(I’ll do you one better…why am I??)
My name is Shannon- bridal stylist by day and sports fan/amateur write by night. I’m from Queens by way of first Tucson, then Philadelphia, then Hamilton, New Jersey. While a massive fan of the New York Mets and the New York Rangers, I absolutely love the Winter Olympics because I love watching women’s hockey possibly more than men’s. (of course, it would be nice if we could get some widely televised lady’s sports more than every four years but…that’s another blog post for another day. Can’t give up all my good material in the “about the author” section, now can I?)
When I’m not hawking wedding gowns or grumbling on the internet about various social injustices, I can be found cooking, playing guitar and being kind of ok at it, and nitpicking the mistakes in network TV crime dramas (for crying out loud people, wear gloves when you handle evidence!!!).
Why the Mets and the Rangers? We have my dad to thank for both of these things.
Perhaps it was always fate that my dad would wind up with a family of Mets fans- both the team and my father were born in the same year. When my brother and I came along roughly 25 and 29 years later, my dad tried his hardest. My brother, for a time, was a Dodgers fan thanks to his fervent admiration of Mike Piazza (needless to say my father was bloody thrilled when Piazza became a Met because he knew it would draw my brother into the fold of the Orange and Blue.) Me, my earliest memory of being a Mets fan was the ill-fated Subway Series. Not the greatest introduction, but effective nonetheless. Amongst my happier memories of my early fan years are: going to the minor league Subway Series every year (Trenton Thunder vs Binghamton Mets) and poring over the game program and my dad pointing out which guys were the ones to look out for – the most memorable, of course being Jose Reyes and David Wright…driving to a Mets game in Philly in 2002 and being stuck in such terrible traffic that we had to listen to the beginning on the radio. That was also the day I discovered the superstition of not stepping on the base line when taking the field by watching Mo Vaughn leap over on his way to take first base (I was 11 in 2002, so I found it absolutely hilarious.)
As for the Rangers, I took a slightly different path to fandom. Up til college I showed little to no interest in hockey. It wasn’t until my sophomore year when I was home for a visit that I just happened to be in the same room as my dad watching a post game press conference. I looked at the screen and set eyes upon one of the most good looking men I’d ever seen in my entire life- none other than Mr Henrik Lundqvist. “DAD!” I said… “who is that insanely beautiful man?” And my dad told me who he was. Now, we could have just left it at that, but Dad being Dad, explained to me who exactly he was and what made him such a good goalie (I became something of an armchair expert on butterfly goaltending that night). And all of this my father did without a shred of judgement at my swooning over the pretty Swedish dude. So yes, technically I did start watching hockey because of a cute guy but it’s gone so far beyond that. Both men’s and women’s hockey have had me riveted (see what I did there?) for years now. The last two Winter Olympics I dragged myself out of bed to watch so many hockey matches…watching Germany win silver in 2018 was an extreme pleasure to watch.
Anyway, now you all have a small glimpse into my sports brain…I leave you with this recommendation: always go to Box Frites when you go to Citi Field. Blows the Shake Shack fries out of the water and the lines aren’t nearly as long.
giveusatwirl.sport.blog 