It's go time.
You know, I'm pretty loyal to my teams, and I've spent pretty much my entire life rooting for them. And in my lifetime, this is the furthest any of them has ever gone in any post-season. My football team spent all of the '80s mired in sub-.500 mediocrity, and continued that way until 1996 when they were finally taken out to the woodshed. A replacement team was created a few years later, but they too eventually bit the dust before they ever had a winning season. Put it in perspective here: that's 21 seasons of football in Ottawa since I was born, and never did a team wearing Ottawa colours win more games than it lost. And both of the teams ceased operations. It doesn't get much worse than that, huh?
Of course, I haven't done much better with baseball. I grew up on baseball on the radio in Ottawa, with Dave Van Horne and Ken Singleton calling Expos games from the time I was very young, up until the late-'90s or early-2000s, before those two finally saw the writing on the wall and moved onto greener pastures. The Expos never won a lick, either (unless you count winning more games than any other team in the season that was cut short by a strike as having won something). Recall, too, that the strike season came immediately after our rivals down the 401 had won back-to-back World Series. The final decade of the team's existence was probably the longest goodbye I ever knew (though, I can think of at least one other that comes close), and the night that they were finally buried for good hurt like hell. Now? They're little more than memories and a punchline.
True to form, my other baseball team has been given the green light to skip town at the end of this season. (And, by the by, the team's new name? "Please welcome your Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs!" That's just not working on any level at all.)
In short, as sports fandom goes, I think I've had a rough go of it. I think everyone in Ottawa (Blue Jays fans there excepted) have had their hearts stomped on enough. Not only have my teams all combined to win nothing of any real consequence, they've all moved, folded, suspended operations or they will move soon. That's really kind of amazing.
Hockey-wise, I've been an Ottawa fan since they entered the league when I was 12 - which is key. If an NHL hockey team comes to your town when you're 12 - and your town is officially big-time - that stays with you. My father and I had a six-game ticket plan in their first season, and we saw them win three of those games, which was exciting and novel, but the team only won 10 out of 84 through the whole season. Those first few years of Sylvain Turgeon, Darren Rumble and Peter Sidorkiewicz were truly terrible. And the 2003 playoffs (when one New Jersey goal with 2 minutes to go in the last game eliminated us in the penultimate round) were pretty heartbreaking.
It's probably been about 6 or 7 years since I saw the Senators in person, but I still have fond memories of the team: Having my uncle smooth talk us into two practices, and having my picture taken with people like Alexei Yashin (then of the Senators), Ray Bourque, Cam Neely and Adam Oates (all of the visiting Bruins); sitting on the high side at the Civic Centre with Agy and watching the Sens surprisingly blow out the Lightning; skipping school and standing in line with Agy at the Ticketmaster office to get tickets to the first NHL playoff game in Ottawa history; sitting with Jamie in the front row of the second tier at the Corel Centre and seeing my team waltz right past his. So, it's been fun. But still...
I'm more than ready for this!
Tonight when the anthem singer in Buffalo is in the final lines of the US anthem, and Ray Emery tucks his head under the crossbar, I will feel it all up and down my spine. Ottawa could really do with this, but more importantly, I really need this. Let's go Senators!
Of course, I haven't done much better with baseball. I grew up on baseball on the radio in Ottawa, with Dave Van Horne and Ken Singleton calling Expos games from the time I was very young, up until the late-'90s or early-2000s, before those two finally saw the writing on the wall and moved onto greener pastures. The Expos never won a lick, either (unless you count winning more games than any other team in the season that was cut short by a strike as having won something). Recall, too, that the strike season came immediately after our rivals down the 401 had won back-to-back World Series. The final decade of the team's existence was probably the longest goodbye I ever knew (though, I can think of at least one other that comes close), and the night that they were finally buried for good hurt like hell. Now? They're little more than memories and a punchline.
True to form, my other baseball team has been given the green light to skip town at the end of this season. (And, by the by, the team's new name? "Please welcome your Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs!" That's just not working on any level at all.)
In short, as sports fandom goes, I think I've had a rough go of it. I think everyone in Ottawa (Blue Jays fans there excepted) have had their hearts stomped on enough. Not only have my teams all combined to win nothing of any real consequence, they've all moved, folded, suspended operations or they will move soon. That's really kind of amazing.
Hockey-wise, I've been an Ottawa fan since they entered the league when I was 12 - which is key. If an NHL hockey team comes to your town when you're 12 - and your town is officially big-time - that stays with you. My father and I had a six-game ticket plan in their first season, and we saw them win three of those games, which was exciting and novel, but the team only won 10 out of 84 through the whole season. Those first few years of Sylvain Turgeon, Darren Rumble and Peter Sidorkiewicz were truly terrible. And the 2003 playoffs (when one New Jersey goal with 2 minutes to go in the last game eliminated us in the penultimate round) were pretty heartbreaking.
It's probably been about 6 or 7 years since I saw the Senators in person, but I still have fond memories of the team: Having my uncle smooth talk us into two practices, and having my picture taken with people like Alexei Yashin (then of the Senators), Ray Bourque, Cam Neely and Adam Oates (all of the visiting Bruins); sitting on the high side at the Civic Centre with Agy and watching the Sens surprisingly blow out the Lightning; skipping school and standing in line with Agy at the Ticketmaster office to get tickets to the first NHL playoff game in Ottawa history; sitting with Jamie in the front row of the second tier at the Corel Centre and seeing my team waltz right past his. So, it's been fun. But still...
I'm more than ready for this!
Tonight when the anthem singer in Buffalo is in the final lines of the US anthem, and Ray Emery tucks his head under the crossbar, I will feel it all up and down my spine. Ottawa could really do with this, but more importantly, I really need this. Let's go Senators!