Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Triple Overtime Observations
Sunday
June 9, 2002
"She's looking at you
I don't think so, she's looking at me..."
-Counting Crows "Mr. Jones"
Saturday night was a very interesting experience. As I mentioned on here briefly yesterday, I chose the NHL Finals Game 3 over Tyson/Lewis. HBO will be showing the replay of that on Saturday (though I'll be out of town and my parents don't have HBO), but perhaps I'll catch a replay of the replay at some point.
I watched the first OT of the Wings/Hurricanes game here at my apartment, then headed out. I went to a place where I knew the game would be on: Bar Tampa.
When I arrived, the place was pretty dead for midnight on a Saturday night. I was pretty surprised, but soon enough my attention was on the TV screen. The bar slowly filled up, but I kept watching the exciting game. I love NHL playoff hockey: the game could end at any point, or it could keep going on and on indefinitely. Sports drama at its finest.
The scene started to pick up, and the collection of gorgeous, scantily clad women made their presence known. Did I mention how much I love living here??? Bar Tampa quickly filled up with the typical crowd you'd find there on any given Saturday night.
But with the hockey game on, an interesting thing happened. I was intent on watching the game, but I kept noticing girls out of the corner of my eye looking at me or trying to subtly get my attention. The more I ignored them and watched the game, the more they tried. It was amusing. Something to keep in mind for the future, I suppose. As Morrisey says, "The more you ignore me, the closer I get." Or something like that. But my thinking was: I can chase women in Ybor anytime, but triple overtime Stanley Cup final hockey is very rare. But this seemed to actually help my cause.
One scene was particularly classic. During the intermission between the second and third OTs, I actually turned my attention toward the ladies in the club. This really hot girl with blonde hair was doing this dance that was like something more from the Columbia restaurant's salsa dancers than the typical club scene. But it was mesmerizing. This guy seemed to be there with her (or at least trying to be), and I swear when I saw him I did a double take, cause he looked just like David Flair (hey, for all I know it was). But the salsa girl was clearly doing her best to get my attention, enough so to where the David Flair guy gave me one of those "hey, I guess she wants you" nods. Good times.
For the record, Detroit won on a goal with just a few minutes left in triple OT... at about 1:15 AM Eastern Time. But it could've conceivably gone on until past when the Ybor bars are forced to close (3 AM).
One eerie thing about Bar Tampa is the nighttime painting of New York City on the far wall by the DJ booth... complete with the World Trade Center twin tours. A little creepy, even after several beers. Not to say that the WTC should be forgotten or ignored, but it's just strange to see it in that setting.
Today has been good, save for an ant invasion. Not quite sure what caused the ants to appear en masse, but it's not been pleasant. I've found that Windex of all things is actually useful in killing the little bastards. Rest assured that the Camden Ybor will be receiving a phone call early in the morning. This needs to be fixed... and in a hurry. Ants in my apartment=no fun. And there's no logical reason for them, considering I'm on the second floor of an apartment building that's only a little more than a year old. And my apartment is clean, so there's no reason for the swarm. Not that I can see, at least.
Lakers beat the Nets again... The floodgates are open. L.A. could sweep it and avoid a Game 5 at the Staples Center. The Western Conference finals truly were the climax of the playoffs. As Brook Gardiner aptly put it to me today, it's like in the early-mid 90's when the Cowboys and 49ers feuded in some classic showdowns for the NFC Title, with the winner landing a cakewalk in the Super Bowl (Dallas 52, Buffalo 17; Dallas 30, Buffalo 17; San Francisco 49, San Diego 26, etc.) But unlike those games, which all took place in one day, this championship mismatch stretches out for multiple weeks. Ugh.
| 
