THE FINALS

THE FINALS

Day 4

Mon, April 4, 2016

WOW!!!  That is all we can say.  Although Houston continues to disappoint us, that final game sure did not.  Could not have asked for a better finish for sure, and we do not think we have to elaborate on this.  We are still amazed.

9:00 – Everyone is up.

9:01 – Sinickal makes a Dunkin Donut run to make up for the fact that it was blocked off on Sunday.  This is the longest Dunkinless Donut streak of his career.

10:02 – While watching some news and catching up on our collective work e-mails and calls (it is Monday after all), Sinickal brings up an engineering dispute in which he has been appointed the arbiter.  Pepster states the reasons must have been because he is so neutral and unopinionated.

11:48 – Ready to head out for some barbecue, and Sinickal notices that Doug Christie (Corey) is wearing a Brown University shirt.  As Doug Christie also did not attend Brown, Sinickal asks him which girl asked him to wear that.  Doug Christie tried to answer before Sinickal tells him that he could have worn the Brown shirt to the Syracuse – North Carolina game because as an Ivy League school they were not even in the Final Four.  Pepster reminds them that Brown is barely an Ivy League school.  Tony, remembering yesterday’s conversation about Doug Christie’s hatred of Providence, reminds Doug Christie that Brown is IN Providence.

11:59 – At Jackson’s Bar-B-Q near Minute Maid Stadium.  DELICIOUS!

12:44 – An employee, who has more fun at his job than anyone else has at their job, is walking around asking if anybody needs anything and thanking everyone for coming to Jacksons.  He says, “Just like Michael Jackson, if there is no you, there is no us”.

12:53 – On the walk to FanFest we walk on the campus of Minute Maid Park right next to the stadium.  You can see the entire field from the sidewalk outside of the left field part of the stadium, and you can tell baseball season has begun.  Field looks GREAT.

12:55 – Walk past the 5 7 Grill inside the stadium.  5 7 is so called because it is the numbers of Astros greats Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio.  Sinickal asks if “The waitresses have to put the needles into your arm for you, or can you do it on your own?”

13:09 – We get to FanFest in the convention center, and there is so much construction that large swaths of the convention center and areas immediately adjacent are completely inaccessible.  This town has known about this event for about 5 years, including the fact that FanFest would be in the convention center.  Just horrific planning.

13:21 – Kenny “The Jet” Smith is playing pop-a-shot with fans.  Pepster believes we can walk right up to him because “He must remember Doug Christie from their days in North Carolina together.”

13:28 – Enter the LG exhibit because it looks interesting (it isn’t).  The greeter comes up and says, “Hi, my name is Gisele”.  Pepster asks her where Tom is.  She doesn’t miss a beat.  “He was acting up so I left his butt in Boston.”

13:39 – “GP are you with me”.  Yes, the Glove himself, Gary Payton is taking pictures with fans.

13:42 – Decide we want to exit FanFest and we see some foot traffic heading toward doors clearly marked with the standard exit sign.  As we approach the exit doors, a FanFest employee is telling everyone to turn around as that doorway, “Isn’t an exit”.  When Pepster points out the “Exit” sign, she is offended and tells us to follow her so she can show us something.  When she gets to where she wants to be, she points down the convention hall to a sign that says, “Exit”.  Sinickal tells her that the sign, “Looks exactly like the other one”.  She is absolutely dumbfounded.

14:01 – At a merchandise tent near Discovery Park, where the NCAA Final Four concert series was held, one of the employees is telling a potential customer that he has one game ball left, and it is “The ball they use during the game”.  Sinickal tells him, “Not if that customer buys it”.

14:14 – At Tejas Grill again to do a last sweep for merchandise.  [Editor’s Note – The merchandise shop from yesterday is right next to Tejas, accessible from inside the restaurant].  Same slow service as yesterday.  Houston really has no idea how to throw a big event.

14:24 – Doug Christie buys Miss North Carolina a souvenir. He was not gone long, so his 48 minute reconnaissance mission yesterday must have done some good.  [Editor’s Note – Most of us bought somebody a souvenir of some type – it wasn’t just Doug Christie.]

15:04 – The JW Marriott merchandise shop is closed.  The JW Marriott was the Syracuse hotel.

As an aside, Syracuse was the only team that stayed downtown.  The other 3 all stayed out near the Galleria – miles upon miles away.  To generate buzz, this event needs to be held in a city that is more compact.

15:08 – Back to the townhouse to recharge.  Our Uber driver Barry is nuts, probably certifiable.  Everything to this guy is funny, including Silas’s belief that Syracuse is going to win tonight.  Barry drops us off to the chant that only he is saying, “Let’s go Syracuse”.

17:21 – Doug Christie is wearing his North Carolina blue again.

17:30 – At a downtown establishment called Christian’s Tailgates.  How have we not seen this place before?  We definitely should not have missed it.

17:37 – While again lighting in on Doug Christie, Doug responds by attacking Sinickal for not wearing his Syracuse orange (he is wearing Cubs gear in support of Opening Day).  Sinickal responds, “I don’t want to root against you!”  Doug really should have re-thought his plan to bring that Carolina shirt.

17:40 – Sinickal asks Doug Christie, “When do you have to give that shirt back?  Do you have to wash it first?”

17:42 – Preparing to leave Tailgates to head to NRG Stadium when we see a 50 cents wings on Monday sign.  Since we have not eaten after Jackson’s Bar-B-Q, nor have we needed to, we think we will want something after the game.  See a manager to ask what time they close tonight and he says “2”, but walks away before we can ask if the wing special was all day or just happy hour.  The bartender comes by and we ask him about the wings.  The wing special is all day, but the kitchen closes 30 minutes before the restaurant does.  Since we now assume we can order food as late as 1:30, the bartender tells us that they don’t know what time they close, they usually close at 12 on Monday, this was the first time the employees heard that the restaurant was going to stay open until 2, and they hope it does not stay open that late because the bartenders and waitresses all go to college and have class in the morning.  When informed that they could go to class a little tired once in a while to make some money while the big event is in town, the bartender responds, “And I have to go to a wake tomorrow because my grandmother just died”.  That would ordinarily be a legitimate excuse to not have to stay late, but it wasn’t the excuse he tried to use initially.  Priorities I suppose.

17:54 – Board the light rail platform to purchase our ride tickets, and the machine is absolutely impossible to use.  A light rail employee has to help us, telling Tony his mistake was “pushing it [his credit card] too fast and that you have to give it to her slow.”  Sinickal tells the employee how un-user friendly their transportation machinery is and the guy is flabbergasted.  He doesn’t understand that two of us actually work in the transportation industry.

17:59 – Notice that the restaurant on the corner is called Moonshiners.  This is important because we thought the name of the restaurant was Southern Hospitality.  So, the entire rant against Southern Hospitality from yesterday was actually directed toward Moonshiners.  Apparently there is not a restaurant named Southern Hospitality in Houston.

18:49 – At NRG Stadium – milling around in the official “NCAA Tailgate”.  Lots to see, not a lot to do except to mentally prepare for the game.

19:11 – The female barker for the Coca-Cola exhibit which includes a mechanical bull, a photo backdrop that says “Final Four” and lots of music is encouraging people to come over by saying into the microphone , “Rock out with your Coke out!”

19:26 – While walking around we see a guy in what has to be a Duke t-shirt.  We say has to be because we only see the back which says, “Real Men Don’t Wear Powder Blue”.  Sinickal superimposes a picture of the back of that shirt with a newly taken picture of Doug Christie wearing “his” North Carolina polo.

19:39 – Tony notices that the girl – the one girl that was at Tailgates – just walked by us.  She was rather nondescript and only really noticeable because we were the only ones in Tailgates earlier.  Doug Christie not only fails to notice her, but fails to even understand what Tony is trying to say by repeating to Tony, “What girl?  From where?”  This frustrates Tony to the point where he throws his (empty) aluminum bottle of Bud on the ground and dents it.

19:43 – Doug Christie then gets mad at something Tony says and “mic drops” his (empty) aluminum bottle to the ground.  Nothing happens to the bottle.  Tony says “That is the difference between Providence and Newport.”

19:59 – Inside NRG Stadium, raring to go.

Radio silence during the game (or so we thought).

20:47 – Doug Christie is gone for what seems like an inordinately long time.  We think he ran into an old Carolina classmate that may have had an extra club level ticket. [He didn’t].

20:55 – Doug Christie returns proclaiming that he hadn’t been gone that long.  It was 8 minutes after we already thought he was gone too long.

20:55:30 – Sinickal tells Doug Christie that he values nothing that men value.

20:57 – Sinickal turns to Pepster and Tony and says about Doug Christie, “He had to go see about a girl”.  You gotta love a Good Will Hunting reference.

22:24 – Marcus Paige shot.  WOW!!!  We thought his previous play (missed layup, rebound which nobody knows how he got the ball, and ensuing basket) was amazing, but nothing like a double clutch virtually last second three.  (Free basketball in overtime perhaps?)

22:24 – Nearly everyone throws their free seat cushion into the air (and onto the sections below them).  This is the last time the NCAA gives out seat cushions ever again, we are certain.

22:25 – Sinickal notes that every time North Carolina plays a Final Four game in this part of the country something weird happens.  Both the 1982 Final Four (The Jordan shot and the Fred Brown pass to James Worthy) and the 1993 Final Four (The Chris Webber timeout) were played in the New Orleans Superdome.

22:28 – OH OUR GOD!!!!   Kris Jenkins!!!!  His shot was nowhere near as difficult as Marcus Paige’s, but much more important and will be remembered in basketball history.  ABSOLUTE PANDEMONIUM in the stands.

22:32 – Guy from down our row wearing a Roy Williams autographed North Carolina jersey comes over to Doug Christie and says simply, “What are we gonna do”. 

22:44 – One Shining Moment

22:48 – On the concourse to exit the stadium and we see a dolt wearing a Christian Laettner Duke jersey.  It takes Sinickal, Tony and Doug Christie to keep Pepster from knocking him down and stomping on his chest.  Pepster exclaims, “I still hate Christian Laettner!”.

23:37 – Get near the front of the Light Rail line (going south to go north once again), and the line seems to have stalled.  Tony yells to nobody in particular, “C’mon train, I am sober!”  Sinickal wants it noted that he – Sinickal – is not the angry one.  [Editor’s Note – It turns out the line stalled because of a train – vehicle collision].

23:47 – On train.

23:51 – At the next station which is where the trains turnaround.  We get to stay in our seats for the entire return ride.

23:12 – We find the video of the cheerleader that punches out the North Carolina mascot after Jenkins’s game-winning shot.  If you haven’t seen it, FIND IT.

00:31 – Tailgates is open – Kind of.  We immediately try to order wings only to find out the kitchen just closed (the place is closing at 1).  We debate whether to have one there before we go eat, or just go eat.  We stayed.  And boy are we glad we did.

00:42 (approximately) – Drunk girl at the end of the bar (who we later find out is the bar back’s cousin) orders two shots.  In all honestly, this was not important at the time which is why the time is approximate.  We only note it because of what later transpired.  After trying to determine if the shots were going to be bitter – they weren’t, they were made almost entirely from  Schnapps - she drinks both shots.

00:45 – She orders two more shots.

00:47 – Another customer asks our bartender (Daniel – the same guy from before the game) for something.  Drunk girl yells out “Ignore him!  Make My Shots!”

00:48 – She again drinks both shots.

00:48 – An older gentlemen named Colin is sitting next to Drunky.  He is known by the entire staff and is asked by someone about his wife or girlfriend.  He says, “I don’t care if it is her birthday; I’d rather go home, masturbate, and cry myself to sleep.

00:50 – Drunky orders two more shots.  Her 5^th and 6^th since we have been there.

00:55 – Waitress who just finished working asks Daniel for a Mango Margarita.  He just looks at his watch and shakes his head.  Nevertheless he makes her a margarita.

00:56 – Bar back, who is now off work, just says to nobody in particular, “I don’t know why they cut me off last night”.

00:58 – Preparing for tomorrow, Sinickal asks Daniel if we can have 50 cent wings tomorrow since the kitchen closed early on us today.  Daniels says that Tuesday is “Taco Tuesday”.  Pepster says, “Tacos are just Mexican Wings!”

01:03 – We see the Sports Center replay of Michael Jordan’s reaction to Jenkins’s shot.  Sinickal tries to take bets from the room that Jordan drafts him!

01:05 – Drunky declares to everybody, “I just need to walk home!”

[Editor’s Note – There is no way to properly convey how funny this half hour or so was observing these people in the bar, but we have to try.]

01:09 – OKRA, from Saturday, is open and has a kitchen. 

01:12 – OKRA’s kitchen is closed.

01:14 – Everybody we talk to say that the only food in practically the entire city is Whataburger or Katz’s Deli.  Since Katz’s deli is open 24/7 – we go there.

01:23 –Two of the four other people in OKRA are just distraught guys wearing North Carolina colors.  They bounce their discussion back-and-forth between (1) What a shot; I can’t believe he hit that.  That was amazing; and (2) We got jobbed.  The officiating was horrible.  One thing they do agree on, Houston was not the best place to host a Final Four.  They think we bond so they ask if they can share our Uber to Katz’s deli.  No way two other people can fit with us.

01:46 – Katz’s deli!  Although open 24/7, the bar closes at 2 (with all alcohol off tables at 2:15.  We order two beers before we sit down at our table to order.

01:49 – Sinickal orders celebratory (for the weekend) Jameson’s shots.  Doug Christie asks who on earth drinks Jameson’s shots at 2.  Sinickal answers, “People who can’t drink at 2:05!”

01:52 – The personification of Trumpsterfire walks into Katz’s.  He is wearing a “Make America Great Again” shirt, and he looks like he would wear a “Make America Great Again” shirt. Both arms are prosthetic.  She looks even more disheveled, apparently having lost her bra in a bet.

01:53 – Doug Christie sips his Jameson.

01:54 – Bartender refers to us as a “frat party”.  We are actually offended by this because none of us are from a frat, and we were not particularly boisterous.  I guess he doesn’t sell a lot of Jameson’s at the deli.

02:01 – Bartender loudly announces that the “Bar is closed” in several languages, to which our table responds to each announcement in same language.  He is even more flummoxed.

02:17 – While trying to get Doug Christie to understand the reasons we have been referring to him as “Doug Christie”, Sinickal quotes Allison’s response to Day 2 in which she says, “Part of me thinks [Doug Christie] needs a hug after all that.  But part of me wants to reach over and thump him on the forehead.”  Sinickal notes that this is important because “Allison doesn’t believe in violence”.  Pepster adds, “She doesn’t even believe in non-violence!”.

02:45 – Tony walks into the restroom and sees Trumpsterfire in the restroom.  Her pants were lowered down to her thighs and he was a couple of feet away from him.  Tony goes to exit and she says, “It’s OK.  Come on in”.  Tony exits.

02:50 – After the food is delivered, Doug Christie notes, “This is way better than Whataburger”.  Indeed.

03:24 – After Uber – we are home … and still amazed by the end of the game!!!