Spetember 26, 2008

So I see in the paper today that tonight's Wings game against the Bruins will be aired on the radio, and I'm pumped. I mean, it's the next best thing to watching the game on TV, right? So a few minutes before the puck drop, I get out my trusty CD player/radio and tune i to 1270 AM. Well, I TRY to tune in, but all I get is static. So I think, "No problem, I'll just dial it in on the car radio and have a couple of beers while I listen to the game." But when I turn the knob to the station, the signal is so weak I can barely hear the announcer's voice. Not to mention I'm getting coverage of a high school football game coming in OVER the 1270 signal. So I turn off the ignition, head back into the house and open up my laptop, thinking surely there must be a way to listen to the game on the Internet. After a little snooping around I discover 16 Detroit radio stations, all airing coverage of... the TIGERS! Need I say more? Probably not, but I'm going to anyway. Okay, we have the Red Wings, a championship team embarking on the defense of their 4th title in 11 years, and we have the Tigers, a last-place, underachieving, cellar-dwelling, collossal FLOP of a franchise going absolutley nowhere (except maybe a little deeper into the proverbial hole), and every last one of these pathetic stations decides their game is more important. Huh? I mean, I know the Tigers game is a regular season game, and the Wings game is just an exhibition tilt, but HUH??? Sorry for the repetition, but that's the only expression that comes to my mind when I try to make sense of this. When something defies logic, my brain tends to get a little scrambled.

So I'll either check out NHL.com later on for the final score, or wait until tomorrow and read about it in the paper. IF I can find it anywhere. The good news is the September 30th game against the Canadiens is scheduled to air on Versus, and after that two more against the Leafs and Sabres. Then the regular season starts. 82 games, all on TV. No dialing through static on the radio, no surfing the Net for updates, no scanning newspapers the next day only to find that word that screams poor journalism, inconclusive. Just me, my cozy chair, an ice cold beer, and the Red Wings. God, I love October.