…Continued from the previous post.

Even the best of Sports Fans struggle at times. We can’t always bring our “A” spectating game, and when presented with a complex multi-faceted event like the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships…well let’s just say I wasn’t proud of my Day One performance.  

Over breakfast the next day, I called a Sports Fans-only meeting with myself to hash it out. After some clearing of the air, I/we embraced the difficult realization that no matter how hard one tries, it’s impossible to see everything at a track and field meet. The entire “It’s Game Time Somewhere” Tour crew agreed to put the previous day behind us, and to arrive at the Albuquerque Convention Center committed to a New Plan.

The New Plan had two key components. One, my reserved seat ticket had to be traded in for what I like to call a Custom VIP SRO Package. This essentially meant that I would spend the day pretty much anywhere in the venue other than in the reserved seat I had purchased in advance. And if that meant loitering in areas otherwise designated for coaches, friends and families, well so be it. I was willing to make that sacrifice. 
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They really should administer aptitude tests with the purchase of a track and field event ticket.

“Excuse me sir, but before I can let you in, I need to know that you possess the multi-tasking capacity necessary to fully assimilate this meet.”

Then again, I’m glad they don’t test. Because based upon my early performance at the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships, I would flunk.

Walking in the door at the Albuquerque Convention Center, I was reminded of opening weekend of the fantasy football season, when each year without fail, I would freeze immediately upon entering my local sports bar – and then meander around aimlessly in search of the ideal seat for simultaneous viewing of every game in which one of “my guys” was playing. An aerial shot of me would look like one of those Family Circus cartoons with the big dotted line showing where Jeffy or P.J. had scampered off to that day, bless their annoying little hearts.
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Vintage Hot Rods at the Winternationals Festival

Click and Clack won’t take my calls on their Car Talk radio show. They think my lack of mechanical know-how has to be an act. Nobody knows that little about cars.

When I was growing up, my Dad introduced me to two of his passions:  sports and engines. Guess which one stuck.

Of course there’s always been an intersection of the two, and motor sports have been wildly popular ever since the first guy said to his buddy, “I’ll bet my Model T can get to the end of that road faster than yours.” But until the advent of the “It’s Game Time Somewhere” Tour, I had never really ventured outside of the stick and ball world to check it out.
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…Continued from the previous post.

Without question, the USA is the finest rugby sevens team on the planet. I mean, just look at what they did to poor Uraguay.

Wait, hold that thought…OK, it’s Japan that’s the premiere team. I mean, Guyana never had a chance to…

Hang on, hang on. Wow! Canada is really putting the hammer down on poor France. These guys are pretty much unbeatable…except by Scotland, who seemed not to have much trouble doing so. Or was that Wales? But didn’t they lose to Kenya? Who lost to New Zealand…and England?

Welcome to the IRB Rugby World Series, and its USA Sevens tournament, in sun-drenched Las Vegas. To become that confused about what countries rule the world of rugby sevens, you’d think I would had to have seen a lot of teams play. And I had.

I mean, I’d been there for over an hour.
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When I began this walkabout, it was not without careful consideration of the risks. Eye strain. Chapped hands from applauding. Being trapped on a Delta Airlines middle seat between two 300-pounders.

But I never contemplated the chances of being victimized by crime. Yet there I was, being robbed. In broad daylight, no less.

She didn’t fit the profile – they never do. She couldn’t have been more than 25 years old. Pleasant-looking. A little on the slight side. I don’t know how tall she was, because she was sitting down at the time. I never saw it coming.
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