Tuesday, March 2

FIRST SPORTS MASCULINE MONDAY EVER



So I realize that it is no longer Monday but I am no longer in Iowa City; yesterday I made a 9 hour drive back into the humid comfort of the South and Thursday - which is far too soon, given everything I have to finish up - I will be leaving the country to "study" abroad. Basically, Katie D.'s taking a three month field trip to Europe! I'm very excited, and I plan to continue writing from the other side of the pond, but this is my long-winded explanation for why I didn't post yesterday. In short, shit was nuts. But I'm here now, and I'm going to talk about sports. Prepare yourselves.

Now if you know me anything better than as a stranger, you'll know that my knowledge of sports is, let's say, "not extensive." When Boy Roommate told me that I'd be missing March Madness by going abroad, he needed to explain what sport that meant (basketball). My ex, who is from Chicago, used to get angry at me when I could never remember who Mike Ditka was (I believe he has something to do with football). I'm not sure what "bracket" means. The only basketball players I know by name are retired (aka I only know them because they were in Space Jam). I think you get my point.

Anyway, in a burst of roommately affection and tenderness (and because it was Boy Roommate's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! TAKE A SHOT!), last week I decided to watch the U.S. team play hockey in the Olympics with BR and CK. Of all the sports I could watch, I actually enjoyed the hockey. For one thing, it reminds me of the Disney movie Miracle, which I like very much. For another thing, it's not ridiculously complex, or at least I could still understand the gist of what was going on even if I don't know the actual technical rules. (Puck in net = goal. No puck in net = no goal. Plus they have a big buzzer that goes off when you score, just in case you missed it!) Also, it's sort of pretty. They move very gracefully in a big, burly, knock-people's-teeth-out way. And finally, it moves at a very fast pace and there aren't a lot of breaks, which means I'm much less likely to be bored than with some other sports (I'm looking at you, baseball, football, and golf!).

So while we were watching these Olympic games, I noticed one player in particular, who I can ACTUALLY NAME OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP: Ryan Miller. He was the goalie (goal keeper? Keeper?) for the U.S. team, and he was a BADASS. In the first game against Canada he faced 45 goals and blocked 42 (ok, so I looked up the stats. I'm not a machine. I'm still proud I knew his name). That's a lot of shots on goal to face - in comparison, he only faced 11 against Norway and 18 against both Switzerland and Finland. Clearly Canada's offense was also full of badasses, but even in the face of this Miller blocked 93% of their shots. THAT'S RIDICULOUS. This impressed me. I was more impressed when he continued to kick ass and take names in the following games that we watched, even though we didn't ultimately end up victorious. He, though, was named MVP for the tournament. For this badassery, Ryan Miller, even though you guys didn't get the gold, in addition to your MVP status I award you one of the coveted spots as a Masculine Mondayer. Congrats on being the first sports-person here. You may not find yourself in good sports company. Now excuse me while I go watch a musical.

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7 comments:

  1. This was a pretty impressive post for someone with no sports knowledge. Although this is coming from someone else with no sports knowledge...

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  3. Yayyyy Hockeyyyyy.

    And it is goalie. Or goaltender, if you are feeling fancy.

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  4. Haha I'm so happy to know that someone, anyone, has less sports knowledge than I do!

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  5. Oh, Liz. I am probably the most ignorant person about sports in the world. CK and BR were talking about Apollo Ono. When I didn't know who that was, CK asked, "Are you THAT out of it with sports knowledge?" Yes. YES EVERYONE, I AM THAT OUT OF IT.

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  6. How is it that the one and only sports post we've ever done ends up being the post with the most comments we've ever had...?

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  7. Also, guess where he went to school? Michigan State!

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