Thursday, June 23, 2005

Kicking off ... again

A little more than 24 hours from now the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will open their 2005 regular season in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, arguably the most infuriating team to be a fan of. You could make a case — a very strong one — that the Roughriders are absolutely the worst team to follow as a fan. Worse than the Cubs, worse than the Red Sox, worse than the Philadelphia Eagles, worse than ... well any team out of Philadelphia. Has there been a franchise that has shown its fans how utterly futile it is to follow it? One Grey Cup win and a pocket full of empty after that. On top of that, you're from Saskatchewan, which ain't helpin' things either. But fans from The Gap continue to come out in droves, and that you have to at least respect if not sympathize.

Hey granted the Bombers haven't been winning anything in awhile but you can't make the argument that they're in the same category of 'suck' historically as the Roughriders. In a nine-team league, you have to figure at some point your number is going to come up. Nope, not here. Instead fans hang around each year like the townspeople in The Lottery, only with usually grimmer results.

The Bombers will go with Kevin Glenn at QB with Tee Martin backing up, despite the fact Glenn was near atrocious in the preseason. I am still sticking with my prediction of Tee being No. 1 by Week 4. Glenn is not the guy to lead us to The Game. Which leads me to this: I met the woman of my dreams the other night, although I don't really know who she is or that I'll ever see her again. But long story short, we had an in-depth discussion about the Bombers fortunes and plans and she (not me) mentioned that the team needed to go to Martin to have a shot at it.

Now, finding a knowledgeable fan is a difficult thing. Rarely do people know what they're talking about when they say they're a fan, content to just spit the company line that makes them appear informed, but it doesn't even scratch the dust off the surface. Needless to say I was quite pleased to have an informed chat with someone on the subject of bleeding Blue and Gold, in Brandon no less.

Week 4, mark my words. (Hey, I was right that he was going to end up in Winnipeg.)

Back to work for me. But here, for those starving for it, is your

Lyric of the Day:
Lights, camera, tragedy, comedy, romance
You better dance from your fighting stance
Or you'll never have a fighting chance
In the rat race
Where the referee's son started way in advance
But still you livin' the American Dream
Silk PJ's, sheets and down pillows
Who the fuck would wanna wake up?
You got it good like hot sex after the break up
Your four car garage it's just more space to take up
You even bought your mom a new whip scrap the jalopy
Thousand dollar habit, million dollar hobby
You a success story everybody wanna copy
But few work for it, most get jerked for it
If you think that you could ignore it, you're ig-norant
A fat wallet still never made a man free
They say to eat good, yo, you gotta swallow your pride
But dead that game plan, I'm not satisfied

[Chorus]
The poor get worked, the rich get richer
The world gets worse, do you get the picture?
The poor gets dead, the rich get depressed
The ugly get mad, the pretty get stressed
The ugly get violent, the pretty get gone
The old get stiff, the young get stepped on
Whoever told you that it was all good lied
So throw your fists up if you not satisfied
J-Live, Satisfied

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not that I tend to stick up for Rider fans, but...

1. They actually won two Cups. Besides Dave "Robo-kicker" Ridgeway's heroics in 1989, Ronnie Lancaster led them to Grey Cup glory in 1967.

2. The Mike Riley years aside (and I know that's where your Blue-and-Gold love comes from), it's been equally, if not more, infuriating to cheer for the Bombers in the last 15 years. Saskatchewan never had as dark an equivalent as the Jeff Reinebold era and the heart-breaking losses in Cup finals (ie. when we shit the bed in the 2001 game) only make the hurt worse.

Congratulations on meeting the one of your dreams. I look forward to meeting him.

WheatCitysFinest said...

i don't disagree with the frustrations the Bombers have given fans, but at least we've had playoff games at home. With the exception of the Reinebold years, the Bombers have been consistently better and more potential-full (new word) than the Riders. That, however, has caused some of the frustration, but they're not on the same level in that regard