You Gotta Get Up to Get Down

Here's my weekend in review (a day late and $20 short):

Okay…I know I said a 3 game lead for the Red Sox didn’t worry me about a week ago. Now, ½ game lead? Yeah, I’m starting to get a bit nervous. (As a VT friend once said to me, after I said I had butterflies in my stomach before a big game, “Just pour some beer on them butterflies, you’ll be fine.”) Let’s not use the “c” word yet, and it’s not like they’ve blown a 15 game lead or anything. But anything less than a 4 game lead going into the final series with the Yanks won’t be fun. My predictions for the next week: Boston will go 2-0 vs. the Rays and 2-1 vs. the Orioles; Yankees will go 2-1 vs. the Orioles and 2-1 vs. the Blue Jays. Which means by the end of Sunday, there will be a dead heat. Oh, wretched Beantown Nine, my heart shalt not take any more of this!

Speaking of the White Sox, a lead that was 15 on Aug. 1 is now 2 ½ games. The Indians are playing great, and I won’t be surprised if they end up in first by the end of this week. But I still think the White Sox win the division. If not, it’s going to turn ugly on the south side of Chicago.

Saturday was the 1st home Virginia Tech game of the season, normally a beloved time in my heart. This year felt a little different as Sage and I got re-seated this year. For the past 6 years we had gotten into a nice routine with the group around us. On top of that, they were incredible fans. Every play was a key play, sitting down during the game (especially during a defensive series) was strictly verboten, and during great plays there were high fives all around. One of our favorites, a man known only as “Vaughan” (he wore the same #55 VT jersey with that name on the back every game the entire time we had seats there) sat 2 rows in front of us. After every touchdown, blocked punt, defensive touchdown, or other great play, he would REQUIRE everyone around him to give him high fives. And these were powerful high fives…the bigger the play, the more power he put behind them. Several times Sage would wave her hands in pain after he delivered his two handed power fives. But either way, his passion was just as large as ours. We also had a group of 3 or 4 guys who sat next to us who always showed up about 30 minutes before kick-off, and immediately started yelling, and never got quiet the entire game. Whether it was singing the entire Virginia Tech fight song, starting their own “LET’S GO!…HOKIES!” chant, or even directing homemade cheers at the opposing teams, they never tired of cheering on the team. (My favorite was when we played West Virginia: “Go back, go back, go back to the woods! Your mother is your sister and your team is no good!”) I guess what I’m trying to get across here is that there was non-stop passion, no matter if we were playing Virginia or James Madison. We stood the entire game, screamed non-stop, especially when VT was on defense (and believed that when the opposing team had a false start or a delay of game penalty that we were entirely responsible for causing it), and celebrated together after a score. So as you can tell, we loved our seats, and especially the folks around us.

In 2005 Virginia Tech decided to re-seat all season ticket holders. In the past you could keep your same seats no matter how much money you gave to the VT Athletic Fund. Realizing that new donors who gave a lot of money were getting bad seats, while folks who had season tickets for 30 years but gave no money to the VTAF had great seats, they decided to seat folks based on a point priority system…meaning the more money you give, the better your seats. (On a personal note, I didn’t have a problem with this. Folks who had seats for more than 20 years were placed on a scale, so they didn’t automatically go to the bottom of the list. And in this day and age big time college football is all about money.) I upped my donation a little bit, but so did everyone else it seems. In August we got our tickets, and my first impression was that I was semi-relieved. We stayed on the same side of the field (that being the East side…the West Side is where most of the older donors sit, and is always known as a more sedate crowd), and we stayed low to the field, which is what we wanted (we went from row U to row Z…the stadium goes from Row A to Row MMMMM); however, we ended up moving from the 5 yard line on the North End Zone to the Goal Line on the South End Zone. But we held out hope that folks around us would be lower level donors like us, therefore hopefully younger, and we’d find a good group to watch the game with.

Saturday comes around, and we get to our seats about an hour before kick-off to scope everything out. The cons are apparent immediately. First, we’re a lot farther away from the HokieVision scoreboard and the Marching Virginians (VT’s marching band), which are both at the north end of the stadium. Also, only 1 section over to our left is the visitors seating section, meaning that when they bring their band they’re going to be practically right next to us. But the worst part of the new seats are the people. We have a family of 3 to our left, with a daughter about 3 years old. So of course they spent the entire time either worrying about her, or dragging her to the bathroom, or getting food for her, or cleaning up all the food and drink she spilled. To our right was a couple who looked like they were just there because their son went to school at VT. Neither wore Maroon or Orange (which I think is grounds for immediate dismissal from the stadium), and neither really cared much about what was going on. I feel like giving them a pass, as they didn’t act like they would be regular season ticket holders. Then we have the couple in front of us. They wore clothes that might be considered our team’s colors, but barely. However, they barely acted awake the entire game. A big play by the Hokies and the woman might clap, but that would be it. The guy barely put his hands together after any touchdown. And they left after 3 quarters. I’m not even sure why they showed up. Behind us was a group of 4, two pairs of younger couples. I had high hopes that they would really be into the game, and while they were better than everyone else around us (I even high-fived one of the guys after our first touchdown), they were sitters, and definitely NOT screamers while VT is on defense. Thankfully no one told us to sit down, but we did sit down quite a bit just to try to be nice to those behind us who were sitting. There were a few folks in our section in the near vicinity who seemed to try to win over the crowd like us, standing for defense, yelling, etc. But when you can’t get others to join you, it just makes the atmosphere so depressing. I can almost forgive them sitting down. But sitting on your hands is not forgivable. The ONLY thing that got these people out of their seats and screaming was when The Wave made its appearance at the game. And that, folks, is just pitiful. Maybe it was just because we were playing Ohio (not a power by any means). Well, this weekend is Georgia Tech, ranked #15 and undefeated. If they don’t get into this game, then I doubt they ever will.

Many of you are probably saying, “what’s the big deal”? Personally I feel that the Hokie fans have high expectations to live up to. In fact, Rivals.com ranked Lane Stadium as the #1 home field advantage in all of college football. We didn’t get this respect by sitting around the entire game, politely clapping when a touchdown is scored. We got this by intimidating the other schools with our noise, to make them worried about coming to play at Lane, and to make them think twice while they’re on offense.

To make this simpler on anyone who might be reading this from Section 17, I give to you below my Rules for Attending a Virginia Tech Football game:

1. 10 minutes before kick-off, stand for the National Anthem. Continue standing. Don’t sit down unless one of the conditions in #4 below come up.
2. Right before the Hokies take the field HokieVision starts to show a highlight reel of the team and they begin to play “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. Bouncing and screaming commences.
3. After about 30 seconds the cannon goes off, and the Hokie Bird and the cheerleaders lead the team out of tunnel. Yell as loud as you can and clap along with “Tech Triumph” that can’t be heard over the din of the crowd. While singing the entire song is not necessary, please be sure to yell “Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi!” at the appropriate moment.
4. Remain standing through the entire game except for:
a. TV Timeouts
b. Halftime
c. When VT is on offense AND we have a 40 point lead in the 2nd half, UNLESS the team we’re beating is Miami. Or Virginia. Or Syracuse. Or West Virginia. In those cases, remain standing at all times.
5. When VT is on defense, scream and make as much noise as possible. When the quarterback on the other team is trying to change the play and has to walk down the line and yell in the ear of each offensive lineman because they can’t hear him, yell even louder.
6. When there is a 3rd down play, you have the option of taking out your keys and shaking them. However, this does NOT take away your obligation of screaming as loud as you can.
7. When VT is on offense, make no noise whatsoever until the play is complete. One should be able to hear Marcus Vick yelling “Red Seven! Red Seven!”
8. Do not, ever, try to attempt to tell the person standing in front of you to “sit down”, or “down in front”. If someone says this to you, the best retort is usually a backwards glance and a quick “UP IN BACK!”, before you go back to your screaming.
9. Stay the entire game. Traffic is never that bad getting out, and you have nothing better to do. (Trust me…you don’t.) Sage and I usually end up driving home for 4 ½ hours after every game. If we don’t need to leave early, neither do you.
10. Finally, be respectful of all opposing fans. Invite them to your tailgate, wish them a good time while they’re in Blacksburg, and NEVER pour a coke mixed with Wild Turkey on their heads. Unless they’re Virginia fans. Or West Virginia.

One great thing about the game was another B-2 Stealth fly-over. This is the 2nd time a Stealth Bomber has done a fly-by before a Hokie game, and it’s been impressive both times. It’s amazing how quiet this plane is…even right over your head you can barely hear it going by.

So this Saturday is Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech. 3:30pm, on ABC. I haven't made a prediction on a score yet this year, so I'm not going to start now. But I am reminded about a scene from the cinematic classic "Rocky 3", when Clubber Lang was asked for a prediction for his next fight: "Pain."