FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I must say, shooting this segment was the most challenging episode we've had to do so far. There wasn't a traditional tailgating scene and there were fans from about twenty five schools at the tournament, which sort of thins everything out - no big groups of fans from one particular school, just small pockets everywhere. The fans were mostly from midwest/Big 10 country and accumulated either in the stadium itself or at the "Tailgate Tent," which was essentially the outside of Union Station, located a couple of blocks away (which is where the majority of the shooting took place). I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to inside of the arena because we were situated with actual photographers and I felt somewhat silly taking out my little Canon Powershot. I still managed to get some shots around the festivities and downtown St. Louis, so if nothing else, you're getting your money's worth for the blog.

The Scottrade Center. The Blues and the Saint Louis University basketball teams play here. There's nothing particularly remarkable going on outside of the wrestling in the arena, but we did manage to see a wrestler lying down on the hall floor with his eyes closed next to a zamboni near the locker rooms. We wondered briefly if he was preparing intensely or possibly in a coma. In the end, we decided he probably knew what he was doing. Let's hope.

This was on CNN the entire time we were there. The funny thing is we drove out to Eureka the night before to go to some famous BBQ restaurant, which turned out to be surprisingly empty. I guess the whole "trying to not let your house float away" thing took priority over ribs and potato salad. Weak.

Camera Guy Kevin strutting down the halls of the hotel before the first day of shooting. Judging from his eyes, he may be a zombie. I should probably take note of this.

The view from the top. My favorite part was a protest of an early match, with the wrestler who was protesting the match pacing around the mat waiting for another crack at his opponent. It was uncomfortable and sad, especially when he lost the challenge. Oh well.

There was "jousting" at the Tailgate Tent. The guy facing the camera kept winning his matches, becoming annoyingly confident and calling people out around the moon bounce to step up. I can't say for certain, but it's probably all downhill for him from here.

The next day we ran to the Arch and Busch Stadium to try to burn off the horrible food we had been eating. As you can see, no film or memory card is fast enough to catch me smoothly.  

The river separates regular St. Louis and East St. Louis (technically in Illinois), which is a mainstay in the murder rankings. I'm almost positive me wearing a singlet is far less funny in East St. Lou than regular St. Lou.

I rocked that Arch big time. You have the option of riding some sort of egg-like enclosure to the top of the arch. You can tell I decided against the ride, as none of my clothes are urine-stained. I don't do well with heights. 

I'm too lazy to research the actual identity of this building, so let's just assume this is the David Eckstein Mansion.

Kevin 1, Steps 0. Fact: He ran at the club level in college, and to do so, you have to have two working legs. Or one leg. Or none. In any case, no three-leggers need apply.

For some reason, the International Bowling Museum exists, and it's in St. Louis. Kevin insisted that this is a picture of Pete Weber, famous, of course, for the crotch chop. Any time you can put somebody who's slightly famous for his sexually suggestive celebration taunt on the front of your museum, you've gotta go for it, right?

Busch Stadium. I wanted to walk into the open Cardinals administrative offices with a box and tell the front desk that I had a pharmaceutical delivery for a Mr. Ankiel, but I decided against it. Mostly, because I couldn't find a believable box.

Jack Buck produced Joe Buck. Just a disgusting act.  

Flooding by the Arch. St. Louis: It's either freezing, flooding, or humid as hell. Come live here!

I tried to follow the action as best I could, but it became pretty complicated. You can't tell here, but the refs jump stomach-first onto the mats to look at pinning angles. It's a fairly excellent display of referee athleticism.

This, of course, is not fairly excellent athleticism. My favorite recurring conversation was when people laughed at the fact that I was wearing a singlet under my clothes, and then slowly realized what I had been going through all day for a cheap joke. "So wait, you woke up and put a singlet on under your clothes and have been wearing that all day? What. The. Hell." I really had no answer. For those that are keeping score, the first part of the day was terribly uncomfortable, and the second part was oddly satisfying. Let's just end this debacle here.

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New entry in a couple weeks.

I don't know if Kevin will be writing a blog like Casey did for Duke, but if I'm able to convince him to try to expose me, I'll link to it here. Hopefully, he isn't too busy reaping all of the rewards that come with being a Tour Guy Camera Guy. 

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Email:

sitourguy@gmail.com 

Links:

Tour Guy Road Notes (permanent link) 

The College Football Tour Guide (2006 college football episodes from the Pac-10)

SI Video on YouTube

SI College Football channel on Veoh

Windows Media Player 9 (for Mac)

Flip4Mac (to watch SI Video on a Mac)