So as many of you may know I am a huge sports fan. I love watching sports on television but there is nothing like watching sports in person. There is so much more to watch when you are at an event. I enjoy going to professional games but I think I enjoy going to minor league/college games even more. And that is what I wanted to talk about in this blog.
I have nothing against going to pro games. The level of play is amazing no matter what sport it is, and a lot of cities take pride in their teams and the cities identity is connected to their pro sports teams. But I wish people would support the lower leagues and colleges in their city like they do the pro teams. That is where you will see the real love of a sport. Whether its the college kid trying to get drafted or just trying to get an education while playing the game they love or the guy who spends 15 years in the minor leagues just trying to get a call up to his MLB team. And I don't count major college football or college basketball because those have the same feel as a professional game. I am talking about going to watch your local Double A baseball team in front of a crowd of maybe 1,000 people or going to watch your local college play a girls softball game in front of 50 people.
My first experience with minor league/college sports was when I lived in Omaha. We used to go to a bunch of Omaha Royals(AAA baseball) and University of Nebraska, Omaha(Div-1 Hockey) games. They were always so much fun. No matter if it was a sellout, which normally only happened once or twice a year, or if there were a couple thousand people there. I loved how the players tried hard every night, not because of money, but because they loved playing their sport.
Now living in Las Vegas I have a lot of minor league/university sports to watch. Here we have UNLV, Las Vegas Wranglers(AA hockey) and Las Vegas 51's(AAA baseball). I have attended UNLV mens soccer games with 20 people in the stand and UNLV baseball games with less. They are still great games and if you are a true sports fan you will love them for their simplicity and you see how much it means for the players just to be out there playing the game they love.
And minor league sports have things that you will never see at the professional level. I was at the Las Vegas Wranglers game last night and the opposing team from Florida did not have a back up goalie for the game. So they had to get one from the local area. And who did they choose? A guy who is a Neil Diamond impersonator who sings the national anthem at our games sometimes. Not kidding. And the funny part is he has done this before. We have had to use him as our back up before too. That's the kind of fun and craziness that goes on. The minor leagues have a history of doing fun things. The bring your pets to the game, Star Wars games, dollar beer and dollar hot dog nights, and tons of other promotional nights. Those were all done in the minor leagues to get fans interested. You see those now happening in the major league sports.
So what I am saying is try and go support teams other than the professionals. You will see a difference but that's good. It's sports at its purist form. Plus the tickets are way cheaper. I hope everyone liked this blog and I hope to see you at the ballpark sometime.
No comments:
Post a Comment