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In case you haven’t noticed, the month of August is a pretty boring one for hockey fans. Most teams have locked in their personal for the approaching season and training camp is still a ways into the future.
However, instead of wallowing in pity and mellon collie, there is a way for Blues fans to get their hockey fix (albeit a momentary one). Renew your subscription to the paper edition of St Louis Game Time.
“What!?” you say. “I didn’t know there is a paper edition of St Louis Game Time.” Yep, it is a 23 year tradition sold outside each and every Blues home game. It is a 24 page program/magazine/paper written for the fans by the fans.
It contains commentary/rants about your favorite NHL hockey team written by the same people that contribute to this website, plus many more. There is a section dedicated strictly to the Blues prospects as well as a couple pages filled with all the #fancystats you can handle. We even have a resident beer aficionado who gives you her recommendations for every game.
Can’t make it to every Blues home game? Don’t worry we got you covered. For the low, low price of 82 dollars you can have a digital copy of Game Time delivered directly to your inbox the morning of every home game.
That’s right, you can read a copy of Game Time while lounging in your underwear (not that you’re in to that sort of thing) or at work (we won’t tell your boss) or while driving the kids to school (probably shouldn’t do that last one). All you have to do is email gtbradlee@gmail.com and tell him that @JMblues83 sent you, he’ll take it from there.
You like reading about your favorite hockey team written by fans just like yourself? Email Brad Lee and subscribe.
You want to keep up on what is happening in the Blues farm system? Email Brad Lee and subscribe.
You love #fancystats and can’t get enough of them? Email Brad Lee and subscribe.
You love beer (I mean, who doesn’t)? Email Brad Lee and subscribe.
Want to become rich and famous? Email Brad Lee and subscribe and then, you know, go get a job or something.
In all seriousness, I used to be just like you. There was a time when I didn’t know that Game Time even existed, much less read a copy. I had seen someone selling something outside the Scottrade Center but to be honest I just assumed it was some kind of cheesy program the club was selling. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Eventually, after a month of trying, one of my friends finally talked me into reading this weird paper that someone had given to him at the hockey game.
It was crazy and awesome and weird all rolled into one paper/magazine/program. It was unlike anything I had ever read before yet somehow eerily familiar.
Did they really just drop the f-bomb in a paper? Are they really questioning the talent of some of the players just like I do? Did they really just criticize the coach like I had the night before? Why eleven instead of ten? (subscribe and you’ll understand that last joke).
From that moment on I was hooked. I got myself a digital subscription and never missed a paper. The more I read the more I wanted to read.
Then one night, during intermission, I finally got to meet some of the contributors. And they were so cool. They didn’t brush me off or try to ignore me. They introduced themselves and welcomed me into their group.
They didn’t talk down to me or try to make me feel inferior. They asked me questions and honestly listened to my answers. It was unlike anything I had witnessed before.
They more I hung around them the more I noticed that they were all like that. Everyone who was associated with Game Time acted very much the same. Funny, intelligent, intense, drunk. They were more than just a group of hockey fans, they were a family.
And that is when I began to realize that Game Time is more than just a paper. It is more than just a website and it is more than just a twitter account. It is an idea. It is a state of mind.
It’s the belief that a group of like minded people can get together and make the sport they love that much better.
It’s the state of mind that everyone, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, whatever, is welcome at our table. They only requirement being an indescribable love for our home town hockey team and its fan run paper.
And that is what I really hope you take away from this.
The people who are a part of Game Time, the publishers, the writers, the vendors, the subscribers, they aren’t a part of this thing simply for themselves. They are carrying on a tradition.
In someway, at some point in their life this paper touched them. It made a difference. And this is their way of giving something back.
I look at it like this: There are certain moments in my life when I can look back and say that I wasn’t something until I suddenly was. I was a kid until I was an adult. I wasn’t a father until I was. I wasn’t a Game Timer until I was.
Please, email Brad Lee and subscribe. You won’t regret it.
Thanks for reading. And thanks for supporting Game Time.