UST 1.0 East Coast

Sept 8 2006: Baltimore, MD. Camden Yards. Yankees vs. Orioles. O’s win 9 – 4.

First trip to Camden Yards. The original throwback stadium is probably still the best. Had the Boog’s BBQ, which was solid. Almost as many Yankee fans as O’s fans. Glad to see all the Yankees fans in attendance go away disappointed. Wish we had a heads up that we’d be parking in an area that was basically straight out of The Wire. Must have been 15 security guards watching the parking lot.

Sept 9 2006: Boston, MA. Boston College. Clemson Tigers vs. BC Eagles. BC wins 34 – 33 in double OT.

First college football game for most of the UST roster. Great game. Unranked BC won in double overtime against the then #18 ranked Clemson Tigers. Clemson featured the Thunder and Lightning backfield of James Davis and CJ Spiller. BC’s first home win against a ranked team in 10 years. Awesome atmosphere. Clemson fans were numerous and have a great fight song – woooo hoooo, woo hoo hoo hoo!

Sept 9 2006: Boston, MA. Fenway Park. Royals vs. Red Sox. Red Sox lose 10 – 4.

Raced from BC to Fenway on the train with some Clemson fans to make it to the game. Missed the first couple innings. The game was largely forgettable, but Fenway was awesome. The best of the old school ball parks. Being built down, with the low profile exterior and the Green Monster in left gives it a more intimate feeling than any other park. Ate Fenway Franks, sat back and relaxed.

Sept 9 2006: Mashantucket, CT. Foxwoods Casino. UST vs. Foxwoods. UST wins +$1,500!

Eat it Foxwoods!

Sept 10 2006: New York, NY. Shea Stadium. Dodgers vs. Mets. Mets lose 9 – 1.

Last home game for the Mets before the 9/11 5^th anniversary. Players wore NYPD and NYFD hats and “America the Beautiful” was sung by a NYC fireman. Really chilling moment done just right by the Mets. The UST roster was split on Shea. Some liked it, some were indifferent. Good to see it before it was torn down. Post game stopped at Arthur Ashe stadium to walk around before the men’s final of the US Open.

Sept 10 2006: East Rutherford, NJ. Giants Stadium. Colts vs. Giants. Giants lose 26 – 21.

National anthem and Blackhawk helicopter fly over with 90,000 New Yorkers on Sept 11^th anniversary was an honour. Manning vs. Manning. Peyton was victorious in spite of one of the loudest crowds in UST experience. Spent some time tail gaiting with some high quality New Yorkers. Thanks Kim.

Sept 10 2006: Atlantic City, NJ. Trump Taj Mahal. UST vs. Trump. UST wins +$500!

Eat it Trump! Truba went to bed without hardly gambling. Weak. Red lost it on some guy betting against him on the darkside in craps. Whatever. Long drive in and long night gambling led to some short fuses at three in the morning. It’s all a part of the experience.

Sept 11 2006: Washington, DC. FedEx Field. Vikings vs. Redskins. Redskins lose 19 – 16.

After the classic and respectful memorials for 9/11 in New York, the Redskins memorial was largely bizarre and tacky. They had a DC area policeman sing, but then they introduced the Redskins cheerleaders as doing a “memorial interpretive dance, “The Patriot Dance”, that was basically glorified strippers wearing red, white and blue dresses. Sure, the intent was not bad, but it came off as inappropriate. Truba is a Vikes fan and Fred S is a Redskins fan. Truba wins round 1 and made it out of FedEx Field without an ass kicking, which is much better than the drunk guys two rows ahead of us who got destroyed in a drunken fight with hay makers flying over girlfriends at the end of the game. No security to be seen! On Sept 11 in Washington DC, in a huge terrorist target with 90,000 people! Fight went on until the two guys on the lower rows fell over a couple rows and stayed down. Winners grabbed their girlfriends and stumbled out. Strange way to end the trip. Another fight almost started behind us. Daniel Snyder pushed the booze in so aggressively that it actually became a little dangerous. Then again that’s a typical NFL game.

Other Highlights: After the Redskins game on a late night run to a downtown McDonalds we narrowly avoided an armed robbery attempt 10 minutes before closing. Red watched as a guy standing outside the side doors slowly put on black gloves (in 70 degree temps) and motioned to a truck across the parking lot and made the “ssshhh” move with his finger over his lips. Just about to walk in and saw the guys eyes and knew something was up.

Truba completely ignoring some girl after the Mets game who told him her “friend thought he was cute.” Truba’s a rude SOB.

The crazy taxi ride from Fenway back to our car. Our driver was chasing another cabbie who he thought was driving recklessly. At a red light he started shouting down the other driver then gave Truba (in the front seat) a $20 bill to pass out the window to the other driver if the “fare was more important than the passenger safety”. Truba flapped the money out the window very enthusiastically, of course.

This was before GPS was commonly available in rental cars. Our Mapquest directions drove us right into the hood as a final destination for FedEx Field. Red screwed up the directions to Atlantic City and took the slow way through numerous small towns between NYC and AC. Red always finds some way to violate us once per trip.

We chose the wrong street to get across town from Queens to the Meadowlands and ended up in a traffic jam that was so bad Brands got out of the car and bought a new pair of flip flops, then had a donair with Red on a street corner in the same time that the car moved about half a block. Luckily he also had enough time to go into a restaurant to ask directions for a better route.

Truba tried to substitute an item in one of the combo meals at FedEx Field and the girl behind the counters answer tells you everything you need to know about Daniel Snyder and the way he manages the Redskins: “Mr. Snyder doesn’t allow substitutions.”