in, so I drive and look for one and couldn't find one, so I thought I would just give up and eat at the Applebee's in the outlet mall, since I was really curious what factory rejects qualify as outlet mall food (irregular-shaped hamburgers, ribs of the wrong animal, salads with blue lettuce, who knows?) However, when I parked my car, I noticed the artsy movie theater had a Mexican restaurant in their lobby. So I gave it a shot. And it was about as good as a Mexican restaurant as developed by film and theater majors could be. Which was awful.

The game was equally sad. I specifically asked for "at least ten rows back behind either net." I got seat directly behind goal judge. I moved, since the arena was at best 20% full. You also have to worry about a culture where the concession specialty is "fried dough." The home team, farm club for the St. Louis Blues, lost to the Manchester Monarchs, farm club for the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2. Michigan semi-alum Mike Cammalleri scored two goals for the visitors, while other NCAA participants Peter Sejna and Jeff Panzer played for the home team. The promotion for the night was the "jersey off the back" night, with chances to get the jerseys could be purchased by a $1 donation to a hospital. Sadly, they were announcements near the end of the game that a winning ticket still had not been sold.

On the way back, I thought I had time to kill, so I thought it would take the slightly scenic US-20 instead of going down to the Mass Pike and then going back north when I would get to I-95/M-128 (I say 128 because no local calls it I-95, it's always 128). Of course, scenic in the outer Boston burbs means "many traffic lights". When I finally get to I-95, it would only be one exit north and I would be at the hotel. But, just before I got there, a semi decided to jack-knife over all of the lanes. Although it was really neat to see a life flight helicopter land on the freeway, I really wanted to get back, so I managed to drive the wrong way on an exit ramp and was going to back road it in. Big, big mistake. This was New Coke big. I got lost. After an hour, I pretty much got back to the same spot, by which time the accident had cleared.

Saturday, 10 April 2004

Saturday, since there was more time to kill, I headed down to Pawtucket to throw another ballgame on the list. I went down a little early to get something to eat. Well, there was not really any commerce near the stadium, so I ate inside. A nice little Triple-A park if a tad utilitarian, it was supposed to be both Easter Candy day and deployed reservists family day. It also seemed to be employee, spouse and at least three obnoxious children day. For a 40% filled stadium, it sure seemed like the family section at Luigi's. The stadium is also a shrine to longest game in organized baseball history, a 33-inning, two day affair. It was also odd that it had no between contests like dizzy bat races, bobbing for baseballs or whatever else we do now. The PawSox won 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th when the awesome starter for Buffalo hit his pitch limit and the reliever wasn't as awesome.

Drove back to the hotel to grab the T. It floors me that you have to pay to park to use public transportation. I pay the $2.75 to park, and I have the $3 ready in change to go on. The line to get on is very, very long. Someone in line tells me that this is just to get change, since the change machines are broken, they just have one busy person in the front of the line doling out coins. If I have the coins, I could go to the front and go through. I do that, it doesn't work. Now out $3, I go back in line. And wait. And wait. At least three trains have come and gone. Finally, they just open it up and made it free. So it ended up a wash. I chat up with a Denver fan who turns out to be a professor at DU, and was in Boston anyway for a conference, and lucked out because Denver was in it.

I was trying to get there early to eat at one of those 20-customer pubs that dot the Fleet, but because of the T fiasco, I get there only a hour ahead, which wouldn't have been enough time. Also, I have to sell my ticket. I hate selling tickets, I find the whole scalping culture just awful. My goal was to sell it to the first person I saw off the T that needed one ticket and sell it at face. It was to this Maine contingent that was so happy to get a ticket that I think they were going to offer their daughter as my bride. They were so nice, I resisted the urge to tell them how much I hate Maine, how I consider them a poison on the college hockey world, how I thought Shawn Walsh was the Jim Valvano of hockey (draw your own conclusions here) and I how I hoped Maine was going to lose by 20 goals. But I couldn't, because they were so nice. Plus they didn't sit next to me when the game started. Free bonus seat.

The game was great. 1-0 games can be great when they're full of scoring chances and not just Neutral Trap Night. Maine had an early goal waived that was unclear to the building why it was waived off (the reason was never announced, I was told it was man in the crease, it was on my side of the rink, I didn't really see it, but I know the college game has zero-tolerance for that on the power play, and if it he was in, I would agree with the call, but I haven't seen a replay), and they couldn't capitalize when they were handed a two-man advantage in the last 90 seconds of the game (again another controversial call, but throwing the puck is a point of emphasis in the rules). Congratulations to the Pioneers, it's always heartwarming when a significant commuter school wins a national championship, since their fan base and support staff isn't that large (they didn't even have a band). After waiting for seven trains, I finally got on the T, and this time the designated hockey guys™ were the A.D.'s of Minnesota and Miami. Plus they actually included me in their conversation until they got off. And for those who watched any late night TV, the Good Times skit on Saturday Night Live was one of the funniest things in a long time. Keenan Thompson had Florida Evans down.

Sunday, 11 April 2004

Nothing big on return day, except I need to rant for a minute. I would like an end to the referring of any group of a particular sports team as "nation". No more Radier Nation, no more Red Sox Nation. You're not a nation. You do not have a government system. You do not sponsor schools. You do not grant zoning variances. You do not invade other nations. You're a group of people who happen to like the same team. Although it was nice to be in an area which had a heightened obsessiveness with baseball, and I do know the history, you got to learn it's not personal and winning a sports championship is not a right. I would gladly trade the last 19 years of baseball history with yours (notice I didn't say 20).