- . Digg It
- . Sphere It
- . E-mail This
- . Save to del.icio.us
- . Permanent Link
Beneath the Underdog
Fresno State and Turkey provided unexpected summer pleasures
This week's new ESPN slow summer buzz-phrase, right on the heels of "Tell me how my ass tastes," turned to "Fresno State is the Turkey of the College World Series." And deep in the second half of Wednesday's Euro Cup semi-final match I hoped not. The college that unleashed me and the birthplace of my fiancée, seemed tethered. Even though Turkey had not surrendered the goal that would take it out of the running for Euro Cup title contention I sensed the worst was coming. Germany's aggressive offense and the Turks' shortage of players due to injury and suspension gave every reason to expect defeat.
With the final game of the Fresno State-Georgia College World Series Final only hours away, my future and past felt inextricably connected. "Respiration" played over an eclectic mix tape while Germans on TV celebrated in a circumspect fashion.
I know, from both literature and personal experience, that the Turkish are something like comfortable with melancholy, so I didn't trip a bunch off the loss. I felt grateful, actually. The Cup has finally made me something like comfortable with international football. As a child I played a little, and I had a wormhole experience with the game in college, working as a sports correspondent for the Fresno Bee: A girls playoff game, in Bakersfield, ran late. This was in, like, the winter of 1988, before cell phones and laptops and all that good shit. The game ran late, I phoned my editor from a Carl's Jr. along Highway 99. "You got 20 minutes!" said Jerry, my editor, and I scribbled out a story in my reporter's notebook before dictating it back to the sports desk. The resulting narrative ended up being one of my better clips from the school years. That was great, but it's not the same as having a visceral connection to the sport. Now I got that. Gimme Spain to take the whole thing.
With the final game of the Fresno State-Georgia College World Series Final only hours away, my future and past felt inextricably connected. "Respiration" played over an eclectic mix tape while Germans on TV celebrated in a circumspect fashion.
I know, from both literature and personal experience, that the Turkish are something like comfortable with melancholy, so I didn't trip a bunch off the loss. I felt grateful, actually. The Cup has finally made me something like comfortable with international football. As a child I played a little, and I had a wormhole experience with the game in college, working as a sports correspondent for the Fresno Bee: A girls playoff game, in Bakersfield, ran late. This was in, like, the winter of 1988, before cell phones and laptops and all that good shit. The game ran late, I phoned my editor from a Carl's Jr. along Highway 99. "You got 20 minutes!" said Jerry, my editor, and I scribbled out a story in my reporter's notebook before dictating it back to the sports desk. The resulting narrative ended up being one of my better clips from the school years. That was great, but it's not the same as having a visceral connection to the sport. Now I got that. Gimme Spain to take the whole thing.
What People Are Saying…
Leave a Comment
09:55 EDT, 27.Jun.08
03:18 EDT, 27.Jun.08