From the Bullpen: The bucket list

Recently, some of my friends and I have been talking about things we want to do before we graduate from Murray State. It is my senior year and I realized there are many things in Murray I have never done. The list had things like trying to eat at every restaurant in Murray and finally go shopping in Paducah. This made me start thinking of other events I would love to do. Besides traveling to different places, there were several sporting events I wanted to attend on my list. So here is my bucket list of sporting events I must see before I die, in no particular order.

Summer and Winter Olympics

The best and most talented athletes from all over the world come together for two weeks to compete. I was so excited when Chicago was in the running for hosting the Olympics. I thought this would be the year I would finally get to see an Olympic ceremony. Sadly, the city was weeded out in the first round of cuts so I did not get to attend. It is not just about the sports at this event. What I love about the Olympics is the whole world is at peace for a few weeks. All the countries come together to watch sports not to fight or join a war. The sports competition lets the world take a break from all the drama and just sit back to enjoy the games.

Stanley Cup, World Series, NBA finals and Super Bowl

Now preferably all of my teams would be competing in these games, but, as luck would have it, this does not happen very often. Seeing these games or series live and in person has been something I have been hoping will happen for some time. I have seen teams win before and it is awesome celebrating it with them. But watching your favorite team win a game as big as one of these-it is a moment you would not forget.

National Finals Rodeo

I would love to be at the NFR as a competitor in barrel racing, however just being a spectator would be amazing. For ten days the Top 15 cowboys and cowgirls compete for the title of world champion and average winner. The events are bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping and my personal favorites barrel racing and bull riding. These guys make it look so easy, and believe me it is not. I would love to be able to run a barrel pattern like the women who compete at this rodeo. I strive to one day be one of those cowgirls. I would also love to ride a bull like the cowboys, but that would probably result in my death. So I will not be doing that.

Kentucky Derby

I want to be standing on the rail hearing the thunderous pounding of the horses’ hooves coming around the final turn. I want to be screaming along with the rest of the crowd as the winner crosses the finish line. I want to wear a crazy-ugly hat! The Kentucky Derby is the only place you can get away with wearing huge hat and no one would look at you strange. I remember when I was younger dreaming that I would one day be a jockey competing at the Kentucky Derby, then I grew too tall and my hopes were dashed. I was seriously obsessed with horse racing when I was younger. I used to know a bunch of the winners’ names and what year they won.

Hockey All-Star game

Well not actually the game itself. I think the all-star game, in all sports, is really lame. No one actually tries hard to win the game. The score gets run up and the goalies do not even try to stop the puck. The part of All-star weekend I want to see is the day before, the Super Skills competition. On this day the teams compete in different skills events such as speed, passing, accuracy and strength of slap shot. This day is the most entertaining, you get to see the players more relaxed and show more of their personality. I especially love when players from the same NHL team are on different All-star teams and compete against each other on a skills drill, like Blackhawks Jonathon Toews and Patrick Kane did at last years’ game.

 1st-Round Draft

I only want to see the first round because the other rounds are very fast and you don’t get to hear all of the players’ personal stories, which is my favorite part. I love hearing the players’ background stories; it makes me root for them and follow even after they are drafted. If I hear a story or see a player that I feel drawn to, I get very attached to that player. If the player does not get drafted in the first round, I take it very personally and get very mad at the organization. I know I am a dork, but hey I am a sucker for a sob story.

Any sporting event at Madison Square Garden

This is mostly because I love New York City and really want to go there at some point in my life. I love everything about the city and I think a Chicago Blackhawks vs. the New York Rangers game would be awesome to watch in New York City.

So if anyone has extra tickets, to these events lying around, you know who to give them to.