it has been an incredible year for me. at least as far as sports are concerned. actually, somewhat unbelievable, to be honest. let's recap...
on january 8th of this year, my favorite football team, the florida gators, beat the oklahoma sooners 24-14 to win the bcs championship. the year was off to a really good start. but it got better...
less than a month later, the steelers wrapped up in an incredible season by winning super bowl 43 and raising the trophy for a sixth time. a dramatic game that came right down to the wire, this superbowl made me feel so blessed to be a fan of a great franchise. i even remember saying to shannon that this just might be my year....
and this week completed the hat trick for me as the yankees won the world series of the philadelphia phillies. as i refleced on what an amazing sports year its been for me, and how rarely the planets must align for this kind of thing to happen, it occured to me that many of you may doubt my real fanmanship (new word) of these teams. i mean, the gators are good right now, so i could have easily jumped on that bandwagon. i don't think anyone doubts my love of the steelers, but some may wonder about about my affection for the yankees. so, in order to silence any potential critics who may accuse me of jumping on the a bandwagon for this amazing ride of a year, i did some research in the milinovich archives and dug up a few gems, which i like to call exhibits a, b, and c. firstly:
if you can get past the stunning good looks, you'll see that i'm wearing a florida gators hat. that is actually my favorite hat of all time. i still have it, only now it is basically gray. this hat is the reason i love the color orange. this is a picture from early in the 90's, and indicates that i have liked the gators since i was in high school (thanks to rick, who was a mentor of mine and a huge gator fan). so that's the gators, what about the steelers?
i don't really need to defend this one. i grew up in western pennsylvania. even though i left that area for awhile as a teenager, and then again as an adult, it is clear that my blood is black and gold. if you question my real fanaticism for the steelers, watch this. but what about the new york yankees?
now, as you can see in this picture from 1993, i am ice skating (which means i'm in public) and i'm wearing a yankee shirt. i was also wearing a yankee hat, but you'll have to take my word for that. this took place at an ice skating rink in lexington ky, where i lived at the time. in 1993, the yankees hadn't won a championship in 15 years, or since i was 2 years old. so, i wasn't a bandwagon fan. i was a high school kid in kentucky (not a lot of yankee-lovers in bluegrass country) who liked a team that was not winning. i loved the yankees mostly because i loved baseball, and baseball history, and i read everything i could about the greats of the game, so many of whom were yankees. plus, i loved don mattingly and the way he played the game with passion and integrity.
so now that i've defended myself, let me be. let me revel in what must be the greatest sports year ever (i'm not a huge hockey fan, but i generally support the pittsburgh penguins, and they won the stanley cup this year, just as a bonus gift). i still can't believe it, and know that it will likely never happen again, but, at least for now, i'm one of the luckiest, happiest fans ever.
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