Top 5 Confessions of 2012

I've had this little side project in operation now for probably about 15 months, and for those of you who have been regular readers of Confessions of a Sportscaster, I thank you for supporting the fruits of my down time that aren't spent sleeping, eating, or planning a wedding with my wonderful fiancee. So with New Years Eve upon us, I wanted to count down my Top 5 posts from 2012 based on page view as a quick look back on the big storylines from 2012.

5. COAS/SSLYAR Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 5 (October 4)
In August I started regularly playing basketball once a week with my best friend Nathaniel, who around the same time started up an NFL blog called "Someone Still Loves You, Alberto Riveron". It's an entertaining read with thoughtful analysis, smart picks, and awesome jokes and parodies. Around that time I approached him with the idea of doing a joint weekly post alternating between our blogs of picking games against the spread, and it came to be one of the high points of my week. For this edition, I think viewership may have been boosted by a mention of getting followed on Twitter by Green Bay's M.D. Jennings, but probably more so by having a GIF of "IT'S OVER 9000!", mentioning Bane and maybe Nathaniel's fantastic GIF of Eli Manning.

4. COAS/SSLYAR Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 15 (December 13)
Another of the picking posts (I ended up doing all the odd numbered weeks, Nathaniel did the evens. I'd like to do this again next year, in which case we'll switch. Fairness above all else) that turned out pretty well. It was my most read picks post (though not my favorite, that honor goes to my post with the Matt Schaub PSA about getting kicked in the balls) and a fun one as well. I think most of my views were bolstered by the sheer mention of Grumpy Cat (given my most recent set of search results that have led to COAS. You roll with what's popular.)

3. Game Notes: Elgin High School vs. Auburn High School (3/9/12) (March 10)
I started this blog while I was employed as a board operator at WROK up in Rockford, Illinois in the fall of 2011 before starting my current job with Nokia back in April. Before I finished up there, I was given an opportunity to be the third man in a booth (well, top row of the bleachers at Dundee-Crown High School) with a couple long time radio pros for an IHSA sectional title game. This was a fun game to call, and I also got to see one of the best prep players in Illinois in Fred Van Vleet, now a freshman at Wichita State coming off the bench, though I'm sure his role will grow. He's probably the second best prep player I've ever seen in person other than Ryan Boatright, who I coached against as a senior in high school.



2. A Legend Tarnished (July 2)
This was a fun one to write. I had touched on the Penn State scandal a couple times prior to this one, but with continued hearing about just how far the evil on that campus reached, I was reminded of a class I took on leadership my senior year at North Central. Before posting it, I even passed it along to my professor from that course, Stephen Caliendo, to have him look it over before I posted to see what he thought. He said he thought it was "very nicely written", and he was glad that his class had a lasting impact on my thought process. He was also gracious enough to pass this post around, which I think helped greatly.

Swimming Off Into the Sunset

I had wanted to write this a couple weeks ago leading up to the London Olympic Games, but workloads and a trip to South Haven, Michigan threw that off. I was able to watch parts of the opening ceremony and I've caught some of the different events over the past week-plus. Last night though I was able to catch the tape delay of the most significant swimming event we'll see for a while.

Photo from USA Today taken by Rob Schumacher.

I've been a fan of Phelps since he first burst onto the scene in 2004, but really enjoyed watching him in 2008. My brother did too, even taking to doing swimming moves on the carpet in our living room. We were blessed to get to watch a legend write itself before our very eyes. He owns some of the most iconic moments in Olympic history and while I'm sure he wanted more than just the 4 gold and 2 silver medals he came away with in London, but he said he's accomplished everything he set out to in his illustrious career. He's also inspired a number of kids, especially my brother.

 Obviously I'm not a world-class athlete... or even really on a local scale (otherwise I wouldn't be writing here). But from a young age my mom, who worked as a lifeguard in her youth, taught both me and my brother how to swim by having us enrolled in swimming lessons at multiple venues. I always considered myself a good swimmer, decent by competitive standards. But Michael Phelps is in another world all his own.

In January of 2011 my family got the opportunity of a lifetime. The Make-a-Wish Foundation flew us out to Baltimore for a few days of getting to see some of the city, walk around the inner harbor, visit the aquarium there, and ultimately make a trip to the Meadowbrook Aquatic Club to fulfill my brother's wish of getting to swim with Michael Phelps, an afternoon I'll never forget.

I'm pretty sure this picture says it all.

We floated and chatted for a while after watching Michael and a few other swimmers train (with some amazing equipment including a huge bucket of water attached to a swimmer for strength training or something along those lines... really something to see in person), we also did some laps in the pool. My brother climbed on Michael's back and he swam freestyle back and forth in something of an informal race against me. I just wanted to see how I measured up compared to the greatest swimmer of all time. To put it in perspective: he had largely taken a huge layoff from swimming after Beijing, was carrying a fairly heavy 11 year old on his back... and probably wasn't giving it his all. Taking all that into account, it was all I could do just to keep pace with them. It was incredible.

We had also planned for my brother to race Michael. They decided on backstroke and had to negotiate pretty hard to find a fair race. My brother initially wanted Michael to do 20 laps for his 1, and Michael played hardball to get him down to 7. It was pretty funny to see a guy who 2 and a half years before had gone 8 for 8 in gold medals telling an 11 year old that swimming 20 laps to his 1 wasn't going to be fair, but Logan seemed dead set on the 20 laps for a while before we finally convinced him to go with 7. It turned out to be the perfect number, as Logan beat him when Michael finished his 6th lap. My friend joked yesterday that that loss bugged Phelps through the beginning of the London games and might explain his fourth place finish in that opening race.

Over the course of those 3 or so hours, we bonded with a very down-to-earth man who would become the most decorated Olympian of all time. I think he was touched to spend time with my family that day, and somewhere he has one of our MDA Telethon T-shirts from 2010 signed by my brother. It was another unexpected moment that really captured the day in our minds.

 

If you were ever looking for an athlete for your kids to root for, Michael Phelps was the perfect one. Say what you will about the bong incident in 2009 or his time off from the pool after Beijing, but he absolutely earned those 22 medals in 3 different Games, and has been humble through it all, thankful for his teammates, and appreciative of many fans.

Thank you Michael, for all the memories, both in the pool and in our hearts. Enjoy your retirement. You've earned it.