Why

November is the worst for me.  There isn't much about the whole month I even like.  Its colorless, dark and sometimes more miserably cold than even January or February, or at least it sometimes feels that way to me.  The only things that make it tolerable is the end of the football season and the changeover to basketball.  I'm convinced football is at its best in November, but that might be the mid-western kid in me who's spent most of his life watching the Big Ten and believing those old mantra's about November football.  Bo and Woody forever.

One of the last things my dad did before he passed away was put his cherished Michigan season tickets in my name.  I still kind of laugh at his hesitance to do so, I guess he thought I wouldn't let him use them or something but I made sure he knew I considered them his and if he wanted to take me to a couple games a year that would be cool with me.  Back then I lived in Holland and going to Michigan games was a little more of a chore, almost 6 hours of driving for me, depending on game times it wasn't uncommon for me to get home at 11pm.  So I wasn't interested in going all the time.

This year marked 40 years that someone from my family has sat in those same seats.  I can tell you the best coaches and best eye sights in the stadium are 85 rows up, its magnificent.   I talk with the people around me as if I've known them forever, even though I don't even know their names or anything more about them.  I only know they're there every cotton picken' maize and blue Saturday.

A few years ago the people in front of me asked about my Hope hat, turned out they had a son at Hope around the same time as me, and I knew him.  Smallest of small worlds  The man behind me has always had a beautiful voice and everyone around just lets him sing the National Anthem for us because trying to sing over that just wouldn't seem right.   His kids are roughly my age, and now his son sits in the 2 seats next to me and brings his kids, damn if we aren't all grown up.  On the other side is a couple from Wheaton, Illinois and I had a nice conversation with them about Wheaton athletics once upon a time.

Last year November gave me games with Nebraska and Ohio State to look forward too, I mean come on that's some kind of childhood dream.  This year, Northwestern and Iowa.  Talk about sucking the life out of you.  Those who know me, know I've grumbled about this years ticket package to no end, its probably been the worst I can remember.  The best team on the whole slate was Northwestern and everyone else is either not going to a bowl game or just barely.

It could be argued the marquee game was Michigan State and I won't disagree, but I hate that game and everything about it.  Its 3 and half hours of pure misery for me, even if they win I hate myself.  That's the growing up being a Michigan fan in Spartan territory in me.  They can never win by enough, and if they lose its just pure hating life for 12 months.




So Saturday morning I woke up to this, more or less my back window.......

The only thing more dreary and depressing would be every ex-girlfriend standing out there holding a sign saying "I hate you".

Game day again, time to trudge off to Ann Arbor for a game they may or not win and a game I will certainly never remember.  I have two memories of Northwestern games.......it was my first in 1979 and it rained, thinking back now I'm amazed I even like football at all, it was terrible that day.  My second is the empty pit in my stomach when the Cats beat Michigan in 1995, was I actually watching that?   It was Michigan's first loss at home to Northwestern since 1959!  Otherwise this is an opponent I easily forget.

Scary right

The drive from Lansing is easy, half the route I'm still getting used to, the other half  I could probably do blindfolded.  Ann Arbor was always a familiar destination.  These days we park blocks away and walk thinking we're cheap and young enough to still do that, wishing we had more money to not have to do that.  Naturally I parked behind a car with a Calvin sticker in the window.......son of a b****.   It was turning out to be a nice day, actually incredibly nice for November and per my mood and attitude I was severely over dressed and sweating by the time we reached our seats.  I should have read the forecast or maybe believed it better.  60's in November, yeah right.

Three hours latter came the moment I'll never forget (probably).  With time winding down and it looking more certain Michigan would lose I was looking around the stadium, at all the students, fans and alums, the wonderful November day and I just couldn't help think how great it all was.  That I still get to enjoy this, even if I'm not really enjoying it.  I had similar thoughts late in the Notre Dame game last year and the Michigan State game this year at around the same 4 or 5 minutes to play wondering how the heck they would pull this one out.   For a few moments every so often sports takes us away to a place we can just be us, watching, waiting, taking it all in and anticipating what might happen next.

For the third time in just over a year, I looked at the clock, the score and thought to myself this isn't looking good.  How is this miracle going to happen......

 Oh!

And there I was, jumping up and down like some 20 year old kid, high five's to people I didn't even know and probably never will.   For a brief few moments it was the best it could be, no pains, no worries just sports in all its wonderful glory and 112,000 other people seemed to agree with me......and they didn't even win anything, the game wasn't over yet.

These days I'm less a rabid fan of my teams and more just a fan of sports.  I'm amazed by the moments that take place, how players seem to rise up at just these moments and steal away victory that are converted to amazing memories.  How does it happen?  Why does it happen?  I'm not even sure I care, just that I get to be there and see them.

 You can watch the highlights of such things and feel like you know what happened but you really don't, unless you were there to experience the swing in emotion, going from despair and agony to pure joy in the time it takes a 20 year old kid to chuck a football 50 yards.  That was just a priceless experience.

I think I would have loved to be in Manchester, England last May when this happened......

...that was to win the season title and erase 44 years of not winning the title and living in Manchester United's shadow, my God can you even imagine.

And this is why we watch, why we spend money we probably shouldn't.....just to be entertained for even a brief few minutes in time.  See things that haven't been done in a long time, may never be done again and to see miracles as only sports can provide.  Live and breath with each moment, each game, each play if that seems completely crazy.

This wasn't the best sporting event finish I've seen, but its up there and I'll remember it for as long as I'm able.  Just as I'll remember many of the great things I've witnessed in the more intimate setting of Division III basketball.  Those moments are no different, no less miracles, no less entertaining just smaller.

As the next season of Hope basketball gets set to tip off I wonder what it will bring, what the team will look like as the season progresses.    I hope to see some of that and that along the way maybe a couple moments that leave you shaking your head at what you just saw.  Best of luck to this years Flying Dutchmen.

You just never know what you're going to see, and that is why.