TERRE HAUTE —
For many, many years, the number of live games televised on WGN has been cited as perhaps the main reason for the popularity of the Chicago Cubs (it’s got to be something besides masochism, right?).
I’m not here to argue that point today, only to say that seeing a team live can have an even greater effect.
Right now, after seeing them live a little over three weeks ago, I’m pumped that the Nashville Predators have won their first playoff series ever.
As I’ve mentioned before, I rooted for the Preds all season knowing the family would be at that April 5 game, wanting it to have some playoff-style intensity. Since then we’ve gotten a call at home from the Nashville ticket office hoping we’d enjoyed the game and asking us if we needed any playoff tickets — that’s got to be a small-town hockey thing, because we’ve never gotten callbacks after any major league baseball teams we’ve seen — and I rushed home from work Friday night knowing the Preds and the Anaheim Ducks would finally be a national television game.
The two players I told JoJo to watch three weeks ago were defenseman Shea Ward, with his booming slap shot, and Jordin Tootoo (can you guess his number?) because, I told her, he was an “agitator.”
“What’s an agitator?” she asked. “Just watch,” I said.
It was too late for her to be awake when I got home Friday night, Preds teetering on the edge of a loss that would put them down 3-2 in the seven-game series, but I should have gotten her up. Ward ripped one from the blue line with 36 seconds left in regulation time that sent the game to overtime, and less than two minutes into the extra period Tootoo bolted down the ice, ripped two shots at the Ducks’ goalie, then got the rebound of the second one and passed it to Jerred Smithson for the game-winning goal.
It was Smithson’s first goal since January — he had a whopping five during the regular season — and to prove it was no fluke, Tootoo assisted on two goals in the series-winning game on Sunday, with Nick Spaling — another player not known for his offensive prowess — getting both goals.
Understand that I’m not a diehard fan of any hockey team. I’m sentimentally drawn to underdogs (I own an Edmonton Oilers sweatshirt — although that’s more because Gretzky used to play there and because the shirt was on sale — and I liked the Tampa Bay Lightning even before Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Steven Stamkos got there), teams that need fans desperately (you go, Phoenix Coyotes) and teams with players I love to watch (my ideal Cup final right now would be Vancouver, with the Sedins, or Detroit, with Pavel Datsyuk, against the Capitals with Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin). I also like the Maple Leafs, because they’re from Toronto.
My former ideal finals pairing of Los Angeles vs. Pittsburgh has been put on hold because of injuries to Anze Kopitar and Evgeni Malkin (if you’re counting, my favorite international team is apparently the Russians). And I prefer the Western Conference, maybe because its games are usually still on when I get home from work.
But the Preds satisfy the first two criteria to a degree, since they’re enjoying the most postseason success they’ve ever had right now and since Nashville isn’t exactly a hockey hotbed, and they provided the Amey family with a fun night. If they’re not exactly dazzling offensively (Sergei Kostitsyn might be their only Russian), they’ve at least got Tootoo and his line to get in opponents’ faces, knock people into the boards and get some goals they’re not supposed to get. So I won’t be rooting against them for awhile.
Now, back to the original premise. If your argument is that there were enough other factors to make me enjoy the Preds besides the visit to Smashville earlier this month, it would be a valid one.
But I have an ace in the hole, as it were. I’ll prove my point with something else that’s happened in the last 13 months.
You probably don’t remember the Ameys’ 2010 spring break trip by now, but it was to central Texas, and we saw the Giants play the Astros.
No, I’m not talking about the World Series. I’m talking about the fact that for the last half of last season, I started paying lots of attention, and enjoying the success of, the Astros!
I’ve never met an Astros fan, and why would I? A team so dull it makes the Preds a thrill-a-minute proposition, a team with the second-worst uniform colors in baseball (sorry, Padres), a team that hasn’t had an exciting player since Cesar Cedeno … I’m rooting for them, hoping Clint Barmes gets back in the lineup soon and that Brett Wallace and Chris Johnson are baseball’s next great one-two punch.
I rest my case.
Andy Amey can be reached after 4 p.m. at (812) 231-4277 or at 1-800-783-8742; by e-mail at andy.amey@tribstar.com; by mail at P.O. Box 149, Terre Haute, IN, 47808; or by fax at (812) 231-4321.
Amey Takes Aim
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COLUMNIST ANDY AMEY
Discussion
AMEY TAKES AIM: Predators’ win is music to new fan’s ears
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Huntsville’s Stars, Havoc take back seat to GGS
The second-best thing about the Amey family’s spring-break trip to Huntsville, Ala., is that we left a lot of things on the table to do the next time we’re down there.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Rox well represented on Amey teams
If having the state finals in town makes it a successful girls high school basketball season, then certainly having a team to follow at the state finals makes it a very successful boys high school basketball season . . .
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A feeling of pride, not disappointment, comes from watching Rox play
It’s not going to come as a startling admission that I — once the rest of the local opposition has been eliminated from consideration — am an unabashed fan of whatever team the Wabash Valley sends onward in postseason high school sports competition.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: This private school plays basketball the right way
Any girls high school basketball season that ends with state championship games in Hulman Center is a pretty good one — even though I wished I’d seen Riverton Parke and Seeger knock off a couple of private schools the week before to even the public school-private school battle a little bit.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Even 2 of state’s best once had doubts
Look at them now.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Getting ready for the dance
Terre Haute North got the good news Sunday night — or did it?
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Harrowing path for state hopefuls
The bad news is that the winner of Class 4A Sectional 13 in boys basketball heads northeast instead of southeast for regional play in March — to Hinkle Fieldhouse instead of Seymour as a result of Indiana High School Athletic Association’s changes.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: A superior all-star arrangement
I don’t work on Wednesdays, so I wasn’t able to attend the first Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association draft last week to set up the annual all-star game that will be June 23 this year.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The biggest & baddest of a holiday classic
There are more things to love about the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic than could fit in this newspaper, but one of this year’s best things was that for an hour or so on Wednesday, it was Justin Paddock’s world and we were just living in it.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Taking note of ISU’s latest football win
The biggest difference I’ve noticed, as I transition from the high school football beat to quasi-official status as the Indiana State football beat writer for a few weeks, is the length of the games.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: IHSAA playoff draw not as bad as it could have been
First reaction to the Indiana sectional football pairings drawn late Sunday by the Indiana High School Athletic Association? It could have been a lot worse.
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ANDY AMEY: Between the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & a hard place
Just in case any of you noticed — with some anticipation — the recent lack of my bylines, I can tell you that your wish (and mine) did come true. It was vacation week for the Amey family.
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Amey Takes Aim: UFC fighter’s bloodines traced back to ISU brothers
As a mild-mannered reporter from a great metropolitan newspaper — or thereabouts — I admit I haven’t paid much attention to the burgeoning mixed martial arts scene.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Predators’ win is music to new fan’s ears
For many, many years, the number of live games televised on WGN has been cited as perhaps the main reason for the popularity of the Chicago Cubs (it’s got to be something besides masochism, right?).
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AMEY TAKES AIM: You’ll be having a good ol’ time on vacation with the Ameys
When one of the first people you meet is Tammy Wynette’s stepdaughter, when you’ve stepped on the feet of people you haven’t met while trying to navigate Ernest Tubbs’ old Silver Eagle tour bus, and when the activities director of your resort is, well, Elvis, you might be vacationing in Nashville.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: The Annual All-Amey basketball teams close out the prep season
The most encouraging boys high school basketball event I’ve attended so far in 2011 has been the Lafayette Semistate a couple of weeks ago.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Family remembers Cheryl Weatherman as caring grandmother
As far as Riley and Keely Davis are concerned, Cheryl Weatherman was simply their grandmother, and a pretty darn good one at that.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Honor to see Turkey Run girls close out memorable career
I don’t know if anyone in this part of the state could actually say they enjoy going to Fort Wayne and back, but I was glad to see the Turkey Run Warriors play one last time during the girls basketball state finals Saturday.
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So many matches, so many favorites
Go ahead, ask me anything about the 224 wrestlers who competed last week at the Indiana state finals — or at least about the 112 wrestlers who survived Saturday’s first round.
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ANDY TAKES AIM: A sportwriters’s lament: Oh, the games we missed
I was already tired of winter by the time that first bitterly cold snap passed through in mid-December, so it’s safe to say the season hasn’t grown on me.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Time of the season for teams to tough it out
In the last month or so I figure I’ve seen at least four boys high school basketball teams with legitimate state-championship dreams as the season heads into its dog days.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: It's the fall 2010 Amey Awards
I won’t get to know the kids from Casey and North Putnam until they come to Terre Haute in droves next June for the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association All-Star game, so I guess it’s not too early for the high school football awards from this space.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: An early look at Indiana prep football playoffs
I wasn’t at all surprised to watch Linton pick up a 20-point win over previously unbeaten North Knox in high school football last Friday, one week after the Miners had lost by 40 to North Daviess.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Baseball season rounding third for an exciting ending
Major League baseball is coming down to an interesting week for the National League, then a couple of interesting weeks for the American League.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Look for me in the yellow shirt
I won’t be wearing pink or blue tonight for the Terre Haute South-Terre Haute North volleyball match at North, but I’m anticipating that plenty of you will be.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Little QB had big moments in ISU blue
You won’t find his name easily in the Indiana State record book, but for my money the best quarterback the Sycamores have ever had was Verbie Walder.
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Amey Takes Aim: Biggest baseball pet peeve … Nibbling
Having seen some outstanding baseball — and some not-so-outstanding baseball — at literally every level of play this spring and summer, I have identified what without a doubt is my main pet peeve with the sport. Nibbling. I’m not referring to popcorn or pretzels or nachos or cheese sticks or corn dogs or snow cones or candy or ice cream. Those can also be a serious problem — particularly if the kids are with me — but one that can be solved by simply running out of money.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Head to the high seas: Ameys’ vacation cruise
It’s good to be king. Abdication? Not so good.
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World Cup replaces void opened when Stanley Cup ended
It’s niche sports day here at the Tribune-Star, so we’ll start with a test of how much you learned while watching the recent National Hockey League season.
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AMEY TAKES AIM: Win or lose, a softball season to remember
Well, this is awkward. I’m writing this late Monday night, with my Tuesday and Wednesday days off in the future, not knowing entirely how happy I am with state-finals softball.
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