the kortlevers get "kort up" with sporting events.

One of the things we learned upon our arrival in Australia is that Melbourne is the host city for the Australian Open.  For the tennis uninitiated, the Australian Open is one of the 4 tennis grand slam events, with the other 3 being the US Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.  I’ve watched the Australian Open a few times through the years, but never realized it was hosted in Melbourne, so you can imagine my excitement at learning that we would have the opportunity to attend.  After all, tennis was my sport in high school, where I was the proud recipient of back to back sportsmanship awards, and first runner up for the “human backboard” award.

Melbourne really comes alive for special events, and the Australian Open is no exception.  All throughout the city there are banners and flags flying “Get Court Up”, which is the slogan for the Open.  They also offer a free tram from the city to Melbourne Park, and various big screens are setup throughout the city broadcasting the games live.  Probably the best part about the Open is how much pride the locals have at being the home of this annual event, and how everyone takes an interest in the tournament.  They also refer to it as “the tennis”, which is awesome.

Candice and I decided to purchase evening ground passes for Saturday, which allowed us access to everything except the two premier indoor arenas.  So although we wouldn’t get to see Nadal defeat Monfils in Rod Laver Arena, we would still get to see some epic tennis!  We caught the free tram from the city to Melbourne Park, and made our way into the event around 5:30 that evening.  Once inside we met up with our new friend James, and spent the first hour catching up with him, enjoying some food, and watching one of the premier matches on a big screen.  Just as in the city, at Melbourne Park there are giant TVs setup everywhere that show various matches, so no matter where you are in the Park you’ll never miss any of the action.  We also caught up with one of my coworkers, who informed us of a men’s singles match that would be starting up on the nicest outdoor court, so we decided to check it out.

The match turned out to be Kei Nishikori of Japan vs Donald Young of USA, and started off with a really exciting first set.  Young jumped out to a big lead early, and was leading 5 games to 2 in the first set before Nishikori came roaring back to win 5 games straight.  Throughout the comeback, Young became more and more frustrated with himself and with some close line calls by the officials, and it became clear when he lost the first set that the match was already over.  Tennis is a game with a great emphasis on emotional control, and there are some players who are able to maintain control or use their anger to make them better, while others unravel.  Young was unfortunately one of the latter, which led to a quick defeat over the next two sets.  

Nishikori acknowledges the crowd after the game.

It was really exciting to be so close to the action, as I’ve never been to a major tennis event before, and I was surprised at how enthusiastic and supportive the crowd was throughout the match.  At the beginning they were really cheering for both players, but when Young started to unravel almost everyone was getting behind him and trying to encourage him.  It was nice to see such good sportsmanship from the crowd, who cheered great shots from both opponents, and kept up their positive energy and excitement despite being constantly told to be quiet by the head umpire.  We also learned that the “Wave”, which is a staple of sporting events the world over, is for some reason referred to as the “Mexican Wave” by Australians.  Our friend James informed us of this rather interesting fact, and said that like many other Australian expressions, he has no explanation for it.

the "Mexican" wave.

enthusiastic spectators.

As if a tennis grand slam event wasn’t enough sport for one week, we attended a Twenty20 Cricket match with some of my coworkers on Tuesday night.  Boy, Cricket is a confusing game to understand at first, and even after a 3 hour match, I only have a basic grasp of the game.  I can say with relative confidence that I understand the different ways of scoring and the different ways of getting an out, but then it gets a bit muddier.  I still don’t really understand what an “over” is, or how most of the statistics are calculated (or why they matter at all).  In my ignorance, I thought to myself “isn’t it just a matter of who scores the most runs?”  Of course, upon thinking that I realized that if someone were to distill football down to simple thoughts like that, then I would likely bring up a bunch of reasons why there’s so much more to the game than simply the score.  And then I realized that Cricket is the same for the true fans of the sport.

The match we watched was the Hobart Hurricanes (of Tasmania) vs the Melbourne Stars.  Hobart was batting first, and scored 131 runs, which is apparently pretty terrible.  The amount of runs that is considered a good score is still lost on me, but my coworkers assured me that as Hobart only scored 131 we had a pretty easy chance of winning.  And win we did, scoring the last runs on a 4 that should have been an out, but got away from the guy attempting to catch the ball.  I’d say he was an outfielder, if I was to compare the game to baseball, but of course I’ve no idea what his actual position would be.  Maybe he would be a called a 6 line defender, or a 4 line blocker, or more likely something completely different.  All I do know is he couldn’t catch very well.

finally, a sporting event where we *both* have no idea what's going on...

The game was a fun experience, and a nice introduction to Cricket.  They had music playing constantly, there were lots of kids & families, and they shot off fireworks every time the Stars got an out or hit a 4 or a 6.  Speaking of which, a 4 is when the batsman hits the ball and it rolls or bounces over the field boundary (somewhat like the outfield wall in baseball, except it’s at ground level).  A 6 is where the ball is hit and travels through the air over the field boundary before touching the ground (like a homerun).  After the game, they had a pretty impressive fireworks display, and the players signed autographs and threw free goodies into the crowd.

Of course, while all of Australia is celebrating their international Cricket success in continually defeating England, and Melbourne is celebrating the continued excitement and drama of the Australian Open, my home town and my heart are celebrating the Seahawks.  It’s been so hard to not be in Seattle to experience the energy and excitement of the last few weeks, and really frustrating that I haven’t been able to watch any of the games live (they are broadcast on Monday morning when I’m at work).  For the NFC Championship this past week, Candice was able to watch the game on a local channel, and both she and James were kind enough to send me text updates while I was in meetings.  I can’t tell you how good it felt to walk out of my meeting and read this:

From James: “My friend, Seattle are going to the Superbowl!”

From Candice, a picture of the TV with an announcement saying “Seattle Seahawks advance to 2nd Super Bowl in team history.”

Fortunately, I won’t be missing that game.  My vacation request has been approved, and you know I’ll be cheering with all my heart along with the rest of Seattle for us to get that one last win.  Go Hawks!

BK

Candice (and Totoro) cheering on the Hawks!