God Dammit! Are You Talking About My Heart. Like It’s Something You Could Break

The Memphis Tigers are in the Final Four for the first time since 1985. I moved from Buffalo to Memphis in 1991. Graduated from the University of Memphis in 2000. And in that time I never truly became a Tiger fan until this year. Before you yell “Bandwagon!”, please let me defend myself.

The sports teams of my youth have caused me enough pain. Let me enumerate:

Buffalo Bills

Wide right!! That should explain enough. But there are three more Super Bowl losses to consider. The Redskins. The Cowboys x2 (those two Super Bowls just run together). Somewhere in there my family stopped going to Super Bowl parties. The Music City Miracle. (Why Wade Phillips benched Doug Flutie for Rob Johnson I’ll never understand. But I count my blessings now Phillips coaches the Cowboys). And the general malaise that has infected the Bills since Jim Kelly retired.

Buffalo Sabres

No Goal! Odd how four words (no goal and wide right) can conjure up such painful memories. 1999 Stanley Cup Finals. Game 6. Triple OT. Brett Hull, skate in the crease, as he scores the Cup winning goal. All year long goals were disallowed when a opposing skate was inside of the crease before the puck. Oh, and the NHL has instant replay to prevent travesties like this. I don’t care if Wayne Gretzky says it’s a goal. It wasn’t.* The Sabres teased me last year and the year before by making it to the conference finals, only to lose Chris Drury and Daniel Briere as free agents this past off-season… on the same day!

*Not sure if it was during the 1999 playoff run or another one, but Miroslav Satan (pronounced Sha-tan) provided one of the best sports lines headlines ever. After scoring the game winning goal, the next day’s head line read “Satan Lifts Sabres to Victory”. I cannot believe I threw away that clipping.

New York Yankees

OK you may say “But the Yankees win all the time. They’re the Evil Empire!”. Remember from the early 80s till 1994 the Yankees absolutely sucked! I saw Tommy John commit three errors on one play. The Yankees started Rick Rhoden at DH for a game (he was a pitcher!).  Stump Merril and Dallas Green were managers. Before Derek Jeter at shortstop we have (working backwards): Tony Fernandez (OPS+ 75), Mike Gallego (OPS+80), Spike Owen (OPS+ 66), Andy Stankiewicz (OPS+ 93, ok not too bad but he was ANDY STANKIEWICZ!), and Alvaro Espinoza (OPS+ 73). A league average OPS+ is 100. So 1996-2000 was amazing. But since 2000 there have been a few bumps. I still feign amnesia when asked about October of 2004.

New York Yankees/Buffalo Bills

On Monday October 8, 2007, I received a double dose of sports induced emotional trauma. I arrived at my favorite bar just in time to see my beloved Yankees get bounced from the playoffs. About a half-hour later i get to see the Buffalo Bills completely blow a nine point lead to the hated Cowboys in the final five minute. The smokers outpost outside the bar is permanently dented now. Luckily i was wearing steel toe shoes.

Now we arrive at Saturday February 16th, I’m sitting at a bar having a couple of beers. Just killing time. The Tigers’ game isn’t on since this bar only has satellite TV (the game was only on Comcast cable). No big deal. I was alone. All the sports bars were packed. And besides the Tigers were playing UAB. It was going to be another cakewalk. I kept up with the score on the ticker and on my phone. Five minutes to go, UAB is up and I realize I HAVE TO see the end of the game. I walk to the nearest sports bar. Two minutes left. Antonio Anderson hits a three and cuts UAB’s lead to 4. Chris-Douglas Roberts nails another three. Down 1 with 39 seconds left. We foul. UAB makes one free throw. CDR ties the game on a jumper. Foul. CDR free throw. Up by one 7 seconds left and UAB’s prayer is unanswered. All the while I am biting my nails, fist pumping, and “Yes!”ing with the rest of the fans. Walking out of the bar, stunned by the comeback i had I had just witnessed, I realize something: I am a Tigers fan.

I have long felt that Memphis and Buffalo were very similar cities. Both blue-collar. Memphis a two-fisted river town. Buffalo a trying-to-hang on Rust-Belt city. Both overshadowed by more cosmopolitan cities in the same state: NYC and Nashville. Both smaller market teams, whose fan loyalty has never been questioned (we’ll ignore the Grizzlies, the Tigers were here first). Buffalo sports teams get a bad rap because they can’t win the big one. The Tigers get no respect because they play in C-USA and not the SEC. In short underdog cities.

As I walked out of the sports bar that night the Gunslinger might have said to me: “You have forgotten the face of your father”. If anything I believe in the underdog. It is the lost causes that are worth fighting for. And I believe for years I denied my Tiger fandom. Four Super Bowl losses in a row. A Stanley Cup stolen. A decade of futility and a historic playoff collapse. I didn’t want to endure any more sports induced agony. I cannot deny it any longer. I will not forget the face of my father. I am a Tiger fan. And though I may have realized this while they are at the top. I do not give out my fandom capriciously. I am now stuck with the Tigers, through thick and thin.

The first Tiger game I was able to watch in its entirety as a fan was their loss to Tennessee the next week.