We've Seen Better Days

I saw Amos Lee perform last night in front of LL Bean in Freeport, Maine for free last night and thoroughly enjoyed his performance. He was fun, personable, his band was phenomenally talented and his songwriting ability was just delightful to sit back and listen to on a beautiful July evening. He was telling a story about how he loves when his young fans (3-5 year olds as he later clarified) ask him to play a song that is their favorite during the concert. He was saying how you never think the songs the young ones love are the ones you would think. This one girl asked for him to sing Better Days and he obliged her by making the band stand behind him extremely awkwardly for 3 minutes while he sang a slow, acoustic song that's lyrics really rang true to me not only in where I am in my life but also where I am as a sports fan. The lyrics go:

(LLBean.com)

The darkness has always been,
The world was born into a blanket of sin,
When all the faith's been gone,
Still we found a reason to carry on,
Through the worrry, worry, worry,
Caught in an endless maze
Oh when the lights go out,
All I can think about,
Is how, we've seen better days...

And since this is a sports blog, I'll just focus on the sports aspect of my life. So how does seeing better days refer to sports? Well let's see, as a sports fan my life has consisted of...

The New York Mets being up and down and for the last 2 + years has been pretty pathetic, oh and add the fact that I've never seen my team win the World Series (they won in 1986, I was born in 1988) certainly is not something I would like to continue.

The Boston Celtics are aging but still have had a good run of late so not a whole lot to complain about there, but before the Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen trades the C's were awful for the prime years of my childhood, when I could actually afford a ticket to see them play live.

The Hartford Whalers (hurts me to type it) moved and deserted us Connecticutans in 1997. I was an enormous fan, many of the players lived in my hometown of Simsbury and I even played with one of their sons (Keith Primeau's son). So not only was I invested as a fan who went to about 10-15 games a year but I was also involved with the players (had every single one's autographed pictures) and families. I now somewhat call myself a Boston Bruins fan but this is recent and I really just enjoy watching great games whether it's in person or on TV.

Don’t forget about the Dallas Cowboys... yes, yes you can call me a bandwagon fan all you want but the truth is, I picked the team during the days of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Daryl "Moose" Johnston and "Primetime" Deion Sanders not because they were winning but because I loved how they played the game and how they were constantly on National Television. So sure, I picked them because they are "America's Team" but I call myself a true Cowboys fan because I have stuck it out for the last 15 or so years during the trying years and have even converted my girlfriend into being a Cowboys fan by purchasing her a Jason Witten Jersey to wear on Football Sunday.

So my professional sports watching has mostly been full of torturous moments like Carlos Beltran watching a called third strike or the Yankees totally dismantling the Mets in the Subway Series World Series in 2000. You can add on Tony Romo fumbling the snap on an extra point and the horrendous Quincy Carter years too.

But of course those woes aren't enough for me, I had to go to a college that is HORRENDOUS at football and not even in Division I, but that didn't bother me nearly as much as having a good basketball team but never good enough to actually make the NCAA tournament. University of Rhode Island Rams were synonymous for being right on the bubble and then imploding year after year after year. All 4 years we had a shot and all 4 years they broke my heart. I attended almost every single home game and even traveled to Duke to see the Rams take on the Blue Devils but it was never enough to cheer them on to victory, always falling just short.

Do I regret any of this though? Not one bit, and I will continue to support all of my teams even if they do break my heart from time to time we just have to remember that “we’ve seen better days”.