Hi there! Welcome to Bleeding Blue and Orange. After some time of reading all sorts of different blogs and peoples' rants, memories, and thoughts, I thought that it might not be a bad idea to share a few of my own when the opportunity presents itself.
And so, here we are. Bleeding Blue and Orange is an apt name for the site since the two sports that are my true passions are Baseball and Hockey. As the title of the blog suggests, the teams I root for in those sports happen to share a color scheme. Both have had times when they've been losers, both lovable and worthy of loathing, and both have had times when they've been at the top of the world. These are, of course, my beloved Mets and Isles.
Now, since baseball season is essentially over for me with the Mets (yet again) out of the picture, and the winter winds are blowing hockey our direction, a lot of the posts between now and, say, March or April (or god willing, May), will pertain to what's going on with the Islanders in the hockey world.
With about 5 days until Opening Night for the Islanders, I thought it would be a fitting first post to talk about my growth as a hockey fan and a few high points of my fandom.
I'm not sure how or why, but I was an Islanders fan from the first time I could remember. It could be that they were the kings of the NHL during my infancy, so everybody on Long Island was an Islander fan. Or it could be that I was also being brainwashed into being a Mets fan at the time and the color scheme was the same. Either way, my fate was sealed. I don't really remember many of my early hockey games or even my specifically first one. I do, however, remember that my father, a county employee would get free tickets through his job, and we'd go to the Coliseum once or twice a year, either through his job or through the Cub Scouts. I also know that I was hooked from day one and even after times when I stopped following it for a while, I was always drawn back.
Oddly enough one of the greatest memories I have of my early hockey years was not even an NHL sanctioned game. There was an exhibition fundraiser at the Long Beach Ice Rink. Those of you from Long Island know the one I'm talking about over by the pool. I think the Rangers used to practice there or something, but really it's the Rangers, so that's a minor detail. Anyway, that night there was a fundraiser exhibition game between Islanders Legends and Rangers Legends. So, one of the earliest memorable hockey games I got to see had the likes of Bossy, Gillies, Potvin, Trottier, and Nystrom all playing together again after they had retired or moved on.
Naturally, the Rangers suffered a thorough shellacking at the hands of the legends of the dynasty years.
At some point, I stopped getting to as many hockey games, and really, I don't even remember why. I still checked on the Islanders as a kid every time I picked up a newspaper. In hindsight it probably had more to do with the fact that, at the time, the Isles were still on Sportschannel, which we didn't get, so I wasn't readily able to watch games. I was content, for the time, to keep track of the likes of Palffy, Turgeon, and many others through the pages of Newsday.
Fast forward to the years when Charles Wang bought the team and essentially plucked them from extinction. Now, being older, and with better cable, etc, I was ready to jump back in. I took to watching hockey again like a fish to water. Baseball in the summer. Hockey in the winter. I think what really sealed the deal for me was the party the Isles threw one year at Eisenhower Park. My brother's girlfriend was going and somehow I got volunteered to chauffeur. Needless to say, seeing the fans, the players, the atmosphere, all of it, and my fanaticism was secure. That year I made it to my first Opening Night and have never looked back.
There are similar stories about my Mets fanaticism that I'm sure I'll share at some point as well, but suffice to say for now, that through good year and bad, terrible coaches, great coaches, wins, losses, playoffs, and basement dwelling, I'll always be bleeding blue and orange.
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