The Most Shirtless Email You'll Ever Read

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Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd.

Ahhh yes, sports games.

There’s nothing really like it honestly.

Today I am simply going to talk about how my sports fandom came about and some of the most exciting games I have ever attended over the years.

What sparked this thought for a Diary post was a “three years ago today” Snapchat memory on my phone of me mentally dominating an MLB Cy Young winner leading the Red Sox to a playoff victory (full story below).

Plus, I hit Gillette Stadium on Sunday, where the 6-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots play, and it just reminded me how fun going to games can be.

Maybe a thrilling Jumbotron experience sparked that very deep emotional feeling.

I know, the red suit to match the Patriots Hall of Fame jackets is a clean look.

Some people prefer to watch sports in the comfort of their own homes on TV.

Trust me, I love nothing more than a Sunday football on the couch rotting away watching 10 hours straight of football (13 hours when the 9am London Game is in affect).

BUT, I love attending games.

Football, Hockey, Baseball, Basketball. All of them. Hell, even a little college lacrosse can get my juices flowing (shoutout my Colgate Raiders who will be a problem in the Patriot League this year).

In honor of my outfits at these games, I am writing this post completely shirtless listening to Thunderstruck… literally.

Blame the Patriots

I started life on 3rd base when it came to being a sports fan.

For starters, I grew up in Massachusetts in the golden era of winning. So, it made being a sports fans pretty damn fun.

Any season that didn’t result in a championship was a massive failure. I've seen 13 banners raised across the four major sports since I was born in 1996 and one from each hometown team.

Patriots: 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016, 2018

Red Sox: 2004, 2007, 2013 & 2018.

Celtics: 2008 & 2024.

Bruins: 2011.

Jealous? Yeah, I would be too.

Like it’s hilarious, the decade the Patriots went without a ring came with 4 titles from other teams. Special stuff.

Second of all, I am lucky enough that my family has had season tickets to the 6-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots since I was born. Sorry, did I already mention we won 6 Super Bowls? My bad… six. And yeah… “WE”.

So, I grew up going to a ton of games at Gillette each season and when the team is as dominant as they were, it was easy to fall in love.

Tailgating in the parking lot 5 hours before kick-off in a rusty ass RV in the freezing cold repping my TB12 jersey is the most beautiful childhood memory I have.

Flash-forward to 2014 as a senior in high school, I went to the AFC Championship game against the Colts with my dad.

Infamous DeflateGate. I was there. The balls were NOT deflated.

Anyways, we molly whopped Andrew Luck as you may have guessed and then leaving the stadium I somehow convinced my father to pull trigger on Super Bowl tickets.

Super Bowl 49. Oh, you don’t remember? Sure, let me know remind you.

I was about 35 rows up in that exact end zone and my life changed.

I hadn’t tasted the sweet victory of a Lombardi Trophy since 2005, and it felt so good to be back.

Anyways, you have the Patriots and Tom Brady to blame for my extremely cocky and annoying sports fandom behavior over the last two decades and for the years to come.

Time to Take the Tarp Off

One of my favorite memories as a sports fan. Yankees fans, close your eyes.

I want to take you back to the early Fall of 2021, October 5th specifically.

October is synonymous with Playoff Baseball, one of the most electrifying atmospheres in all of sports.

That October Baseball atmosphere is especially electrifying in the historic town of Boston, Massachusetts.

It was a cool, crisp Tuesday evening and I convinced one of my buddies to impulsively buy tickets to the Red Sox Wild Card Game at Fenway Park.

We were playing our arch-rival, the big bad New York Yankees. Sox vs. Yanks is the undisputed best rivalry in sports, and it isn’t even close.

I quickly grabbed two tickets on Stud Hub, snagged a Bud Light out of the fridge and called an Uber to the game.

I had some serious pre-game jitters. It was a winner-take-all game with the victor moving on to the next round of the playoffs, the ALDS.

I knew I had to bring my A-game this evening.

Well, we get to the stadium, swipe through the turnstiles, hammer a Fenway Frank for dinner and head to the seats.

Little did I know, I bought some un-fricken-real seats.

Like actually I had no clue. I sort of just blindly bought seats in right field online and showed up.

The way the visiting bullpen is set in right field at Fenway, it puts the fans right on top of the players. I mean RIGHT ON TOP.

I am not a religious man, but I took advantage of the opportunity God handed me that night. I guess since this Diary is meant to be motivational sometimes, let that be today’s inspirational tidbit: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OPPORTUNITY.

You legit cannot get any closer.

Fenway Park, otherwise known as “The Cathedral of Boston”, was sold out with 37,305 pretty intoxicated Bostonians that evening.

But there was ONE “pretty intoxicated” fan that was just inches from Gerrit Cole’s face as he warmed up in the bullpen.

Me.

I got to work. My chirps were fairly healthy. Rarely was profanity used if any. It was PG13, I promise.

I was just very loudly in his ear screaming that every warmup pitch Cole threw was a ball and he was “screwed”. That’s all.

Oh, you want video evidence? Barstool took a liking to my performance…

So, after 10 minutes of being in this dude’s grill about how much he was going to stink tonight, he trots out there to face a fierce Red Sox lineup. A HUNGRY Sox lineup.

The entire Cathedral was chanting, “Gerrit, Gerrit, Gerrit, Geritt,” in a very slow, evil yell that must’ve been sickening to hear as the victim of the taunts.

It was right at this moment I knew we had ‘em. He was SHAKING.

Mr. $324 Million Contract Boy’s stat line that night: 4 hits allowed, 2 which were home runs, 2 walks, 4 earned runs and was yanked after 2 innings on the mound after one of the worst postseason performances by a Cy Young winner in MLB history 🤣🤣

I would single handily like to take credit for that W in Fenway that evening and rattling the cage of Gerrit Cole. Sox fans in my section that night would attest. You’re welcome, Boston.

The Sox moved onto the ALDS, so what did I do? Went to every single home during that series in the same seats, popped tarp (aka took my shirt off) and destroyed the opposing team’s confidence. We went onto win that series vs. the Tampa Rays as well.

Did I get escorted out of Fenway once or twice for my playful banter towards the opposing team during this timeline? That’s neither here nor there.

But I made that bullpen my bish.

Is my mother proud of all this? Absolutely not.

But mother, cause I know you are reading this… it was my civic duty that October to do my part as a Red Sox fan trying to win a championship.

The Next Phase

From there on out, ripping off my shirt and giving my hometown team my loudest cheers became a serious part of my identity.

Popping tarp is an art. You don’t just do it in the 2nd quarter of a Celtics game up 15. It’s not a 4th inning HR or third quarter field goal kick act.

It’s all about timing and energy.

I have simply mastered the art of the popped tarp ever since.

I went on an absolute heater that October between Tom Brady’s return to Foxboro as a member of the Tampa Bay Bucs and 5 more Sox games.

Here’s a fun one. Game 7 of a Celtics Playoff Game vs. the rival Philadelphia Phillies? TARP OFF.

The result? A 50-burger game from Jayson Tatum and a booked trip to the Eastern Conference Finals.

There’s nothing like attending a game with a playoff atmosphere.

The adrenalin is second to none and I am lucky to have experienced it many and many of times living in the greatest sports city on planet Earth.

I hope everyone reading this can one day experience taking their shirt off at a playoff game of their favorite sports team while screaming at opposing players.

That’s a wrap, folks!

Had some fun reminiscing, going through the camera roll and grabbing some of these pictures. GTs.

Today’s lesson? Go live life to the fullest and have a f**** blast doing it. And go buy tickets you favorite team’s game

Be you, be proud, Go Pats.

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