Okay, let's try this again. I posted this article last week, but somehow BlogHarbor lost it. I hate this website....
Ok, it’s been over a month since my final Giants game of the year. You know how I do when it comes to this, especially when it’s the last game of the year and my team has a disappointing finish. I kind of go into hiding. I don’t want to talk about my team. I don’t want to think about them, but I know that I need to write, just so that can keep my postings in order. I’m in the middle of a mean busy season, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So, since I have a moment to breathe, let me try to get this bad boy done, so that I can lay the 2008 Giants season to rest. Luckily, I didn’t go to the Giants-Eagles game, despite many offers for tickets. At least I can say I walked out of Giants Stadium for the last time this season a happy man. So at least I have that going for me…
1) My seatmates for today’s game include my brother Frank, my cousin, Frank Anthony, my cousin Anthony and his buddy Dave, all except Frank Anthony have been mentioned on the blog, so that makes this Frank Anthony’s debut. (So for those of you scoring at home, that’s one Frank, one Frank Anthony and one Anthony. I love my Italian family!)
2) Oh yeah, Little Tommy and his buddy also showed up for the festivities, with their own tickets and a huge motivation to tailgate.
3) Anthony ended up leaving his house at 3:45, when we wanted to meet at my house at 4. He lives 40 minutes away. We made the executive decision to go without him and he would have to figure out a way to meet us there. (Sorry pal.)
4) Upon pulling into the parking lot at around 4:30, we questioned, “is there a game tonight?” (There was NOBODY in the parking lot.)
5) Who said there was gonna be bad weather? It’s a BEAUTIFUL evening for football.
6) Okay, on tonight’s menu, we have dogs, Bubba burgers, my famous sausage, peppers and onions, steak sandwiches and a stuffed flank steak. (The last two courtesy of Frank Anthony.)
I'm awesome
7) For refreshments, we have Miller Lite, Smithwicks, my spiked hot chocolate, Dunkin Donuts coffee, Jameson, Frangelico, Baileys and Crème de Cacao. (I think we’ll do fine with keeping warm)
8) Wow there is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBODY here!
9) “Want some hot chocolate with your alcohol?”
10) So Little Tommy, because he’s clutch, took apart his propane heater. Well actually, he and his father did. They cleaned it out, put it back together and set it all up. This would prove to be clutch throughout the early evening. (One downside was that he had a little trouble getting it started and keeping it lit, so he loses points for that, but while lit, it was hu-yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge.)
Havin a little trouble there, kid?
11) Just talked to Anthony, they are on their way and somehow got a parking pass. (That cousin of mine is a Wiley sonuvagun.)
12) Okay, so we had two college kids, lots of beer with that wasn’t twist off and no bottle opener. Don’t look at me, I’ve retired from keeping a bottle opener on my keychain. DOH!!!
13) All I can say is thank God for the dude with the lighter, opening our bottles for us. (Alright, I’ll let this one slide.)
14) Two guys come walking by, one wearing a Jessie Armstead jersey (awesome) and a Giants helmet with two beer holders on either side. (DOUBLE AWESOME!!)
15) Okay, we have a little problem. 1…I’m an idiot. I had the car running on battery listening to the Jets game. About 45 minutes into the tailgate, I decided to turn the engine on to get the alternator going. When I opened the door, the lights were flickering and the radio was choppy. I tried to start it. Nothing. This is bad. (Real bad.)
16) I made a quick call to Anthony to tell him I have a job for him when he gets here. Get my car started. Luckily he has a mechanic background.
17) Meanwhile, as conversations evolved, Frank Anthony and I decided the Ooma commercials on WFAN with Alexander Graham Bell are phenomenal. (WATSON!!!!!!!! WHY IS THERE FURRRR ALL OVER ME OOOOOOOOOMA?!?!?!?!)
18) Wow, I just found a slot on my new spatula, which I won in a Christmas grab bag at work as part of a whole new grill set, a slot that is for a bottle opener. (Who’s clutch now?!?)
19) Anthony and Dave arrived. (GAME ON!!!!)
20) So our neighbors next to us are enjoying hot chocolate as well. Unfortunately, the young lady’s has become cold. No worries, nothing a cleaned out beer can and a grill can’t fix!
I'm a crafty one.
21) Wow, what a tailgate. This may be the greatest one ever.
Look at this crew.
22) Anthony says that it’s just the battery, so we turned all the power off. One problem, the dome light was still on because we had the back hatch open. So Anthony locked the latch. He claims that by letting it settle and warm up a little, it should start in like an hour. (Crossing my fingers)
23) Fast forward 45 minutes… “Hey Rick, how quick do you think you are? Quick enough to open the door, put the key in the ignition and turn without burning too much juice with the light coming on?”~Anthony
24) Okay, here we go….jigga…jiggga…jiggaaa….VROOOOOOOOOM!!!! SUCCESS!!! (Good to have you back, Emily.)
25) Another crew pulled up next to us. This crowd was around Anthony’s age and fired up. One girl seemed to be taking a liking to my iPod selections and it’s turned into a dance party.
26) Reason #2 why our neighbors are awesome, they have Jack Daniel’s. (This night just took a turn.)
27) I wrote a note that just said, “Port o John.” Can’t think of what the story was. (Oh wait..)
28) Aforementioned girl who liked my music had to pee, but refused to go to the Port O John, so we came up with a plan. Open the front passenger side door of her their car. Her friend and I stand at the end of the alley between the two cars, standing guard while she takes care of her business, obviously we were looking in the other direction. (Such gentlemen we are, which I pointed out to her later.)
29) Success, bladder drainage complete. (You stay classy!)
30) Time to go. Unfortunately, I fell behind the crew as they got antsy while I continued to socialize. Needless to say, I needed to catch up. Here’s where things went south for a little bit. (Get ready for this one.)
31) So while I’m trying to catch up, I start jogging. Being that I had 4 layers on, I didn’t notice the sudden drop in temperature. I hear Frank calling my name so I see him and switch directions. As I’m jogging I don’t realize he’s waving his arms at me and screaming, “NO!!! NO!! BLACK ICE!!!” The next thing I knew, I was looking at the sky. The open beer in my right hand disappeared into the dark New Jersey night. The unopened beer in my left went sliding across the parking lot. I thought in my head, “Please God, don’t let my head hit the ground.” The first thing to hit and break the fall was my right elbow. The pain was pretty bad. The next thing I noticed was that I was getting laughed at by a group of about 10 guys still tailgating. Only one thing left for me to do. So I sprang to my feet, ran over and picked up the unopened beer, then proceeded to high 5 the guys who were laughing at me. One stopped me and said, “Dude, that’s the best fall we’ve seen yet!” (Well at least I have that as consolation.)
32) Luckily, I think the 4 layers were enough padding to prevent my elbow from shattering. (Or so I thought.)
33) I was able to move it, but I was in immense pain. So this isn’t going so well right now and the walk to the stadium was not a pretty sight. I don’t know how no one got hurt. (At least that I know of.)
34) So, down 1 beer because of the fall, I approached the gate and a guy turned around with an unopened can of Miller Lite and offered it to me because he couldn’t finish. Clearly I took him up on this offer and went downtown to Poundtown. (I really am Even Steven!)
35) Taking the ramp up was a bad idea.
36) Oh wow, this crowd is fired up. I mean, KEVIN JAMES fired up!!!
37) Okay, really, I know he’s a Super Bowl MVP and all, but Eli needs to stop throwing those passes. You know the ones I’m talking about. The passes he throws that are so bad and should be picked off, that you can hear the every sphincter in Giants Stadium tighten. Those “Eli” passes. (Yes, I said sphincter.)
38) There are two things that I know in life for a fact: 1) if someone asks you if you’re a god, you say YES (what movie? Anyone?) and if someone asks you if you want a beer, you never say no.
39) My elbow really hurts.
40) Wow, a bad first series for the defense resulting in a touchdown is capped off by Tuck getting hurt on the extra point. Thank God he got up.
41) There is random smoke coming from the Upper Deck. I think somebody may have lit a fire to keep warm.
42) By the way, Steve Smith and DeAngelo Williams owned the Giants’ defense on that first drive.
43) Just found this one in my notes: “don’t let that bastard breathe!” I’m assuming I was doing a Mick imitation to fire up the crowd or something. (THE BODY!! THE BODY!!)
44) Oh man, Tuck is very limited right now, this is not good.
45) Frank Anthony just shared this horrible information with us…he was at the Giants-Jets game when Osi got hurt. This is bad news.
46) The Giants have failed to stop the Panthers on their first two drives. (Great.)
47) “This defense is not looking good at all.”~Frank
48) Okay, really people, we’re watching the defending Super Bowl Champions and are supposed to be supporting them during this playoff run. Is there any reason to boo this team?? Seriously!
49) Wow, it must really suck to be sitting in the first or second row, where people are getting rained on from the runoff of the Upper Deck. (Ah, Giants Stadium. Now with Shea being gone, you’re all that’s left of the beat up 30+ year old stadiums. Soon you will be gone too. So sad.)
50) Two points here, one positive, one negative: The positive as pointed out by Frank Anthony in that we are watching a great game with no penalties. Knock on wood. The negative is what kind of play call was it to give it to Hedgecock on third and short? (I NEVER liked Kevin Gilbride or his play calling.)
51) We’ve all seen it 100 times. How did Aaron Ross miss that interception? The crowd went from OOHHHHHHH! YEA-AWWWWWWWW. UHHHHHHH!!!! In a matter of about 7 seconds.
52) This is embarrassing. National television and we can’t stop the friggin Jake Delhomme-led offense. (By the way, the notes I’m typing are indicating my progressive drunkenness. I may just start typing exactly what I wrote)
53) Coughlin cllenge. (Coughlin Challenge for those scoring at home.)
54) fa just pointed out that no matter what, the giants get the by becauae minnesota lost. (Yeah, you get that one.)
55) good.challeng tommy. Ok no more notes fo rnoe. (Wow.)
56) bob papa just confirmed the bye but this is now how we wanna go into the playoffs. (Okay, I think what I meant to say there is NOT instead of now.)
57) dominicl the donkey dired me up for the 2d half. Apparenty it didnt fire up the giants offense. (This was pretty cool. Anthony and I sang along to Dominick the Donkey at the half. We were fired up.)
58) eli and hixon or not on the same page. (Okay, that’s not too bad.)
59) we need a huge effort to come bacl. Come on defense! (That’s just a typo.)
60) Ok the defense has held twice in a row time for the defense to step up. (Clearly I meant offense there, but you know what I was trying to say.)
61) Okay, ready for this? What a frakin drive boss is the..man Shockey droppea that pass Crowds fired.up. (Now a couple things here. One, you know what I meant in the first line. Two, I guess Dominick the Donkey brought out the Italian with me considering Shockey “droppea that pass.” Obviously I was trying to say Shockey would drop that one. And lastly, anytime there’s a period between words, it’s because my fat thumb hit the period key instead of space which are right next to each other on my phone and I’m too lazy to go back. Anyway. Moving on…)
62) Love the bell usic. (Leave me alone.)
63) Good point though, when those bells start playing, you know, that NFL bed music that Francessa uses, Giants Stadium rocks.
64) I wanna play Techmo Bowl to the NFL bed music.
65) Im not understanding this javobs off tackle nonsense. He needs to be hittinh the a gap and running people over. (Easy Rick. Easy.)
66) Im loving the play clock countdown that section 216 has orchestrrated. (This was true. We started this. We were just trying to help Eli out. Given Eli’s issues with the play clock, I hope this carries over to next year.)
67) We need a touchdown now. (Wiser, more sober words have never been spoken.)
68) What a play by terrell thomas on the opunt by feagles. (Just typos, really though, this was a sick play that pinned the Panthers inside their 3 yard line.)
69) Okay, here comes the winner: The crowd willed the defense thru that dep pabthjerd terrotpry stp. (WOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW! I didn’t know I had it in me. I believe the correct spelling was deep Panther territory stop.)
70) Obviously, I noticed how bad my typing was because I followed it up with this: You try typing while danciong to jump around. (Touché)
71) Wow, okay, a couple things, the Giants running game owned the Panthers on this day.
72) What a clutch catch by Boss on third down to extend the drive and move the ball to the Panthers’ 5. (Another catch that Shockey probably drops. I said it before and I’ll say it again, Boss is the man!)
73) B-JAKE IS A BEAST!!!!!!
74) Frank thinks they are going to give it to Jacobs. I disagree. The Panthers are looking for that. It’s gonna be a play-fake. (Nailed that one!)
75) TIE GAME!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! After briefly celebrating and a call from Dad, during which I had to remind him, there was still a lot of time, I reminded everyone else, THERE’S STILL A LOT OF FRIGGIN TIME!! (I swear I’ve seen the Giants do this so many times over they years. The comeback is great, but it means nothing if they don’t stop the Panthers here. DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK!)
76) Of course the Panthers get it into field goal range. (See?)
77) They’re lining up for the field goal with 4 seconds to go…..Snap….Spot….Kick is up…..ehhhhhhhhhh…..it looks low…..no way!! NO WAY!!!! NO GOOD!!!! OVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME! (HEY!! IT’S NOT OVER YE…..AW HELLL WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!)
78) Seriously, every good thing that happens to the Giants right now is a party in the crowd.
79) No movement by either offense on the first two possessions and R.W. McQuarters almost sends us home crying, after a muffed punt, luckily recovered by the Giants. (I seriously think my heart stopped on that play.)
80) Give to Ward…..THERE HE GOES!!!!! 45…50…45….40!!!! YEAH!!!! YEAH!!! OHHHH!!!! AWWWWWWW!!!! Out of bounds! (Wow we’re fired up now.)
81) We’re goin’ in!!!
82) Two more big runs by Ward and we’re down to the 1. (It’s B-Jake time!)
83) BOOMMM!!!!! (And let the party begin!) The point where the camera goes out of control is when I get simultaneously man-hugged from four different directions.
"We're havin' a party. Everybody's swingin! Dancin to the music on the radio."
84) Wow, what a great way to end the season for our ticket plan.
85) This place is one big party right now.
86) So as we’re walking back to the car, a guy walks past us wearing glasses, only he was missing half of his glasses and he looked like McLovin. No, I’m serious. The glasses were on one side of his face and the other side was completely missing. It was like something out of Willy Wonka’s office.
87) Well that’s all I have for the notes in what I believe is the longest strain of notes that I have ever posted.
Of course, what game would deserve more? Well, with the Super Bowl over and Pitchers and Catchers just 4 days away, it’s time to put a big bow on the 2008 New York Giants season and my season ticket plan. It’s been a great year. I couldn’t ask for anything more out of a 9-1 (preseason included) home record. Well, except for beating the Eagles. That would have been nice. Both in the regular season, when I was there AND in the playoffs. We never did get playoff tickets. Unfortunately, the week Uncle Mike was to hand in the money, he received some grim medical news. He’s doing okay now. We’re hoping things will turn out just fine. I’d take a healthy Uncle Mike over Giants playoff tickets any day. At this point, all I can do is pray for him to get better. And I hope he will. Now, on to the thank you’s.
1) First I have to thank Uncle Mike. For years you’ve had these tickets and spent countless hours following this team. There aren’t many who could understand your passion for this football team. I’m sure the team itself doesn’t. But those of us who know you and love you do. You’re the best, Uncle Mike. Thank you for thinking of me and including me on this plan. I look forward to many more games and years with you at the Meadowlands.
2) Thank you Johnny for all that you do, not just for everyone on Game Day, but for Uncle Mike as well. You’re truly a great friend to us. Thanks for driving to every game and all your help with the tailgates. Here’s to 2009.
3) Thank you Anthony for being there to fill in for Uncle Mike during all the games. It’s been awesome man. Thanks also for being my mechanic at the last game.
4) Thank to Rodney the Alcohol Distribution guy. Keep up the hard work!
5) Thank you to the Giants Stadium security for keeping everything under control.
6) Thank you Steve Tische for providing us with probably the most comical moments of the year. Did you really think anyone cared about what you were saying? If so, you truly are an ass. I wish nothing but the worst for you, you selfish, rich bastard.
7) A big ANTI-thank you to John Mara for not sticking up for the fans when I know you wanted to. You could have stopped the seat license thing, but you didn’t. You’re no better than Tische. Your father would be disgusted if he knew you allowed this to happen.
8) A big ANTI-thank you to whoever’s in charge of parking at the stadium. All I can say is…Seriously?
9) Okay, back to the positive thank you’s…thank you to the Coppermine Pub on Ridge Road in North Arlington (Free plug, boys). You got a great location there. Best of luck.
10) Thank you to Thermos for my Grill-to-Go. This is still by far my greatest purchase.
11) Thank you Charlie for the steaks at the Seahawks game. Thanks for coming, and you’re in for next season.
12) Thank you Joe for giving me the moment to prove that you can never doubt me again.
13) Thank you Donna and Carol for the adventurous ride through the parking lot and showing me how to be assertive at the Meadowlands. (I will never doubt my cousins.)
14) Thank you Mike for actually suffering through that debacle. As funny as the Brooks Bollinger moment was, I know deep down it hurt.
15) Thank you Chris for coming up with our new plan on how to deal with the seat licenses.
16) Thank you 3900 for coming along and dealing with that awful display of football that was the Eagle game.
17) Thank you Frank Anthony for the food and all the help at the tailgate. Thank you also for bringing that extra gear to help us left the Giants over the hump.
18) Thank you Tommy for the heater and for filling in whenever you could.
19) Thank you WFAN.
20) Thank you Bob Papa.
21) Thank you Giants. You didn’t get it done in the playoffs this year, but you gave us one hell of a reason to cheer throughout the season. Now put your heads together, reload and let’s go in 2009.
That’s all I got. It was a fun year. I’m very happy that I made this decision. It was money well spent. I can’t wait for the 2009 season. Until next time, Go Giants! In the meantime, we all know what’s coming. As we head towards the Christening of Citi Field, I’ll be working on my Top All Time Shea and Yankee Stadium Moments. I promise I will have this up before the season begins.
One last goodbye picture:
