I have this friend, a guy I have known for 40 years, and he recently risked becoming an ex-friend.
He had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to turn down a ticket to the Masters.
Sure, he would have had to pay his own way and fend for lodging and transportation. But that’s a small price to pay for a chance to spend four days in the Valhalla of sports — and he turned it down.
Who could remain friends with somebody like that?
But it got me thinking: What is your Holy Grail of sports? What is the one ticket that would be akin to a religious experience, ranking somewhere on the list between a lifetime supply of Guinness and a date with Jessica Alba?
That’s what this column started out to be — a ranking of 10 sporting events worth seeing in person. But anybody can throw together the Masters and the Daytona 500 and Olympic curling — you know, if that’s your thing — and call it a column.
Instead, I’m sifting through my personal database for 10 memorable sports experiences.
There’s no Olympics or Wimbledon or Tour de France here. (What, you thought I was Rick Reilly?) But there are plenty of events that charmed in their own way.
Here’s a list of some of my favorite sports experiences — each of them attainable for the sports fan on your shopping list.
- Watch batting practice at a major-league game. Going to Safeco Field? Get there early. Second on the list of must-see Mariner highlights: Sit in the 300 level directly behind home plate for a Felix Hernandez game.
- Attend an NBA Finals game. OK, this might not be readily attainable. For a while. But it’s worth it if you get a chance. Although the NBA Finals never again will be held in a building like Memorial Coliseum.
- Attend the U.S. Open of golf. So, it’s not the Masters, but it’s attainable: The Open is coming to the Tacoma area in 2015. Watching big-time golf is a great experience and you can expend as much effort as you care to, wandering the course or planting yourself at one hole.
- Attend the Track and Field Olympic Trials, which are returning to Eugene in 2012. The best thing about a big track meet: There’s always something going on — no timeouts and no huddles.
- Hold an Olympic gold medal. First, meet somebody who has won a gold medal. Next, ask if you can hold it. I forever will be indebted to soccer player Shannon MacMillan.
- Watch a high school football game at Alsea, Ore. Nestled in the Coast Range, Alsea isn’t quite in the middle of nowhere — but you can see nowhere on the horizon. The grandstand is a covered wooden structure invoking the architecture of old wooden bridges. It’s what life would be like if high school football were an Ansel Adams portrait.
- See a game at Autzen Stadium, one of the country’s great sports venues. Admit it, UW fans — Autzen is a far, far superior experience to Husky Stadium. And it will be even after Husky Stadium is renovated. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
- Sit in the bleachers at Wrigley Field. Game? What game? And pass me another Old Style.
- Attend Ohio State’s Skull Session. Hours before each home football game, The Best Damn Band In The Land gives a concert in the basketball arena across the street from Ohio Stadium — and not one of the band members has traded a Sousaphone for free tattoos.
- See an NFC Championship game. Given the state of the Seahawks, this seems even less attainable than an NBA Finals in these parts, but it’s a much better experience than the Super Bowl. The corporate, neutral-field crowd at the Super Bowl can’t match the atmosphere of a conference title game on a home field.
See? There are plenty of great sports memories ready to be made, without the exclusivity of the Masters.
