Tuesdays With Hildy: Letters to the Homefront

back when I was a fairly new Blues fan. Ya see I lived in the Washington DC metro area for 3 years and discovered hockey there, then moved to St. Louis and immediately became a Blues fan.

I went back to DC to see my original team (the CAPs) take on MY new team (the Blues) IN DC.
I proudly wore my new Blues sweater (or is it now officially a jersey?)….

Anyway, it wasn’t “packed” that night and we were sitting in the lower bowl area. Well, the Blues scored (of course) and I of course forgot where I was. I jumped up and cheered JUST LIKE I was at the drinkscotch center. It was really quite and I looked down a few rows in front of me. Looking back at me .. er.. scowling back at me was this 10 or 11 year old boy giving me his most mean look he could muster. I was actually surprised and almost laughed.

I can still picture his little face trying to be as hateful looking as it could be. Ahh.. ..

and on a slightly more fun experience, I LOVED being “that guy” along with all “those guys” while cheering on our beloved Blues in Sweden. We were quite the posse (am I allowed to say “posse” as a forty year old?) there in Sweden.

i have been to most of the blues games in dallas since they moved from minnesota, i have to say other than having nacho cheese wiped on my cujo jersey and having ice cubes thrown at us, which missed and hit a cop, it’s always (for the most part) been fun trash talking between the fans, we used to be pretty bad tho, back in the day shoe polishing my car “honk if u hate the stars” and arriving early just so 4 of us could chant Belfooouur at eddie as he pulled into the parking lot…..good times..

the poll doesnt even apply for me though because opening day i had to go to my cousins wedding (dont worry i taped the game and watched it right when i got home) and i wore this tie that was a black tie with blue and yellow stripes all over it and a big blue note in the middle lol it was awesome

to heckle guest fan. I’ve amended my hotdog with extra mustard throwing ways of my youth, it’s all verbal now. Well most of the time, them Blackhawk jerseys set me off like fire did to the monster in Young Frankenstein.

Your team is your team. If your fellow STH’s don’t get it . . . well, they don’t get it. Fuck ’em.

After Sean O’Donnell bashed Courts and gave the Blues a 5 minute major PP and the Note pulled off the most unreal playoff comeback I’ve ever seen, I went to work the next day and spent all morning trying to get tickets for Game 4: the sweeper.

I made my 47-month pregnant wife ride down to LA and go to the game in their old arena with me. I had my Blues jersey in the car, but given the fact that I didn’t want my 47-month pregnant wife to be accosted, I left it in the car. We sat next to a couple of hardcore season ticket holders and after the Blues scored the first goal and we gave each other a covert “low-five,” they turned to us and said, “Oh, great.”

He then proceeded to tell us about the Blues fan who had been at Game Three down on the glass and had been so excited and celebratory that he had to be escorted to his car by the cops.

That guy was awesome in my book, but I wasn’t ready for that level of confrontation. We kept it to low-fives and not celebrating too much as we walked back to our car. But we were still psyched and it’s a memory we still talk about.

I mean, if I could rite gud and stufff.

My adoption of the Blues as my “second” team came about living in Missouri and being surrounded by Blues fans for so long. It’s just unfortunate that the second team is a divisional rival- something that earns me shit from fans on both sides. Either way, 76 games a year I want a Blues victory. Those other 6… Not so much.

As far as conduct when a visiting fan, I tread a line. I yell and cheer and such, but tend to avoid turning around yelling “FUCK (insert home team here)” flipping the bird times two. I think being of vocal supporter of your team is okay on the road, but trashing your hosts is pretty classless.

and plan on going to as many ‘Hawks games as possible just because it’s hockey. I will [obviously] never wear their sweater much less even cheer on their team. Also, having lived away from St. Louis for almost 2 years now, I’ve taken to making my own T-Ravs. Basically all you need is ravioli, eggs, breadcrumbs, and an oven.

Having only ever seen the Blues on away ice (I know I know. My attempt for this year already seems to have fallen through and it kills me) I have seen them several times at the closest arena to me in Buffalo. I route and cheer and stand when they score. I wear my jersey and have never run into any problems. However I also never bad mouth the opposing team and if they do something good I will usually turn to whomever is sitting next to me and give them a little “damn that was a great move he just made” or something.

I also kind of have a number 2 team since my wife is a fan of another team and I end up watch almost as many Ranger games as I do Blues and you can’t help but start to like a team after watching them so much. If the heavens align and they face each other for the cup I don’t know if my marriage will survive.

have multiple minor league and defunct jersey i wear to the games i usually have to check myself from wearing the other teams affiliation or city. never wear the chicago wolves jersey to a hawks game, or thrashers, but really since my cockatoo ate one of the wolf’s eyes i don’t wear it much period.

but overall i think you gotta know your opponent too, you don’t wear yankees uniform in philadelphia this week and expect not to have to engage in fisticuffs.

I’m still a few hours away from Denver, but the guy down the hall is a hawks fan so we’re trying to get tickets for Fridays Avs v Hawks game so I can go boo the Hawks. I do know that my hockey buddies from St. Louis are flying into Denver in March for the Blues/Avs matchup. Much beer will be had by all as we represent the Blues, probably from the nosebleeds but still we’ll be there.

As far as being dickholes about it in the Pepsi center? I don’t forsee it happening, we’ll be loud, but not obnoxious.