All Entries in the "Sports" Category

Are you a Bucs fan? Tailgate Party tickets on sale now

Three hours prior to the start of four Buccaneers’ home games this year, fans can enjoy unlimited food, drinks and music at the Pewter Nation Buccaneer Tailgate Hospitality Tent, located across the street from Raymond James Stadium.

For $35 fans can enjoy freshly prepared bar-b-que chicken, ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta bar, taco bar, coleslaw, italian ice, Coca Cola and water, along with Budweiser and Bud Light draft beers. DJ Bob Moore will provide music and entertainment to get fans into the game day spirit.

The Tailgate Hospitality Tent will be open for the following games:

Sunday, Sept. 13 vs. Dallas Cowboys
Sunday, Sept. 27 vs. New York Giants
Sunday, Nov. 8 vs. Green Bay Packers
Sunday, Dec. 13 vs. New York Jets

The Tent is located on the Hillsborough Community College campus, across the street from Raymond James Stadium on the corner of Dale Mabry Highway and Tampa Bay Blvd.

Tickets are available online at www.GearUpForTheGame.com, or by phone at 813-908-BUCS (2827). Private VIP tents, sponsorships and vendor opportunities are available.

Pewter Nation Buccaneer Tailgate Hospitality Tent is sponsored by Game Day Catering, Port A Pit Bar B Que, Authentic Team Merchandise Buccaneer Heaven and Gear Up for the Game.

Tampa Bay Area Jai alai

I’ve always been an advocate of alternative sports, though I admit that I’m not much of a sportsman myself. Recently, Paul Kubala from the local chapter invited me to watch and take pictures of a match amongst local Jai alai (pronounced HI-LI) players in the Tampa Bay area.

For those who don’t know, Jai alai is a game that mixes elements of tennis or racketball with death-match potential results. The ball, at 125 to 140 gram (that’s heavy!), could potentially kill you if it hits you hard enough. There have been reported speeds of 188mph achieved in this sport. Thus, you’re dodging a really heavy bullet continually through play.

The sport has some relatively complex rules, but the basic idea is that you bounce the ball between lines, against a wall and to the other person. Unlike tennis where you play on opposing courts, this is played with two (or four) people on one side with a wall opposing the teams.

The association is open for anyone to join. See their website for more information.
http://www.national-jai-alai.com

Here’s some photos of the action. Look at the intensity, even in a friendly game.

April Powerslide Rallycross at East Bay Racetrack

Today, I attended the “April Powerslide Rallycross” races at East Bay Racetrack (6311 Burts Rd, Tampa, FL 33619), one of my favorite places to kick some dirt around.

This race, one that’s held every few months, is an open call to anyone to bring most any kind of car they want out on the track. The track is a series of curved in and out of cones and barrel, set up for skill instead of speed. Helmets are required, but former training or experience isn’t. There were many people at the event today who has never driven rallycross, autocross or any other format of competitive driving.

There was a wide variety of cars and drivers on the track today. The darlings of the race, the all wheel drive class, featured the kind of rally cars you’d expect in purpose built Mitsubishi Evos and Subaru WRXs.

There were a few surprises too. In the front wheel stock category, a Pontiac G8 and non-turbo Cobalt both had strong showings.

The only rear wheel drive car, an older model BMW, started out a bit slow but got quicker as time went on.

The race continued throughout the day, giving each driver at least 10 runs. This made for a continually more fun day as the event carried on.

These events are held regularly at East Bay. Scheduled of events here:
http://motorstats.com/TrackSchedule.php?trackId=93&seasonId=80

The other 881 photos can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denisbaldwin/sets/72157617653675952/

Dragonboat Racing at Tampa’s Garrison Channel

You know those motivational posters for Teamwork? Someone really should make one about Dragonboat racing, as that’s the very essence of what I think of when I think of teamwork. A dragon boat, nothing more than a decorated slender canoe powered by a team of approximately 20 synchronized rowers, is surprisingly complicated. While the mechanics are simple, the rhythm and strength and endurance required to be truly exceptional at it can only come with practice and teamwork.

Each team is made of a mascot/caller/drummer who keeps the beat and ensures everyone rows in synchronicity. They are at the front of the boat, ensuring eyes stay on them and the goal. The rowers make up the middle of the boat, holding short but wide paddles capable of moving as much water as possible in a confined stroke. The rear is made up of a tiller/sweep/helm. Watching them all work in unison quickly weeds out any weak links, and it’s obvious that many of these teams train year young to maintain their cohesion.

Today, several teams of dragonboats took to Garrison Channel, a thin strip of water separating Harbour Island from the St. Pete Times Forum and the rest of Channelside. Racing in small groups of five teams, the races ran continually throughout the morning. This, the 6th annual Tampa Dragonboat Race, brought corporate teams and Dragonboat enthusiasts alike.

Here’s some more photos of the action:

The rest of the 300 photos I took can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/denisbaldwin/sets/72157617508221199/

Gasparilla Marathon, Sunday March 1st

This post lifted from the V.M. Ybor Blog:

Sunday, March 1st, is the Gasparilla Marathon. Race organizers are looking to increase support for the runners by simply cheering on Bayshore. The 4,000 runners will be on the Bayshore leg of the race between 8 – 11 AM. Chances are that you know someone who will participate in the race, so be sure to give this growing event your support.

While I am not a runner– heck, I’m barely a walker, I won’t be participating. However, I will be there to take pictures and to cheer for our friends and neighbors who are participating. I encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the race. Free admission, yada yada.

Pre-Game Superbowl Photos

While my original reason for treking out to the stadium was to get pictures of the Goodyear Blimp, I ended up getting a number of crowd pictures instead. There was no blimp, as the City of Tampa has instituted a “no fly zone” 2 miles around the stadium.

So, here’s pictures of people walking around the Stadium. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the Steelers lose, especially knowing the fan count on hand is about 10:1 against the Cardinals.

The big pirate flag waving in the wind:

Everything backed up a mile or more on MLK:

A Steelers fan drives by us:

Some guy sets up a BBQ stand in his front yard, a mile from the stadium:

The long trek back to the stadium:

Lawn Parking for rent way over by Westshore:

Dale Mabry, blocked off at MLK:

Sheep Walking:

Dale Mabry, down to one lane:

RV Parking, $100:

Raymond James Stadium, as close as I could get without a ticket:

Parking at Jesuit High School, about a half mile from the stadium:

More People marching:

I, personally, will never understand the appeal. I have a high definition TV that I’ll be watching the commercials on right here at home.

Superbowl Chicken Wing Shortage rocks Tampa Bay

What’s the Superbowl without Hot Wings? What will we eat if not for those delicious portions of bones covered in scant slivers of meat and a fried fatty skin, dipped in Franks, or your other favorite sauce? What will we do!?!?

Tampa Bay’s 10 News covers the story:

http://www.tampabays10.com/sports/story.aspx?storyid=99068&catid=199

South Tampa, Florida — What is a football game without wings?!

For most fans, chicken wings and football games go hand in hand. That’s why word of a shortage is causing concern around the nation.

“The recession made a major chicken producer based out of Texas went bankrupt and shut down,” said restaurant owner Mike Disser.

Disser owns Wings Gone Wild on Bay to Bay Boulevard in South Tampa. He said fortunately he gets his wings from a chicken producer out of South Carolina. Not all restaurants are that lucky and the customer could end up paying the price.

“This shortage has prices going up nearly fifty-percent,” said Disser.

It turns out the timing of this shortage is better than you would think because restaurants almost always brace for a shortage this time of year. “There is such a high demand for wings for the Super Bowl that we always factor in a possible shortage,” said Disser.

Any shortage causes costs to climb. “Our shipment we got several weeks ago cost $45 a box. In the latest shipment, that cost went up to $70 a box,” said Disser. He will not pass that extra cost on to the customer though. “We’re just going to eat the cost or else we won’t sell any.”

So, at Wings Gone Wild, they will not run out of wings or fun.

“We’ve got parties planned all week here. In fact, we’ll basically be the headquarters for the Cardinals. The cheerleaders will be here closer to the weekend. So, come on down!”

Luckily, I eat wings an average of 2-3 times per week, so missing this one day won’t affect me in the slightest.

I, for one, will do Nachos. Sure, it’s not as much fun as racking up a huge pile of bones to celebrate your expanding waistline or your impending heartburn, but today it will have to do.

The Super Bowl-shit Begins..

I was really hoping it wouldn’t get out of hand until game day, but the bullshit is already overpowering our fair city.

I let all the signage and advertising go. After all, the fact that the Superbowl is here is some kind of big deal, or something. But I just witnessed three separate blatant stupid moments within a 10 minute period, and I’m not going to be dealing with this anymore.

1. I went to the bank to deposit my paycheck and pay rent. When I pulled into the parking lot, a guy with a “parking – $10″ sign was waving me in. This is the BANK parking lot, sandwiched between K-Mart and Miami Subs. As I pull in, he tries to point me to the front of the parking lot, but I keep driving back to get to the bank. He screams out, “YOU CAN’T PARK THERE!” I return, “GOING TO MY BANK!” and continue to drive away. Then, I go to where I always park and I park my car and proceed to get out. He runs up to me and this conversation begins:

Him: It’ll be $10.
Me: For what? This is my bank. I’m going in to make a deposit.
Him: No, you’re going to pay me $10. This is our parking lot this weekend.
Me: No, it’s not. It’s not the weekend. This isn’t your parking lot.
Him: K-Mart gave us permission to use it, so we’re charging for parking, now pay up.
Me: Listen, kid, it’s not the weekend, this isn’t your parking lot and I’m going into the bank.
Him: I’ll have your car towed.
Me: You put a fucking hand on my fucking car and I’ll break every bone in your body. Go bother someone else, you fucking flea. Fuck off.
Him: Sir! You have to…

I walk away from him, not listening. Go in the bank, make my deposit. Tell them about the incident. Apparently, this has been happening all day. “We’ll call Security.” So, I go to leave and the guy is on me about it again. I snap at him, “YOU FUCKING SHIT. YOU’VE FUCKING HAD IT.” I get right up in his face, slamming my chest against his as I force him back against my car. “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY FACE OR I WILL RUN YOU OVER.” He proceeds to get on his walkie, screaming to the other attendants to come help him. I get in my car, slam it into reverse and pull out quickly, narrowly missing him. “I got your license plate! I’m calling the cops!”

Let him. Let him call the cops when I’m parking at my bank to make a deposit. I guarantee you Tampa’s finest won’t even think twice about telling that guy where to jam it.

2. Second incident, less than 2 minutes later. I’m at Columbus and Himes making a left into the 5th/3rd Parking Lot. There’s a crowd of guys, probably in their late 20s, wearing Steelers jerseys crossing the street in front of me. I notice they are all drinking, in public, at 11:30AM! Blatant disrespect for the law, they are walking with beers, opened and chugging gleefully. I let this go.. after all, it’s a celebration, right?

To add to the obnoxious screaming and throwing themselves at cars parked at the light, they top off their parade of terror by proceeding to throw a bag of food waste in front of my car on Columbus. Who does that? What complete lack of respect is bred into these fucktards that makes them think they can treat our city like this?

3. Lastly, was all of the obvious out-of-towners driving around, disrupting the flow of traffic. I know that any event that brings people in will bring traffic. I know this. But it shouldn’t take over an hour to get from Columbus/Dale Mabry to Columbus/Nebraska. It just shouldn’t. That’s a 15 minute drive on most days. I’ve never had it be more than a 30 minute drive. It just took 1 hour, 7 minutes. That’s way, way too long, even for lunch time during the Superbowl weekend.

So… what do I make of all of this? It’s really simple for me, really. The next time a big event comes into town, I’m leaving. I’m going to sublet my place for the week/weekend and I’m going to get as far away from this as possible. Denis Out!

Super Bowl Stadium Tour

While I can’t personally justify spending $25 for a tour of the Raymond James Superbowl Stadium, a know a lot of our football loving readers will find this of interest. Brought to you first by Blog.Tampabay.com, here’s the excerpt from the NFL Experience and it’s tour of the Stadium:

Fans who purchase the $25 ticket package will also receive admission to the NFL Experience that covers nearly 850,000 square feet and has more than 50 interactive elements. This marks the first time in NFL history an exclusive stadium tour has been offered to fans prior to Super Bowl. Tickets to the NFL Experience and Stadium Tour are on sale now and can be purchased through the updated NFL Experience Web site at http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/43/events/nfl-experience.

Proceeds from the ticket sales to The NFL Experience will be donated by the NFL to the two NFL Youth Education Towns of Tampa Bay. Both the facility in Mort Park as well as the center in Jackson Heights opened following Super Bowl XXXV and currently serve hundreds of children and their families. Youth Education Towns are multi-faceted educational and recreation facilities designed to improve the academic and physical fitness, as well as job-related skills, of at-risk youth. Established in 1993, the YET initiative is the living legacy created by the NFL for Super Bowl host cities.

All activities at The NFL Experience are included in the price of admission. Fans may stay in the fan festival as long as they like, but re-entry is not permitted.

Super Bowl Mania hitting Tampa

It’s obvious to me that since I don’t really like or understand sports, I’m not going to like or understand the Superbowl. Sure, the commercials are funny. I like that I have an excuse to drink beer, eat wings and yell at the TV. I just don’t understand sports, and thus don’t like the superbowl.

That said, since the move to Tampa, I’m living in the sludge of ridiculousness that the superbowl brings with it. Traffic is already starting to get worse. The signage all has changed to football-friendly fair. Even my favorite restaurants are taking advantage by hiking up prices, offering “bowl specials” and otherwise alienating me. This is with the Superbowl a month away. It’s going to be even more oppressive and restrictive in the coming weeks.

I’m seriously considering taking a vacation for the week up to the super bowl. It’s the only way to be sure that I’m not here for the gridlock traffic and the inability to even go to the grocery store.