Two Decades Ago We Were in High School

When I was in grade school our history books were filled with things that happened 20 years ago.  Ancient history.  JFK, Vietnam, Martin Luther King, the fucking Beatles.  Well, we are in them now.  We are old.  We are our parents.  Don't fight it.  Enjoy it.
Our kids will sit in class and open their text books and we will be in there.  Pictures of us in the stands wearing "Memorial Knows How to Party" t-shirts, drunk on Busch Light and Southern Comfort celebrating a sectional championship, or sitting in the parking lot of McDonalds...drunk on Busch Light and OE 40s.  Or at float building...drunk on Boone's Farm and anything we could get our hands on.  There will be pictures of Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Sega Genesis.  There might even be a picture of KG driving us around in the sled on a Friday night.

I don't know what you picture when you think of a 20 year reunion.  Maybe you picture Grosse Pointe Blank and Brown Eyed Girl playing as all the 38 year old mothers we used to remember as the 18 year olds in short skirts and white button ups and knee socks go running onto the cafeteria dance floor.  Maybe its a night of uncomfortable conversations with people you once knew, but haven't talked to for 20 years on purpose.  Maybe its catching up with good people you haven't talked to in 20 years just because life is busy as fuck and doesn't stop moving.  Whatever it is, I hope we all go, and I hope we drink a ton, and I hope its a great time.  We will all say "goodbye, I'll see you in 20 years".  And everybody will laugh, because it will be true.

I had fun in high school, but I think I had more fun with my high school friends in those years that followed.

The Sun Sets On Indiana is happy to be back.

NYE MUSIC---ALCOHOL

Heres the first video from NYE music night.  Probably the highlight of the evening.
ALCOHOL

Hooooooosiers!!!!

I will first say that, in the arena of watching sports on television, there isn't a better feeling than when one of your teams scores a winning basket, a winning run, or a go ahead touchdown.  When genuine excitement holds your body hostage and you leap around the room like you played an intrical part in the teams victory.  Its 2 hours of very focused, bottled up nervousness reaching a boiling point that manifests into a childlike stomp, shout, jog around your dining room table as the buzzer sounds. 

Tom Crean--the weirdest look a coach has ever had after a game winner

Indiana basketball has been dead for years.  Dead since 2000.  There has been success since then, but everyone who knows Indiana basketball knows it has been dead since Coach Knight was forced out after the 2000 season.  Davis was bad.  He had success with Knight's players.  Sampson was crooked.  Crean was maybe just what we needed.  Three god awful seasons (27-66) would make us think otherwise, until a 9-0 start and the best win the school has had since beating Duke in 2002.  We wanted someone great again and talked ourselves into believing that he was the right guy.  I wasn't convinced until Saturday.

Honestly, for the last 3 years I could hardly call myself a true fan.  I tried to watch a couple games a year and each time I found myself flipping to almost anything more interesting, like an SVU episode I could recite line for line.  I try not to call people fair weather fans after those three seasons because they were unwatchable and its almost impossible to stay on the bandwagon unless you have a son or a nephew on the team.

Life seems to be a little better with the Hoosiers in the top 20.  Waiting for ND football to join the National Champion discussion again, but I'm not holding my breath.
Thanks to Greg for this clip.  I can watch it over and over again.

Christmastime is Here

December 1 starts a month long celebration of the greatest time of the year.  Second place is a distant second.  You can talk about the end of March with March Madness and the beginning of the MLB season, or the beginning of Fall when it starts to get cool outside and the leaves are turning colors and college football is right in the meat of its season, but neither of these times come close to what we are beginning now. 
Find some way to slow it down a little because it will be over before you know it.
To ensure you are enjoying the season
1-Christmas playlist should include Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, and of course The Boss.
2-Make sure you are watching the staples.  Charlie Brown, The Grinch, Christmas Vacation, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Its A Wonderful Life, Scrooged
3-Christmas Tree-Preferably live, but fake is better than nothing.
4-Pull out some old nostalgia that will bring a tear to your eye on a bad day.
5-Christmas Cookies-eat them, bake them, or both
6-Buy and Drink Hot Chocolate-with or without Bailey's.  Always with marshmellow cream


Christmas Present Hall of Fame (in no particular order)
Starting Lineup Talking Baseball- 

My grandparents gave this to me (probably in 1988 or 1989) on Christmas Eve.  If I'm not mistaken the voice was Vin Scully.  Or maybe I just wanted it to be Vin Scully.  By hitting a couple buttons in a timely fashion, in response to little red lights liting up, you could hit a homerun with Babe Ruth or Ted Williams or strike out Don Mattingly with Walter Johnson.  I was 10 and I couldn't be pryed away from this toy.  I didn't touch any of my gifts received on Christmas Day.

Nintendo

Gary was the first one to have one of these and I just played it a little.  We had a cheap atari that they didn't even make games for anymore, but that was more than satisfying at the time.  When we got that Nintendo everything else in life was blacked out.  There was no "outside", there was no "basketball", there was no leaving the basement.  My thumbs blistered out in the early morning hours of December 26 and I was unfortunately on the DL for a day or two, which was sheer torture.  Someone recently sent me an article where this question was asked "do over 50% of your childhood memories involve Nintendo?"  The answer is a resounding "YES".  (Mario Brothers 1, 2 and 3, RBI Baseball, Legend of Zelda, Metroid)

Doug Flutie Franklin Football

My Grandma June got this for me; back when I couldn't decide if I wanted to be an NFL quarterback, NFL kicker, MLB SS or MLB Pitcher.  As corny as it sounds I still remember the smell of the leather and I embarassingly slept with that ball for months. 
*I believe the ball was lost in 1995 while Mattingly and I drove around throwing footballs at some kids in my neighborhood. Funny and kind of depressing.

Have a good Christmas.

Unguarded-Chris Herren Documentary

The documentary on Chris Herren last night was as good as any of the 30 for 30s that ESPN has put out in the last couple years.  I remember Chris Herren when he was at Fresno State and I made it a point to try to catch their late night games that were televised the same way I would try to catch Al Dillard and the Arkansas Razorbacks or Loyola Marymount a couple years previously.  He was the show.  Not just because of how good he was, but because there was something so intriguing about a person who made collosal mistakes and had so much going for them; they had so much to lose.  Its funny how I was always more impressed with the athlete whose life was a trainwreck of drinking and drug use and crime than I was with the straight laced guy who was better.  (Chris Kingsbury was one of my favorites too.  LONG range shooter from Iowa.  Remember.  Jess Patterson said he used to come to study halls drunk. Also Parish Caspier at UE.  Good stories about him going straight to early morning conditioning after being out all night.  Winning every sprint)

I feel like there will never be another Chris Herren type player.  I know there won't be.  No high school athlete (other than football) is remembered for their high school season.  State championships don't mean as much.  Kids play more for the next year and the next level than they do for the moment.  Its all summer ball now. (AAU was just getting huge with Herren's class--Felipe Lopez, Iverson).  There isn't a Damon Bailey from Bedford North Lawrence or Alen Henderson from Indy Brebeuf or Glen Robinson from Gary Roosevelt.  Its all Georgia Stars or the Illinois Warriors and they play 50 games in front of gyms full of scouts.  The internet wasn't there as much in the mid-late 90s to put in print every detail of every game.  There was still some mystique to it all. 

The story of Chris Herren is entertaining and inspiring and great and nostalgic for a number of resasons. 
1)  Fall River.  A mill town.  Working class people.   Hard nosed east coast kids.  Everyone in the world pulls for the blue collar kid. 
2)  He was a great college basketball player back when college basketball players could be great.  There is a reason college basketball is half as exciting now as it was back then. 
3)  We love stories of redemption and second (and third and fourth and fifth) chances.  People who seemingly have nothing and self destruct make sense to us.  Its harder for us to understand someone so talented that continues to sabatoge their life.  Its easy to judge when its not you.
How amazing is it that he went out and balled after doing coke until noon. 


If you haven't checked it out DVR it Saturday morning at 7am on ESPN.  Great story.

Is it a coincidence that movies have gone to shit, HBO series and documentaries are getting better and better.  Nope.

Mini Videos and Lyrics Session V- Mutineers--Indiana

Indiana
All those anti war hippie kids who cry for life, but don't give a shit
they organize their sit ins wearing flowered shirts and peace sign pins
while the children who have courage are far across the sea
I wish that I was like them, unfortunately I can't be

Singing songs like Indians or make that Native Americans
You can't open your mouth today without starting a protest parade
or inciting one more riot, "I'm just trying to fight it"
and now I'll close my eyes, and in disappear into my best disguise

Do razor blades and shotgun shells decay
Ungrateful little children run and play
Today we're all ok
Today we're all ok
Today we are ok

Caught up in middle America our dreams won't lead us out of here
watch the current of the river, its steady flow will live forever
like the men who came before us, singing backup in the chorus
I'll lead the charge as we push along and I'll light the match at the fireworks display

Buildings crumble to the ground like clay
Brick by brick we'll build them back to stay

Today we're all ok
Today we're all ok
Today we are ok

Mini Videos and Lyrics Session IV-Ce N'est Rien--I Didn't Come Here To Lose

Another installment of our award winning series Mini Videos and Lyrics.  Here you go...one take from Ce N'est Rien.  Song is I Didn't Come Here to Lose

I DIDNT COME HERE TO LOSE

I looked my old life in the face

It smiled back and got its way

It's just a fever it'll pass but it still hurts all the same

Screw the note screw the key

There is no one here but me,

  And I didnt come here to lose

I held your hand and then your shoe

You left so fast I thought you flew

I try to forget the kiss and harness the excuse

Why you said your tongue was fused to mine:

  'Still had that accent to lose

  And the South to leave behind

And "I'm sorry I'm leaving, dont you know I live my whole life acting out?

I'll dream about you wherever I can..."

Just got too darn real for you now

Go the way of all my dancing girls

I hope you find what you're looking for,

  I'm sure you lost a few steps

  Spinning in circles on the floor

You trust me, dont you?...

I spent all my good years in a bath

I first had you go in, I first had you goin'

My skin has shriveled up into ash--

Let's go towards the light and try to smoke it

I will be born again in your lungs and in your breath I withhold from you

I give and give as you take

I made the choice sun-blackeyed-burned

I wont be coming back for what you keep trying to...

  It's like you're trying to lose

  I didnt come here to lose...