1, no, 2, oh wait, 3

Sporting events in three days. I think that's a new record for me. Admitted I do follow the Lions closely for whatever unfathomable reason, but sports generally is far from the center of my universe.

The first of the events was to go see Brian play in his first game on Saturday night with the Oostburg Rebels, a semi-pro team in the Wisconsin State Football League. This is a full-pads, standard rules football league that guys 18+ pay good money to participate in after they have passed the try outs. His participation in the team caused some management concerns from those I report to, but that seems to have died out some after I ignored them (the short version). The game was fun to watch. It was a mix between High School and College football minus the extreme rivalry. Nick, one of the other young guys on our staff, joined Brian's wife and I in seeing the game. I'm planning to go again this weekend out in Oshkosh and invited the staff in the area. Oh yeah, they lost and Brian is a defensive back playing the nickel. Watching him on the side line was a lot like seeing my brother at his games. Whenever he wasn't on the field, he was pacing the sidelines intensely following the action rarely without his helmet on.

Sunday I drove out to Appleton to see the Wisconsin Timberrattlers play baseball. Nick has season tickets just behind the home dugout so the view was good. The 'rattlers are a single-A farm team for the Mariners. There is a fair amount of team pride in the community and attendance at games gets up to over 5,000 some games. Besides being a fun game to watch, I got a chance to know Nick better and found we have a lot in common besides being the only two single people on staff. The 'rattlers won.

Monday was Cub Scout night at the Sheboygan A's baseball game. They're a semi-pro local team similar to the Rebels. One of the Cubmasters arranged the game to be free for the Scouts and families and had a bunch of door prizes to hand out. I got to schmooze a lot. The A's won as well.

Preseason football for the Lions starts Friday against Denver. Sadly I doubt that I will be able to watch it. On the upside though, my Lions flag came in on Tuesday so I can hang it in my front window on game day...or wear it like a cape...