Rampage, Root Beer, & Rain

[Tannerman]

Is there anything in Grand Rapids, MI, that doesn't start with "Van" or "Vander"? I mean, c'mon, doesn't this Dutch-naming thing get a little old after a while? Oh well. Last Saturday, May 8, Amy and I drove up to Grand Rapids to catch an evening AFL football game between, who else, our Chicago Rush and the Grand Rapids Rampage.


Chicago, check! Indy, check! Detroit, check! Grand Rapids, check!
After traveling to Indianapolis and Detroit, we wanted to complete our "on the road" visits with all the other teams in the Central Division of the AFL. (While it is true that the Colorado Crush are in the Central as well, anyone who thinks that Denver is somewhere in the middle of the country has to be on crack! In fact, there are some other odd AFL geographic divisions that frankly don't make much sense).


Look, it's a fake roof!
The game was at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, so we left Chicago at around noon to head up a bit early. The roads were clear and overall it was a pleasant drive. It seems like we've been leaving town via the south a lot lately, so this time around I tried to really catch a glimpse of the new roof on U.S. Cellular Field (which will always be Comisky Park to me!). In the off-season, the geniuses who run the Sox thought that one reason people weren't coming to the ballpark was that the upper deck was too steep.


Doesn't that feel so much cozier?
It's true that Comisky has all the warmth of an Antarctic summer and you need mountain climbing equipment to ascend the upper deck. Of course, instead of solving this problem by making the angle less steep (it's a 35-degree incline), ownership felt that it was better to create an illusion of closeness. They chopped off the top couple rows of seats and installed a roof, supported by view-obstructing beams. It was argued that this renovation was paid for by all the money from U.S. Cellular and without it, we'd be stuck with the old park still. Gee, I feel so much better now. Glad that my mobile phone company is spending their money on outdated ballparks instead of improving service for their customers. I miss PrimeCo.


Bah!
Before we knew it we were back on the Chicago Skyway (I wonder how long it's going to take for them to finish that reconstruction project) and on our way to Indiana. It sure will be nice when the Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road both adopt I-Pass-compatible toll collection systems. Seems kinda goofy that they don't already. (Reports say that Indiana is at least 12 to 18 months away from seeing its electronic toll system go online).


Ahh!
For the 2nd time in a week we crossed the border into Michigan, and with that, we welcomed the 70 mph speed limit! Michigan is a pretty great state to visit, as we've discovered on many previous trips. If only they'd get rid of that weird "Michigan Left" thing...


We visit yet another micro-brewery
It didn't take long to enter Grand Rapids, and since we had a few hours before the game, we decided to grab a bite to eat. Our destination was the Grand Rapids Brewing Co. The original Grand Rapids Brewing Co. began brewing beer on January 1, 1893. In the early 1900's the brewery business prospered, and it quickly became the largest producer of beer in West Michigan.


Historical photo of original brewery
Then Prohibition hit. In 1928, the brewery closed.


Distinctive interior architecture
In 1993, new owners re-created the look of the brewery via a historically-flavored restaurant, decorated with photos and artifacts from an earlier era. We decided to check it out. I grabbed a beef and cheddar sandwich, while Amy sampled the beer-battered perch. We washed it all down with locally-brewed Michigan Soda Factory Root Beer. The beverage had quite a bite to it, leaning heavily towards the licorice flavor. While unique, I don't know if we'd opt for it again. Instead of serving us the traditional bread/butter combo while we waited for our meal, we were provided with soft pretzels with cheddar cheese flavored with beer. The cheese was pretty tasty!


Big Buck Grand Rapids... R.I.P.
We headed off to downtown Grand Rapids, home of Van Andel Arena (see... there is that "Van ____" thing again!). During the drive, we passed a familiar site. As we noted during our Detroit trip, the Grand Rapids location of Big Buck Brewery & Steakhouse had been closed (we visited this location on our Lighthouse Voyage trip in 2003). The former location is abandoned and hasn't found a new tenant.


Van Stupid Name
Our trip to the arena was somewhat challenging given traffic and some goofed-up directions, which had us running against the clock. But despite the stress, we got there in plenty of time before the game. Van Andel is the smallest arena in the AFL, with the seats around the playing area forming the shape of a U. Grand Rapids is also the smallest market, so this city is to the AFL what Green Bay is to the NFL.


The Rush prepare to kickoff
Amy and I bought our tickets via the Chicago Rush Front Office, which booked a block of tickets together at the arena. Thus, we found ourselves sitting with 20-30 other Rush fans. It was a pretty cool feeling.


Huge video screen behind the endzone
Our seats were very close to the field, next to one of the endzones. They were probably some of the best seats we've had for a game. The configuration of this arena had a large video monitor located right behind one of the endzones. Sort of an odd location, but at least they turned the monitor off whenever a team had to kick an extra point in that direction.


Ball is stuck in the upper-left corner of the slack net
The game itself was a non-event. I mean, c'mon, we were playing a team that had only won 1 game all season and had fired their coach 2 weeks ago. Thus it was no surprise that the Rush won 63-35. I guess that's why there were only 7,188 in attendance (I believe the stadium maxes out at 10,000 or so). There was a somewhat amusing halftime show featuring a female magician named Misty Lee. The best part, however, was cheering with other fans in an enemy arena. People were booing us, throwing stuff into our section (those people were tracked down by security), and generally not liking the fact that others came "into their house." It was great! The funniest part was when this really drunk Grand Rapids fan came up to our section and switched shirts with a Rush fan. The guy was wasted, but at least he was cheering for the right team!


Long lines to meet the cheerleaders
After the game, as is tradition with every AFL game, fans are invited onto the field to meet the players and cheerleaders. You can get autographs or just say "hi." It's a great way to attract youth to the sport, and they don't even have to put ads for Spider-Man 2 on the endzone nets. Of course, the lines to meet the cheerleaders are always the longest.


Steve steps onto the field
Believe it or not, Amy and I had never hung around after a game before. We usually just go home. But we had no place to be, so we just stayed around and soaked up the atmosphere. And, for the first time, we actually got to walk out onto the AFL playing surface. It's a little like AstroTurf, but with a bouncy pad underneath.


"Sure, I'll autograph your T-shirt"
It was awesome to see all these Grand Rapids players interacting with the kids, even though they had just gotten clobbered. That's one thing that we love about Arena Football... the fan-friendly element of the game. As the AFL becomes more mainstream, this is one element that I hope the league never loses. It still is the only professional sports league that has a Fans' Bill of Rights. Take that Bud Selig!


Long live the AFL!
After grabbing a shot of the AFL logo at midfield for my desktop wallpaper, Amy and I headed out of the arena. Outside there was a guy (we'll call him "Drunk Bill") who was yelling at his wife, who was holding a baby. This other couple approached them, where the guy from this couple (who we'll call "Big Ted") started to tell Drunk Bill to knock it off. Drunk Bill didn't like that, and took Big Ted to task about it. However, Big Ted was a lot bigger than the Drunk Bill, so the Drunk Bill was forced to listen. It was interesting to observe, as Amy and I didn't really know what was going to happen with this confrontation. From what we overheard, Big Ted was telling the guy that it was wrong to be going off on his wife, especially since he had a young child. He was trying to get him to own up to his actions and think a little. Both couples eventually parted.


I guess adding an "e" to Crown makes it more special
Amy and I had booked a hotel room ahead of time via Hotwire (Crowne Plaza Grand Rapids Airport), as we knew the game would run late and we really didn't feel like driving back. This actually worked out for the best, as a huge thunderstorm moved through the western side of Michigan, causing flooding and a lot of problems. The storm actually knocked out most of the hotel's television channels, so we opened up the window and just watched the rain come down. It was pretty cool, reminding us of many stormy nights doing the same thing back in college.


It's Crowne Sound, complete with CD player
Shortly thereafter I set the alarm and we hit the sack. Cool clock radios in the rooms, by the way. They featured built in CD players and a mode where you could listen to the audio from TV stations. I guess it's part of the chain's Crowne Sound program.


Look at all the mature trees
The next day we slept it a bit, packed up, and hit the road. Observing the outside of the hotel, it amazed me how many full-grown trees surrounded it. Usually hotels are just plopped in the middle of nowhere, so this location must have been quite old.


Evil in downtown Chicago
Traffic into Chicago was pretty bad. Maybe it was everyone heading everywhere for Mother's Day. In either case, we sat around in stop-and-go for quite awhile. How frustrating. But it was a fun trip, nevertheless. Probably one of our better AFL experiences in our 4 years following the sport.

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