Get to know me.... a little more

As you've probably realized by now, there are two distinctly different "Know yer blogger" games going on right now, and I've been tagged in both. Now, I must answer the questionnaire of doom.

First, though, I want to amend my "five weird things about me". I realized that the road trip thing isn't really all that weird. Lots of people do that. Some people make a career out of it. Anyway, I thought of something weirder.

I like to shower in the dark. During my college days, one of my buddies thought it would be a riot to shut the lights off on me while I was in the shower. Residence hall-type atmosphere. No windows in the bathroom. It was pitch dark. I kinda liked it, and showered that way for the remainder of my college days. To this day, I still prefer to shower in the dark. It's exhilarating. There's something bizarrely stranger-esque about it. Maybe too much information there.

Anyway.... here's the questionnaire.

1. Have you ever been in a fantasy league?. I've been playing in the same fantasy football league for about 6 years now. No playoffs. I usually finish third, but last season, I was awful and avoided the cellar only by reeling off three straight Ws to close the season.
   I hate baseball, but some buddies from work tricked me into joining their fantasy baseball league three years ago. My team is a perennial laughing stock. It's fun, though. Way more good natured trash talking in that league with people I (for the most part) have never met than in the football league with people I've been friends with for 15 years.
   I was in a fantasy hockey league for the first time ever last season. Nobody took it seriously, though.
   I always play in several "March Madness" pools, including the on-line one at ESPN. Two years ago, I won my group (42 entries) and finished in the top 50 nationwide.
   
   
2. What was the first sports jersey you ever owned. When I was in high school (late 1980's, Charlotte North Carolina) I became obsessed with the Charlotte Hornets. I owned a bunch of t-shirts, and probably at one point had a Kendall Gill jersey (or at least a t-shirt that looked like one). Fast forward a decade and a half. When the Hurricanes were in the 2002 playoffs, I ordered a cheap-o replica "road" sweater from some bargain basement website. Its inauthenticity wasn't really discernible, but let's just say that the manufacturer's branding wasn't correct. At the tail end of the 2003-04 season, the Canes out of the playoffs, the team store offered deep discounts on top of the STH discount on merchandise. I got a "home" VASICEK 63 sweater, which I wore all throughout the 05-06 season and playoffs. During the ECF, I bought a WILLIAMS 11 "home" sweater, which I had been looking for all season. I haven't worn it yet, and it will make its debut on Williams' 25th birthday, which coincides with opening night, and the banner raising, and (as fate would have it) the day following my own 35th birthday.
   
3. Top 5 sports books I don't read "sports books". I've only ever read two "sports books". In retrospect, one of them (The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella) was kind of lame. The other, Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand, is incredible. Although the movie was good, the book is a thing of beauty, and vastly superior to its film adaptation. Underworld by Don DeLillo isn't a "sports book", but baseball is featured somewhat prominently. Specifically the homerun (ball) that won the 1951 National League pennant for the Brooklyn Dodgers. At a later date, I will list my favorite sports movies, but this is already getting long-winded.
   
   
4. 10 favorite athletes. I could easily name 10 guys from the 2005-06 Canes roster, but I won't. I intentionally named all inactive players. In no particular order, and without including the obvious Wayne Gretzky:
   • Mike Eruzione
     
   • Ron Francis (sorry. I know it's cliche)
     
   • Doug Flutie
     
   • John McEnroe
     
   • Larry Bird
     
   • Willie Mays
     
   • Sugar Ray Leonard
     
   • Steve Largent
     
   • Barry Sanders
     
   • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
   
   
   
5. Three Athletes I secretly admire but am ashamed to admit it for fear of ridicule. I don't much care for this question. Instead, I'll name two athletes I secretly dislike but am ashamed to admit it for fear of ridicule
   • Michael Jordan --- I was born in Chapel Hill. My dad went to UNC, and I disappointed him by not going there myself. I love the Tar Heels and he's the golden god and all that, but I just don't care about him. Michael Jordan, I mean.
     
   • Tiger Woods --- It isn't just because he's so much better than everyone that it's unfair. Maybe that's part of it. There's just something about him that I don't like. I don't know.
   
   
   
6. Three people (outside family) you would pay to have coffee with What the hell kind of question is that? If I were a Miss America contestant, my answer would be (a) Jesus (2) Martin Luther King, Jr and (III) Helen Keller. Is that what I'm supposed to say? Is this that kind of question? Ahhhh...
   
   • Parker Posey
     
   • Cameron Crowe
     
   • Conan O'Brien
   
   
   Of course there are thousands of celebrities I would pay to have coffee with hand tens of thousands of regular folks. These are just three names that instantly popped into my head.
   
   
7. One Thing You Could Change if you Could. It seems like I'm not supposed to give an answer like "I wouldn't have killed that hooker in Phoenix back in '87" I'm supposed to give a sports-related answer. Mine is Superbowl XXXVIII. 1:08 to go in the fourth quarter. The Carolina Panthers have just tied the game. John Kasay, usually steady as a rock, kicks the ensuing kickoff out of bounds, giving the Patriots the ball on their own 40-yard line. They ultimately kicked the winning field goal with :04 remaining. Any decent kickoff by Kasay would have wound time off the clock, would have pinned the Patriots deeper, and would likely have meant the game would go to overtime. I would change that. I would make him kick the ball in-bounds.

Because it might get him to actually write something, I tag my friend Bill Purdy, who used to write The Bitter Buffalo, and who also provided me with lots of excellent tailgating memories from our Cup triumph. I also tag Pat Angelo, who is an Avs fan, a friend of Bill's, and was on the CBC.ca hockey blogger roundtable with me.

I think every other person who's in the hockey blogosphere has been tagged at least once.