Big Mike Curran

Today I wanted to talk a bit about my Dad Mike Curran, it was his influence that led me to be such a sports fan. Some of my first memories as a kid was going to the old Busch Stadium in St.Louis, MO for opening day of St. Louis Cardinals baseball. Back then before the days of Stub Hub or Ticketmaster he had to stand in line in the middle of December to buy tickets at the ticket window at the stadium. He was also a season ticket holder to the Big Red, or the St.Louis Football Cardinals. I remember his tickets were in the bleachers in the top row, and my Grandma and Grandpa Curran had season tickets in the next section over. So for a few years before the Cardinals left St. Louis I would go down to the game with him to see the Cowboys, Redskins, and other great teams of the 80's. Those games taught me the game of football and that you need to be a fan of a team no matter how bad they are, because the St. Louis Cardinals were not that good back at that time. After the Cardinals left STL we continued to go to the STL Cardinals baseball games every summer. We always sat in my favorite section of the park the Bleachers, still to this day if I'm going to a baseball game I always want to sit in the Bleachers.

In the early nineties he started another tradition of going to the Indianapolis 500. This experience is like no other in the world. To see all of those people in the stands and the cars traveling at 200 mph it's quite an experience. Since 1993 I have been to every race except for the 2005 race. Thanks to Big Mike I can continue the tradition, keep the tickets in the family, and take my children to the race just like my Dad did.

Last year on November 28th 2008 my Dad passed away. It was a hard time for everyone in the family. At his service I delivered the eulogy and I felt honored to be able to do that. Even though it was a sad time for everyone I focused on the fact that he got to go to, the Indy 500 one more time in 2008, see the Cardinals win a World Series Championship in 2006, and got to see the Apple Cup Washington State v Washington one more time a week before he passed away. All of these events and teams were close to him and he loved to go to each of them whenever he could. Big Mike was a sports fan his whole life and now I know he is up there watching sports with hid Dad Norman Curran.

In closing I just wanted to thank Big Mike for teaching me about sports, taking me to live sporting events, and being the best Dad a son could ask for.

Awsome Ending.

Click on the link below to see a sweet ending to a High School football game between Webster Groves and Chaminade two schools outside of St. Louis, MO. All I know is that prevent defense will be practiced at one school over and over again next fall. Thanks to You Tube people now all over the world can see awesome endings like this that before only people at the game would of been able to see. Just another media to support the art of watching sports. Sports Observer Monthly wants to give credit to my brother Joe out of Denver, CO for the heads up on this clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lrdDxxtyVU&feature=related#watch-main-area

Black Friday!

Sports Observer Monthly hopes everyone had a good Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully it was full of food and average NFL games. If you went out this am to get the best deal on the flat screen TV good for you since College Bowl season is starting up, college basketball is going, and every NFL game is starting to matter except for that St. Louis Rams V Seattle Seahawks game on Sunday. Enjoy the games this weekend and don't worry about the caloric intake until Monday because this is the best weekend for food and watching sports on TV.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sports Observer Monthly wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving! Now a few thoughts about the biggest aspect about Thanksgiving besides the food the Football. Every year the NFL takes center stage at homes across the country during the fourth Thursday in November. Every year two teams play on that day without question the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys. Now I'm all for tradition but I think this is one tradition that needs to be changed. The Lions SUCK! They went 0 and 16 last year and this year they are not fairing any better they are 2 and 8, and the Rams lone win is against the Lions. Now their opponent is Green Bay which has a OK record of 6 and 4. So the combined record in that game is 8 wins 12 loses. Not a game that makes people on the west coast to get up early to watch those two teams turnover the ball and play average football. The second game of the day is Dallas v Oakland Raiders. Dallas has been playing better as of late but they are playing the Raiders who SUCK too! The Raiders are 3 and 7 this year but have benched their starting QB and are going with a guy named Bruce Gadaskowski. Dallas is a respectable 7 and 3 but most of those wins have come against the bottom teams in the NFL. So the combined record in this tilt is 10 up and 10 down. This game makes silent football at my Aunt Doris and Uncle Dick's house on Thanksgiving Day seem fine because who would want to listen to this game anyway. The only thing that is going to come out of this game is more praise for Tony Romo and he is really not that good. Now on to the third game and anyone who is still after watching the first two games must still be in a coma after all the food they consumed that afternoon. It match's Denver v NY Giants. Now on paper this looks like a good match up to end the day, but Sports Observer Monthly is going to go one level deeper and look at the last ten games combined. In the last ten games combined these teams are 1 and 9 with Denver losing 4 in a row and the Giants having their own 4 game losing streak before beating Atlanta last weekend. So with two teams spiraling downward the final game is good for putting you to sleep after a turkey sandwich.

In changing who plays on Thanksgiving Day. The NFL needs to come up with a system that rotates all teams into the mix and provides the viewing public a great NFL match up on Thanksgiving Day. First either Dallas or Detroit should play every year so that's easy each team will play every other year and that will keep some tradition alive. Then the top four teams from last years playoffs will play and the final spot will rotate between the teams that did not make the playoffs. After that who cares who plays who because any way you slice it a good game will happen if four of last years playoff teams are in the mix. Hell anything would be better than Detroit v Green Bay, Dallas v Oakland and NY Giants v Denver. It has to change since watching football on Thanksgiving Day is a tradition and the NFL needs to make that tradition even better with great games.

A tip if you want to watch a great football game tomorrow look in on Texas v Texas A&M, now that's going to be a game. Again have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving from Sports Observer Monthly!

Iggy's Layton, UT

Now it's time to get down to the business of the blog( Observing Sports on TV). On Sunday afternoon 11/22/2009 Tina and I went to Iggy's in Layton, UT. Now the first thing is that I had to call ahead to see if my games would be on Rams v Cardinals and Jets v Pats (Tina is a Jets fan because of #6 Mark Sanchez). If where you are going to watch games at on Sunday is a true sports bar they will have the game on and there is no need for a call ahead. Still since they were going to have the games on we headed up to take in the afternoon action. We got there about 1:45pm about 20 minutes before kickoff. As I expected on a Sunday afternoon in Layton, UT the place was not crowded at all. The hostess checked again to see if the games were going to be on and then sat us at a booth to the side of the bar. At initial glance there is only 5 TVs in the whole restaurant, and from my perch I could only see two of them. Still we were there to see our two games of interest.

The menu at Iggy's is pretty big with lots of different options. They had about eight different apps, a full list of burgers, a full page of different sandwich's, and many different entree options. So if you have a big appetite it's the place to go. Since we had a birthday party to go to we just decided to get a couple of apps. We decided to go with the cheese fries first. They came out and they were crispy and hot, and there were no green onions on it as we asked. Overall they were pretty good, but the cheese fries that went to the table next to us looked better than ours. Next we ordered some nachos. They were about the same as you would get at any other sports bar in the country nothing too special. In the end we were happy with what we ordered.

Now you can't have an afternoon of football without a few cold beverages. Iggy's had two sizes of draft beers 16oz and 25oz, a wide selections of bottled beer, a full list of liquor drinks, and your usual soda, tea, flavored lemonade, and coffee. I went with the 25oz draft of Bud Light. The mug was not chilled which did not make the beer as cold as it should of been. Still for the price of $6.00 for 25oz it was not all bad. After two 25oz drafts I finished off the afternoon with a 16oz of Watasch Hefeweizen. Now that glass was cold and the beer was very refreshing especially with the slice of lemon squeezed into it. The total liquor bill came out to $16.00 which isn't too bad for an afternoon at the sports bar.

Now for a few positives and negatives of Iggy's. The positives first cheap beer, good cheese fries, and that the manager came over to our table to make sure the games we wanted were on the TV. The negatives were that I had to call ahead to make sure our games were on, no sound of any game, average nachos, and the limited number of TVs.

In the end Iggy's would be good for a Monday night game or a playoff game, but not good for the sports fan who wants to watch all the early games to keep track of not just their game but all the games.

Welcome Sports Fans

Welcome one and all to a blog dedicated to the art of watching sports on TV. Since the launch of ESPN back in the 80's sports on TV has been a huge part of the fabric of American culture. Every week and weekend people get in front of the flat screen and watch their favorite team on TV. This time allows us to get away from the daily grind and get lost in the beautiful game of football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and for some at the Cash house in West Haven, UT soccer.

This blog will be dedicacted to all things sports on TV. In the coming weeks and months there will be reviews of different sports bars, reviews of different beers for at home enjoyment, a section on home viewing, different recipes for your at home viewing party, and many other aspects of watching sports on TV.

All for now and look out for my review of Iggy's in Layton, UT and enjoy Monday night football where ever you may be.