Boise Burn

So, moving from an area that I lived in for most of my life that had; two NFL teams, two MLB teams, an NHL team, an NBA team, several major college programs, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Al Davis etc.....the change in sports landscape has been one of the more drastic changes for me out of the whole deal.

We have; a major/minor college program (depending on where you fall on the whole MAC conference debate) and wow, it kind of drops off a cliff after that. We have a MLB Minor league franchise (kind of...it's A-Ball), a ECHL Minor League Hockey team (albeit league champs last year and the year before), an NBA D-Ball team (also league champs last year)....not a hotbed of major league talent. But better that all that, last year was the first year for our Arena League 2 team the Boise Burn.

That's right, not Arena Football, MINOR LEAGUE Arena Football. So we decided to give it a shot this year. Jake had gotten tickets for his birthday from his Grandma Mary and Auntie Sue so we went out last night (Nana stayed home with Faith). It was a good game and really enjoyable for the most part. 

There are three former BSU Broncos that play on the team, so Jake was really excited about that, and it is Arena League Football, so it's pretty exciting to watch....lot's of scoring, balls flying into the crowd etc. This was probably Tanner's favorite live sporting event that we have been to, because the Burn do not have a mascot in a big costume. Tanner happliy pointed out half way thru the game that there was no mascot, and was able to let his guard down and just enjoy the game on the field instead of keeping constant tabs on the giant Hawk or Husky or whatever.

Arena crowds are football crowds (and if you are keeping a list, football crowds rank at pretty near bottom of the list of "family friendly" environments. Surprisingly enough, hockey crowds are at the top of the list). But the two jackasses behind us, insisted on describing all the various body parts of the cheerleaders, using "colorful" language to say the least, when it's fairly obvious that we have two small kids with us. I turned around of couple of times and made my displeasure known, but they would stop for a bit and start up again later. After Tanner got an entire cup of beer dumped over his head (which was an accident and they did feel really bad about) I went down and asked to be moved, which the stadium people were really cool about. They found us much better seats and moved us without a problem.

It was a fun time out, followed as always by sleepover night (me in one bed with one kid, Marisa in another with the other), but I think I'll maybe hit a couple of hockey games next year and concentrate on BSU games for my football fix. The Boise Hawks start up here in a month or so and I am looking forward to taking the kids out to catch a ball game or two (even one's with infield doubles...).