It was incredible: the stuff urban legends are made of. The game? Nope. Most of the play on the court was just plain wrong. No, I am talking about the process to GET INTO the game.
So, it was like this: Wendell (did I tell you that I convinced Wendell to drive down to join me?) and I had been cruising all around the perimeter of the Georgia Dome, subtly seeking a ticket seller with a good heart. The hype surrounding the game was emotional: FLA fans wanted to see their beloved Gators win the back-2-back; and OSU fans are just plain fanatical anyway (despite their typically disappointing displays in championships). Buyers far outstripped sellers, and the sellers available were asking outrageous money ($200+) for horrible seats. Not a formula for on-the-fly success.
By 8:45PM (9:21 tip off), we were near the point of retiring to a local bar to watch the game, when — as we jaywalked from the CNN Sky Deck parking across to the Phipps complex — an SUV (loaded with bumper stickers like “my daughter is an honor student at Alpharetta Middle School, etc) pulled directly in front of us and the woman inside thrust a handful of tickets out the window screaming, “I NEED TO SELL THESE TICKETS RIGHT NOW,MY MOTHER IS SICK AND I NEED TO GO HOME!” We were three feet away, so I reached out and took the tickets, at the same time asking her how much. “I really need to get going…” she sobbed, “,I guess $300,” Quickly glancing down to make sure the tickets had teh hologram on them, I peeled off some Benji’s and Jacksons to complete the sale. She glanced at the folded cash I had handed her, turned and looked down the street in front of her, and sped off. Examining the tickets, there were four seats together in section 238 on the Club level, with a view from the back corner of the court, yet high enough to see the whole playing area. “Christ, W,these are easily worth $300 APIECE!” I said.
“Maybe that’s what she meant,” he said. Hmmmmmmmmmmm
Regardless, within five minutes we had sold the two extra tickets for $200,A PIECE! A hundred bucks profit and we had pretty good seats for the NCAA Championship game,now THAT”S A COOL STORY!
The rest is history, as are the Buckeyes. I face another year of GATORS (smells like chicken, tastes like skunk) BOASTING. But it’s all good,
–UNK T and W
…
It’s all an April hoax, MF,
We got closed out and watched it at CCT. But it COULDA happened!
RectorSite 
Doc B receives the bad news as he wakes up to the French TV news. The average Frenchman (even the average French sports fan) has absolutely no idea of the existence of March Madness. First, you have to explain to them that colleges have sports teams and then you go from there. (You can forget about trying to explain the BCS.) But everyone knows Yannik Noah (he’s actually spawned a successful second career as a singer and underwear model — you see him in his skivvys at every bus stop) and knows that his wife is Swedish and that their son is tall and homely and plays basketball in America. Thus the brief report this morning that last night his team won “the American basketball championship,” accompanied by a clip of Joakim Noah highlights from Florida vs. George Mason last year (I didn’t even get to see Buckeyes!). Oh well. I guess there are a lot of Gator haters in Ohio these days. Join the club.
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It reminds me of when Dr. B and I went to the Providence Civic Center without tickets to see a scrimmage of the ’84 Olympic Team which included Dukie Johnny Dawkins (who became an alternate, didn’t play in LA), as well as college play-ahs Jordan, Ewing, Mullin, Waymon Tisdale, and Charles “Round Mound of Rebound” Barkley. As I recall we found a scalper right away, ended up with decent seats on the floor level behind one of the baskets, and got to see a pretty good game…
…as for this game, if OSU hits six of the twenty treys they shot, the game goes down to the wire. If the Buckeyes shoot their average, they win going away. Credit the FLA perimiter defense, as well as FLA’s composure on offense — they kept making threes when they needed them (shooting OVER 50% from beyond the arc!). Oden truly lived up to the hype, playing a great game despite getting whacked by a rotation of four(!) defenders who didn’t worry about fouling him (and Oden still got 25 points and 12 rebounds), and hoped to goad him into getting into foul trouble himself. Conley, however, didn’t live up to the hype, but nobody else on OSU seemed to be able to pick-up the slack. Credit the FLA defense on the rest of the team.
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Tom,
I knew it was BS when you wrote how you peeled off hundys, you are a sticky singles guy looking for a titty bar-and no, not some classy joint like Ricks Caberet in Houston or Players Club in ATL but some north country skankpit that caters to hunters during season…
Going to a suite for the Giants/Dodgers game Saturday…put that in your crackpipe and smoke it….
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I was sad to see that OSU couldn’t make a perimeter shot while the Humphries kid rained in 3’s all night. Again, reminded me of Tom at the corner bar in SF draining 25 yr old McCallan’s-a nightmare unfolding…..
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History repeats.
1987 — “Come on out to LA… I know I can get tickets to Super Bowl XXI,” sez bro Tommy.
We left frigid Newton with crusted ice on the streets for ten days in balmy LA, visited a bunch of Frank Gehry buildings and spent two or three hours outside the Rose Bowl before retiring to a skanky Pasadena bar to eat hot dogs, drink beer and watch the New York Football Giants blow away the Broncos.
Carol and Lynn took the high road and went shopping.
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