Friday, March 12, 2004

As Jordan would say, "3-2-7-G0"

We got off to a good start, bussing from CSU to the Denver Airport on a Gray Line cruise bus.  We learned an early lesson that will come into play later when we get to Seattle.  The lesson was and is that our entourage of 46 absolutely will not fit on a Greyhound sized bus.  We will be traveling by bus quite a bit.  It should all be very interesting.  Actually it will be more expensive than it will be interesting,

THE OREGON TRAIL

We made it to Eugene, Oregon just as pretty as you please.  We arrived on time (Frontier) in Portland, and Enterprise got us on our way within 20 minutes, a stark contrast to the 3 hours we usually spend at Budget, every minute of which brings me stress, and steals some extra of whatever precious time I have between now and you know what.

We left the portland airport and, drove the twenty minutes to the Demar's where an elegant lasagna dinner awaited our arrival.  Jessica is one of our scorekeepers fair, and this was her parents' house.  We scarfed and ran, that is what we tend to do as Pirates.  We still had another hundred miles to go before we would sleep.

We were pretty much safely tucked in the old Quality Inn by midnight.  Everyone seems in a good place.  There is a lot of love here with this team. I enjoy being with them very much (I hope I can say that ten days from now as well).  I say all this despite knowing the amount of hate that others sometimes have for us.

WHEN LIFE SEEMS LIKE EASY STREET, THERE IS DANGER AT YOUR DOOR

The Grateful Dead

All this smoothness so far this year is making me a bit jumpy.  We have had good weather to practice, we've been on TV, and we have the Odyssey of schedules to keep our attention.  The trials and potential tribulations have just begun, and I know this, but I'll take this start over plan B any day.

PRACTICE WITH PURPOSE

We had a practice at noon on the very same field (old time Astroturf type stuff) that we will play on tonight, just 5 hours from now.  And it was good.  We went full pads for an hour.  They didn't want to quit.  I'm like, let's save it for tonight, and we left, but they can't get enough, and as much as they love the real games, they don't seem to find it much a drop off to just mix it up with each other.  That right there is the beauty of having 40 people on your team that love this game.  You get scrimmages with real passion.

FINDING ME MO'

One of the tribulations for this journal is the fact that I must sometimes wait in line before I can write.  My handy dandy new PowerBook G4 is also the movie screen that allows Jordan to be very happy finding Nemo and the like.  I am using these minutes while I am all but alone here to bang in this entry.

THERE IS A PART OF GRANOLA I LIKE – I JUST CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHICH PART

The day is gorgeous.  I would imagine that if it looked like today every day, then everyone would live here.  As it is, you can feel room to move.  It's like there hasn't been an angry vibe in this town for years (until we showed up, of course). 

You can smell the musty moss and the fresh-cut grass as it lingers, and you can feel the extra oxygen that is available here, too.  People hang out, the place has a very gregarious air about it.

THIS BEATS THE HELL OUT OF TALAHASSEE SO FAR

The campus at the University of Oregon is beautiful, with aged buildings and a hallowed feel.  We practiced on one artificial surface, while on the next one over there was a yoga class going on at the 50-yard line.  I almost felt guilty blowing my whistle (noise pollution).  Health would seem to be an extremely high priority here.

THE POST FONTAINE ERA

For one of our players, Thomas Robinson (#22) the Eugene section of this trip is the realization of a dream, a pilgrimage if you will.  You see, at some point in his life Thomas was  dramatically affected by a movie about Steve Prefontaine, who, of course, achieved fame right here in Eugene as America's greatest middle distance runner in the time before joggers.  Thomas grew up in Memphis. I don't know what that means, except that he likely never drove through Eugene on summer vacations in the station wagon. 

Thomas and several others went to a thrift shop and purchased a whole bunch of apparel with a local flavor. Many are going to wear University of Oregon stuff in the warm-ups tonight.  I asked if this was to mock or to pay homage.  The answer was less than clear.  I stated that as long as we are all gracious guests, then all is good.  Uh oh, here comes the 4-year old.  Bye bye.

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