((blackstreet voice) play on playa ... play on playa ... left to right back row: "o christmas tree, o christmas tree" ... then brent, sweet television, and gregg. left to right front row: the (no longer self described) hot as hell 32 year old author of this blog, his roommate dusty. photo: ashley).
First allow me to apologize for the lack of posting so far this month. There is so much I want to write and vent about, such as Barack Obama (and "The People's Champ", Joey Biden!!!) assuming control of the country. Scott Pioli assuming control of the franchise I literally give thousands of dollars to every season to watch play.
My only excuses are that (a) I am swamped at work with a profit center reclass that has me working 12 hours a day plus Saturday between the office and home to meet next week's deadline, and (b) I'm in week 7 of the cold / flu bug I got at the KU / MU game. Seriously, this thing is like Al Pacino in Godfather III, "just when I think I'm out, something pulls me back in!"
Anyways, I promise to try to do better going forward. And since its like -5 degrees outside on a Thursday night, what else is there to do but blog?
So in that spirit ...
Two weeks ago, Gregg hosted the latest BuKCs watching party. Only this one had a couple surprises.
The first surprise ... was my birthday present, a fully restored photo of my favorite pic of all time! Me, Jasson and Gregg (plus Gregg's mom) walking into Lot G at the start of tailgating, for the Chargers game in 2000. It was the last season that it was the three of us. It was from a time ... well, before things turned ugly for me for a while. So yeah, that pic has meaning for me. I don't care how cheezy that sounds, that pic has meaning for me.
(That, and it ain't eazy bein' cheezy).
But secondly, we apparently got a belated Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / (guy sharing the cab in the fidelity ad voice) "Why Not"? gift from our good friends in the BuKCs front office. On the top of the package was a personalized signed letter from BuKCs GM John Hammond:
("makin' our dreams come true! for me and you ..." a letter from milwaukee's finest! and i don't mean hazzenpheffer incorporated ... photo: the crappy rocketfish webcam. (sleazy 70s game show announcer voice) rocketfish webcams, for all your "reputable singles site" chatting needs! "reputable singles site", as hyped by robin, fred, artie and howard on a memorable mid october howard stern show, uuh, show ...)
In addition to the letter that graced the top of the package, we were sent media guides, calendars, hats, schedule magnets, official BuKCs stationary ... this thing was the freaking Holy Grail of fan-recognition packages.
But the piece de resistance, no matter how you slice it, was the letter from GM John Hammond. To get a personally signed letter from the GM of the BuKCs to his "Bandwagon Fans" in KC ... well, we had to respond.
(Our response package should arrive at BuKCs World Headquarters sometime tomorrow, according to FedEx tracking. Can't wait to see the next response).
In all seriousness ... I expected nothing when this "journey" as BuKCs fans began. I hoped we'd have a few fun nights of basketball and boozing. I never imagined I could pick a team to back, that would actually want a fanbase. After years of throwing money at the Chiefs, I was used to having a stick shoved up my ass as thanks for my loyalty. This has been ...
Well, I'll let our letter do the talking.
Go BuKCs Go!
(sk 1/15: I apologize for the formatting issues. Apparently Word doesn't copy into Blogger as perfectly as I hoped it would. That, and its 10:50pm on a worknight, I am not reformatting this bad boy for your viewing pleasure. Just read it. (assistant principle in "lean on me" voice) Joe Clark! Read this! Read it! Wow I've been watching too many crappy yet inspirational late 80s movies lately ...)
----------------
(my address)
(buKCs world headquarters address)
Dear Mr. Hammond:
The “Bandwagon Bucks Fans” of Kansas City would like to take a moment to
thank you for your generous and completely unexpected gift package that
we received a week ago from you.
When we started this journey as Bucks fans (or “BuKCs” fans, as we call
ourselves) a couple months ago, we had no idea what to expect. Never in
our wildest dreams did we imagine the encouragement and support that you,
your front office, and your customer service department have shown us.
Almost immediately after we sent our initial letter, we received a care
package from the Bucks customer service department. Included in this
package was a letter thanking us for our support, as well as team
schedules, team magnets, team pens, thunder sticks, and other assorted
goodies that are not available anywhere here in Kansas City. Even more
impressively, this package arrived in time for our first watching party,
the November 7 game in Boston. To say the Bucks customer support staff’s
response won us over is an understatement.
But as great as the immediate response from your awesome customer support
staff was, we never imagined receiving anything more than that. So it was
with great surprise and enjoyment that Gregg and his wife returned home
after Christmas to find your package on their doorstep. They managed to
keep the news under wraps from the rest of us for a week, until our first
watching party of the New Year, on January 2 against Charlotte.
When Gregg produced the package you sent us, we were completely blown away.
We must have spent half the game asking trivia questions out of the media
guides you provided. The calendars are hanging in cubicles in three
different companies here in Kansas City. The schedule magnets are hanging
on our refrigerators. And the hats, the lunch bags / coolers, were
incredibly generous and do nothing but boost our support and love for this
team.
Hence the purpose of this letter: we greatly appreciated the personal
correspondence to the "Bandwagon Bucks Fans." There are few, if any,
general managers in any sport that would take the time to personally
address his team's fans, let alone acknowledge them. So we just wanted to
let you know, there is nothing "Bandwagon" about us. We are with this team
for good.
What began as a group of three of us grew to five almost overnight. And
that group of five grew to eight at our first party, the road game in
Boston. A week later, most of us were at a concert we had been looking
forward to all fall ... only we missed the opening songs because we were
huddled around Damien's Blackberry getting play by play updates of the
exciting overtime win in Charlotte. Friday nights have become "date night"
for most of us ... only, it is a date with the television to watch the Bucks
battle the opposition. We have seen two tough losses: to the Celtics at that
first party, and to the Pistons a week ago. We have also seen some great
wins, like the rout against the Bobcats last week, and the awesome win in
San Antonio to complete the season sweep.
We have also had fun trying to top one another with our latest Bucks wardrobe
addition. Everyone has a t-shirt sporting the awesome old-school logo.
Nothing can top the original Bucks logo! It is a timeless classic. Player
jerseys, jersey t-shirts, hats, you name it someone has purchased it to
show their support for our team.
We have also adopted a player to personally cheer for. Brent grabbed up
Michael Redd. Gregg roots on the Awesome Aussie, Andrew Bogut. Steve has
a man crush on Luke Ridnour. Damien backs Ramon Sessions. Dusty is on
board the Richard Jefferson bandwagon.
Which leads us to say this:
We began this initial season as Bucks fans to find a NBA team to unite
around and support. Instead, the NBA team we love has united to support
us, a bunch of NBA fans 500 miles from Milwaukee. It is unbelievable to
find a team, an organization, that actually doesn’t just say “fans first”,
but practices what they preach. The Milwaukee Bucks definitely put their
fans first!
As your "official fans" in Kansas City, we wish you continued success as
2008 turns into 2009. It has been awesome to log onto ESPN’s site and see
the Bucks playoff odds hovering in the 90 plus percent range for the last
week. It has been great to tune in for every game and hear the broadcast of
Jim and Jon. They are so much more energized this season, thanks to your
arrival and personnel moves that have made the Bucks playoff contenders.
And we’ve been doing our part, not only voting early and often at
www.seejoedunk.com to get Joe Alexander in the Sprite Slam Dunk contest,
but encouraging everyone we know to do the same.
We hope to make it to Milwaukee later this year for a game, if we can all
coordinate our schedules and get the time off from work. If it cannot
happen, we will definitely be there next year, Ready to Rise for our
Milwaukee Bucks!
Thank you again for your generosity and for your encouragement of us and
Bucks fans everywhere. As a small token of our appreciation, we hope you
will accept our small gift of some authentic Kansas City barbeque sauce and
some hometown Boulevard microbrew. We also enclosed a few action
shots of your "official" Kansas City Chapter of BuKCs fans doing what we do
best: rooting our guys on to victory!
(Just make sure you hide the Gates sauce from Tyronn Lue; the kid from
Raytown will know good barbeque when he smells it!)
Sincerely,
The Bandwagon “BuKCs” Fans
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