I walked by Madison Square Garden last night to get to the PATH and had to pass through full on Messier MANIA. (They were retiring the Number 11 tonight – and so there was an enormous celebration going on at the Garden). Along with the normal rush-hour foot-traffic – there was a manic THRONG filling the streets, heading to the Garden. There were murmuring scalpers, people frantic to get tickets … the neon sign above the entrance to the Garden had a huge announcement: ‘CELEBRATE THE CAPTAIN’ – and I swear to God – 90% of all of the people I saw were wearing Messier jerseys. It was pretty wonderful. Not just that – but the feeling in the air around the Garden … It kind of can’t be described. You just knew that something HUGE was going down there – even without all the Messier jerseys and the flashing neon. It was a buzz, a frenetic excitement that seemed to even live in the molecules of air … It was that present.<\/p>\n
We then watched the whole tribute on TV at the bar we were at – which was really fun. Messier was just BARELY holding it together. The guy was in tears from almost the beginning of the tribute.<\/p>\n
It was really really cool to watch. You would get these long shots of the entire Garden standing on its feet – pretty much everyone in Messier jerseys – and you just get goosebumps looking at it.<\/p>\n
Alex Nunez has a great post up about Messier. <\/a> Not to be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I walked by Madison Square Garden last night to get to the PATH and had to pass through full on Messier MANIA. (They were retiring the Number 11 tonight – and so there was an enormous celebration going on at … Continue reading