St. Louis Blues

Since the games have been thoroughly dissected, I just want to make a few notes to myself of my remembrances and thoughts from a few days in the Midwest--

--NEVER miss an opportunity to take a look at a glorious landmark like the Arch. It is stunning from every angle.

--NEVER underestimate the joy of being at a Final Four. Even when things don't go quite as one would like, there are over 300 teams with fans that would love to be in your shoes.

--NEVER order a Heineken in St. Louis.

--NEVER miss a chance to talk to fans from other teams. I had a chance to spend some time with a fan from Louisville and it was so great to see her eyes light up as she talked about the players on her team. This was a great, new, exciting experience for them and they were enjoying every moment.

--NEVER think that the actions of some fans from other teams reflect all of their fans. There are always some bad apples out there for any team.

--NEVER think that an Arena is ready for anything. The ScottTrade Center concessions were not all open and the ones that were ran out of food and were serving up frozen water bottles. Like they didn't know we were coming?

--NEVER try to walk up the stairs of a Metro Station at Busch Stadium when crabby Cardinals fans are walking down. Yep, their Opening Day was in blustery, cold weather and resulted in a loss due to a 9th inning blown save. When we were going upstream against them, the looks were deadly.

--NEVER pass up a chance to shoot at Hoops City. But go late and wait until all the youngsters have left!

--NEVER think that a place with a name like BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups won't serve up a lot more than food. What a great find--great music and a TV with the men's championship game!

--NEVER consider that you won't see Melissa Barlow walk on the floor of one of our games.

--NEVER fall for the thought that the PAC-10 is such a weak sister. Think about it--18% of the Sweet 16, 25% of the Elite 8 and 25% of the Final Four came from the conference. And one can wonder if those percentages might have been better had the NCAA committee not placed all 3 teams into the UConn buzz saw.

--NEVER think that if your airline cancels your flight and rebooks you that everything will work out right. *sigh* We ended up staying an extra day when it turned out our new flight had no seats for us. Fortunately, the airline footed the hotel bill!

--NEVER worry that the players think that send offs and fan support are goofy. As the team moved through the lobby and out to the rally, they were taking as many pictures of us as we were of them.

--NEVER miss a chance to talk to the Band and jump with them whenever you can.

--NEVER forget what an unbelievably classy organization our Stanford group is. If I were a coach or player or parent, I cannot think of anything I would want to do less than stand up before a group of fans after a loss. But there they all were with Tara out front and thanking us for being there. Afterwards, everyone stayed around to commiserate a bit. It was an honor to be there.

--NEVER determine that it is too early to start getting ready for next year! I'm ready--how about you?