Chris Thelin
Equinox Staff
With the final Spring Break of my college career, I figured that I needed to do something big for it. The original plan for the break was to head to South Padre Island in Texas, but the place where my friend and I were going to rent out during the week didn’t rent to 22-year-olds. I wonder why.
The next plan was to hit up the independent music festival South by Southwest in Austin. Unfortunately, the festival only sold weekly passes for $900, which was somewhat out of our price range.
With our top choices of girls wearing skimpy bikinis and one of the most unique festivals out of the question, the third plan came into play, our final option for a fun Spring Break was to enjoy the sports the Dallas area had to offer in what my parents later nicknamed “The Sportsgasm.”
After a long six-hour flight from Manchester to Dallas on Saturday, the week quickly kicked off a few hours later with a Dallas Stars game.
Being quite indifferent to hockey, I didn’t attend an NHL game since the pre-lockout era. It seemed like a fun idea and a good way to spend an afternoon, as Dallas took on the L.A. Kings.
Although indifferent to both teams, I felt like I had to root for Dallas. For one, I lived in Dallas for a few years and two, my friend paid for my ticket. I didn’t want an Elaine Benes situation when she wore the Orioles hat to the owner’s seats at Yankee Stadium.
After choosing the team I was going to root for, I quickly began talking smack to the Kings fans and players. I heckled the players saying things like, “How does it feel to be the third most popular team that plays in the Staples Center? (behind the Lakers and Clippers)” and, “Wait, this is for the L.A. Kings? I thought this was for the Lakers (the Lakers played the Mavericks the night before)!”
As the game got started, I realized how little I knew about hockey. The only knowledge I knew was what I learned from playing “NHL 10.” I turned out to be vastly disappointed that the real players didn’t fight as much as they did in my game.
The game moved slowly through two periods as the Kings held a 2-1 lead. The Stars came out in the third looking to tie it up, but were inches off as they came close several times. Finally, after pulling the goalie, the Stars were able to put one in the back of the net with 40 seconds left. The American Airlines Center went absolutely nuts. The fans were screaming and there was this intense energy that filled the building. It didn’t last long though as the Kings went down the ice in 17 seconds to score the game winner. I have never heard a crowd go silent so quickly before.
The good thing about this game is I wasn’t invested in it. When a fan witnesses something like that in person, it quickly changes the mood of the game from good to bad. It was a quiet car ride home.
After taking a few days off, we decided to head back to the Dallas sports circuit. On Wednesday my friend and I headed up to Arlington to check out the two adjacent stadiums.
Rangers Park in Arlington is one of the nicest new stadiums I have ever been to. Plus it offered tours, which was a nice bonus. Since we had a monotone tour guide, who had no personality, and many points of interest, such as the locker room, were off limits, it was a waste of $10. It wasn’t a total waste though, I did get to see the underground lot where Ranger players park.
Luckily Cowboy Stadium, also known as Jerry Land, made up for what the Rangers left out. The $1.3 billion complex was simply amazing to walk around. Everything about the stadium seemed interesting and had some sort of story behind it that made it special. For example, the huge television hung above the field is made up by one foot by one foot screens that are jam packed with pixels to ensure a screen that big has crystal clear picture. It also costs $600 an hour to operate. My favorite part of the Cowboys tour was Jerry Jones’ private suite. While looking around, I saw a phone with numbers programmed into speed dial. The top two were listed as “Coach’s Office” and “Home Sideline.” I felt somewhat bad for what Jason Garrett will have to go through once the lockout is settled.
The next day marked another day at the AAC as the Stars took on the Chicago Blackhawks. My first 10 years were spent living in Chicago and my first Hawks game was in Dallas, go figure.
With winning a championship comes bandwagon fans; it’s just one of the facts of sports. The Blackhawks of course drew the bandwagon crowd. To entertain us before the game started, I would go up to fans that I assumed to be bandwagon fans and question them about their Hawk knowledge. The catch was, I knew nothing about the Hawks history so I used people from “The Wire” as made up players. It went something along the lines of this.
“Hey do you remember the old right winger Jimmy McNulty?”
“Yea, I think so?”
“He was number 53 on the ’97 team. He was on Chelios’ line.”
“Oh yeah I definitely remember him.” They definitely did not.
Since Chicago is such a popular team, the crowd was split somewhat 50/50. When this happens one of two things occurs, either it becomes a home game for the away team as their crowd is simply louder, or the home crowd gets so fired up that they make it a point to be louder than the fan next to them. Dallas fans responded in the rowdiest way possible. As soon as they scored the first goal, they erupted in a tremendous roar and silenced the Chicago “fans.” The final score was 5-0 in favor of Dallas, and Stars fans made sure invaders heard about every goal, especially the goal Marty Turco let up where he was caught 50 feet out of the goal.
The final night I was in Big D was the one I was most excited for, as I got to see the Spurs take on the Mavs. No wait, scratch that, it was Los Spurs versus Los Mavs. The matchup featured something I hadn’t seen since I went to the Chicago Bulls vs. Miami Heat games on Christmas in Chicago, a true rivalry with a true playoff feel to it.
In addition to the playoff feel, the game offered two of the best forwards of all time as Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan faced off but could not have been more different.
The Big Fundamental had been on my bucket list of NBA players to see and with his career gradually slowing down, this was one of my last chances to see him play at such a high level. The way he did everything, from picks to help defense, just seemed perfect. It wasn’t anything flashy but it was all necessary and executed to perfection. Unfortunately, with the Spurs looking to coast to the number one seed in the Western Conference, Duncan’s minutes were limited.
Dirk on the other hand has always been somewhat of a flashy player. With his patented “180-spin while jumping off one foot while fading away” jumper, he is essentially unstoppable. It was crazy to see a shot like that go in. It doesn’t even look like he’s aiming but somehow it always went in. It was amazing to see. It also showed how much Dirk loved being an NBA player. During timeouts the jumbotron would almost always show Nowitizki doing something goofy and hilarious. From having him and Jason Terry singing along to “Use Your Love” or his rock video “Take Dat Wit Chew,” which can be found on YouTube, it showed Dirk has a great time being an NBA superstar. The game was tightly contested but Los Spurs ran away with it in the end as they defeated Los Mavs.
Although Dallas isn’t mentioned as one of the more passionate sports cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Boston, they have great fans and good teams. They always seem to be competitive and fighting for the playoffs, and most of their fans seem very loyal. I mean, one would have to be to sit and watch a Ranger game in 120+ degree heat in the middle of July.
The final night I was in Big D was the one I was most excited for, as I got to see the Spurs take on the Mavs. No wait, scratch that, it was Los Spurs versus Los Mavs. The matchup featured something I hadn’t seen since I went to the Chicago Bulls vs. Miami Heat games on Christmas in Chicago, a true rivalry with a true playoff feel to it.
In addition to the playoff feel, the game offered two of the best forwards of all time as Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan faced off but could not have been more different.
The Big Fundamental had been on my bucket list of NBA players to see and with his career gradually slowing down, this was one of my last chances to see him play at such a high level. The way he did everything, from picks to help defense, just seemed perfect. It wasn’t anything flashy but it was all necessary and executed to perfection. Unfortunately, with the Spurs looking to coast to the number one seed in the Western Conference, Duncan’s minutes were limited.
Dirk on the other hand has always been somewhat of a flashy player. With his patented “180-spin while jumping off one foot while fading away” jumper, he is essentially unstoppable. It was crazy to see a shot like that go in. It doesn’t even look like he’s aiming but somehow it always went in. It was amazing to see. It also showed how much Dirk loved being an NBA player. During timeouts the jumbotron would almost always show Nowitizki doing something goofy and hilarious. From having him and Jason Terry singing along to “Use Your Love” or his rock video “Take Dat Wit Chew,” which can be found on YouTube, it showed Dirk has a great time being an NBA superstar. The game was tightly contested but Los Spurs ran away with it in the end as they defeated Los Mavs.
Although Dallas isn’t mentioned as one of the more passionate sports cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Boston, they have great fans and good teams. They always seem to be competitive and fighting for the playoffs, and most of their fans seem very loyal. I mean, one would have to be to sit and watch a Ranger game in 120+ degree heat in the middle of July.
Chris Thelin can be contacted at cthelin@keeneequinox.com
