Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts!

This is going to be a rather disjointed and long-winded entry today. I've got a few things on my mind.

Thing #1:
ESPN's Page 2 has put out a list of the 15 Most Tortured Sports Cities, with Cleveland topping the list. Three of the top six cities are the three most important cities to me, those being Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis(the whole Twin Cities, actually). I read through all three cities, and had some laughs, choked back some tears, and finally, read this:

1. Losing the North Stars to Dallas, 1993
Minnesota fans love their hockey. So it was especially distressing when Norm Green announced on March 10, 1993 that he was moving the North Stars to Dallas. The following month, the North Stars played their final game in Minnesota, on April 13 against the Blackhawks. They needed a win to possibly get the last seed in the playoffs -- but they lost, 3-2. Extra security was hired for that final game at the Met Center -- there were a lot of very angry fan, chanting some very vulgar things about Norm Green. Six years later, the Stars finally won their first Stanley Cup. Minnesota fans did get a new NHL team, the Wild, which began play in 2000.

What they failed to encapsulate(let's face it, it is only a paragraph long) is that from March 10th until that last game(please note that I still have that game on tape), there was extra security at almost every game. How do I know? I was one of those people. I went hoarse changing 'Norm Green Sucks!' and 'Fuck You Norm!', as was the style at the time. It wasn't a distressing event, more of a criminal, manic, idiotic thing to do. I remember seeing factoids about how he was actually going to pay more rent for the stadium and receive less of a cut from concession sales. Am I still bitter? Yes. It is a life goal of mine to own a sweater for every team other than the Dallas Stars, for wearing when I happen to catch one of their games. It should also be noted that I was one of the people there when the Wild first played the Stars, when the Wild won 6-0. And, please, Chicagoland and the world, let the Bartman thing go- I'm sick of hearing about it.

Thing #2:
Big props and thanks go out to Reagan's Youth- for not only blogrolling me, but adding the tagline Chicago's Finest. I owe you a drink or two.

Thing #3:
My friend A and I had a couple drinks together last night- we hadn't see each other in a while, so it was nice to catch up. We got into a rather heated discussion about Fahrenheit 9/11- she said she felt manipulated after she left, and wanted the film to be more objective. I argued that it didn't have to be objective, because it wasn't supposed to be objective. While she is right that we were beaten over the head with Michael Moore's politics, I don't think we should have expected anything less.

Thoughts, of course, can be shared below.