Sports: NFL: A Return to the playoffs: Derek M

Is it September yet?

 I’m sure most of us are already thinking about the football season, about the entire week building up to a party at the Ralph.  Monday mornings spent talking with coworkers about the Bills game from the day before, asking friends where they’re sitting or where they are planning on parking for the pre-game festivities. 

Just a few more months Buffalo!

                For now, the “one-and-done” summer sporting events have already started and now we have a great concert season to go along with it.  For the summer, sports are not our focus like it will be again in the fall.  We can only take so much talk about the Lakers’ impending dismantling. (slow-down ESPN, the season isn’t even over yet.) Baseball has been fun, seeing teams like Baltimore and Tampa fight over the A.L. East lead while we watch the Yankees and Red Sox fight for last place.  This week the Yankees seem to have found their stride, and put their ducks in a row.  Now that the shock of losing the most consistent part of their game (Mariano Rivera) has settled in, it seems so has the rest of the “all-world” team.

                The Big story...

Sports: Summer Sporting in Buffalo: Derek M

We all have our addictions, and in Buffalo, our addiction is our sports teams.  So let me be the one who gives it too you, let me offer everyone a perspective on sports that is Buffalo from Buffalo.

We are in a unique time of the year, no playing Monday morning quarterback, no talking to the cashier at the corner store about who the Sabres should grab at the deadline.  We are about to start summer in the city that can actually enjoy all four seasons.  Our short and simple conversations about sports last about 30 seconds and end with “we’ll see”.

We’re all holding our breath for the fall, to see if the new front four of the Bills defense can actually put the hurt on Tom Brady and Mark Sanchez like we all hope they can.  Whether or not the Sabres can live up to the expectations they put on themselves last year remains to be seen.  But for now we get to enjoy the “one and done” sporting events and the long, grinding, unending and not too important baseball season, (which is very exciting come fall).

First and foremost,

Even if the sports have gotten you down.

What a difference a few months make.... The Bills did end up, in fact, tanking it, and the Sabres, after a great start in Europe, have imploded...

None of this is going to bring the great city of Buffalo, NY down though, because progress is moving in on the waterfront. The recent announcement that a market will be coming to the site of the old Aud site is exciting enough, but even more exciting is the children's interactive museum that has been proposed down on the canal side. With.... (wait for it, wait for it)

A solar powered mary-go-round! Right? how perfect is a children's hands on experience, next to the naval park, with the canal side, the unearthed erie canal and the beautiful bridge. It is indeed exciting times for downtown Buffalo.

82 + 16 = Riots in the streets.

Can you feel it in the air?

Have you noticed it around town?

26's, 57's, 21's, 30's?

Smell it, breathe it in, feel it. Its Sabre's Opening day.

The Bills have been a pretty great story this year, and if they keep winning it will be fantastic, but there is almost no other feeling than opening day in Pegulaville. Casual fridays at offices all around could field a complete sabres team full of jerseys, everyone will be streaming the game (played in Finland) quietly on their computers. Bar's will be more full at 1pm on a friday afternoon than 11pm on a saturday night (ok...that might be stretching it a little bit, but it's not too far off). Its an exciting time to be a Buffalonian.

If you're into sports, that is, and most of western new york lives and breathes with our professional teams. The day after wins are always better than the days after loses, proverbial water coolers light up with "did you see that sick goal last night?", and car flags fly more freely in the wind on the way home from the arena.

Strap yourself in, WNY, its hockey season.

Western New York Flash win Womans Professional Soccer League Championship!

What an exciting game to be at yesterday, as the WNY Flash took on the Philly Independence for the WPS Soccer championship in Rochester! The game was a chess match all throughout the first half, and the Flash really started taking over the in the second half.

In the 64th minute (while i was buying a new Flash jersey, but still able to see the play!) Christine Sinclair came through on a nice goal to go up 1-0. It looked as though the Flash would be taking home the championship with that goal, but with 3 minutes of regulation time left, Independence's Amy Rodriguez scored a nice goal on a rebound off the post to tie it all up. I think all of us from Buffalo in the stands felt a huge lump in our throats, because usually these types of games do not end well for buffalo teams.

But through 2 scoreless overtime periods, the 1-1 tie held up, and it went to a shootout. It was a blast to see Marta come out and score the first shootout goal (the new jersey i bought is a Marta jersey! haha), and the Flash scored on all 5 of their attempts. In high dramatic fashion, Flash goalkeeper Harris stopped the final Philly shot and the championship was won. What a great game, and go Flash!