Bewerbungen » ppenheimer has become proficient

CHICAGO -- We arrived at the corner of Sheffield and Waveland around 9 a.m., and a rough count put only 125 people ahead in line. We didnt have tickets to the game, at least most of us didnt, so we wanted to stand with a crowd of fellow fans in Murphys Bleachers, the famous baseball bars patio in the glow of the Wrigley red neon sign. We came because we felt compelled to be close to it, to know this electricity and claim a piece of it for ourselves. We wanted to know what it felt like in Chicago, when the World Series finally returned to town. The memories would be something to hold onto, long after the souvenirs were gone. It would be a shared experience to find the silly and overwrought things we felt for a baseball team.We wanted proof we werent insane.Then we paid a $100 cover to go into a bar without tables or chairs, and we stood and drank beer for the next nine hours.We ordered shots and burgers and beers. In the hour before the first pitch, we cheered when Eddie Vedder came in the back door of the bar, through the alley by the train tracks. We cursed the fire marshal, who decided to police these bars on their biggest weekend in history. We saw Vedder lean over the railing from the roof and throw a towel down into the crowd. We serenaded him.Someday well go all the way, we sang.We showed off the photo of our mother on our phone, of her holding the newspaper that came out the morning after the Cubs won the pennant. She has Alzheimers and thought we were messing with her at first. We are named Todd and we are drunk. We laughed at how much wed paid for a ticket to tomorrow nights game, and then we said, with complete earnestness, Today Todd doesnt have to worry about. Thats Tomorrow Todd.The national anthem began and we sang, all of us -- an entire bar, with men taking off ball caps and putting them over their hearts. The cops outside stood at attention, too, and we screamed out the last lines. Then we started chanting, F--- Joe Buck ... F--- Joe Buck, because, well, we were drunk and nervous.A breeze blew through the back bar. We dressed up as Harry Caray. When the Cubs scored first, we rang the ships bell, hanging in a corner by an enormous 10-point elk. We ordered shots of Jameson to celebrate. We dont drink Protestant hooch in Murphys Bleachers. We hung signs in our apartment windows across from the bar, signs that read, Its gonna happen. We really believed that -- especially early, in those brief moments when the Cubs led.We got aggressively drunk when the Indians tied, and then the spiral began when the Indians took the lead. The bar became quiet, except for a group who chanted down near the Waveland Avenue patio. There was a television camera set up nearby, which probably explains the chanting. We act like a fool when were putting on a show for TV, but the purest expression of sports fandom is the quiet internal burn, with only brief glimpses breaking the surface: a cigarette smoked clean down to the filter, or a head hung, resting in two hands, slumped over a bar. Today Todd clinched and unclenched his jaw. Tomorrow Todd wont remember doing that at all.We turned to a man next to us and said, Were in this together. Lets just hold it together.The same people who ordered shots to celebrate the 1-0 lead now ordered shots to make the 4-1 deficit feel a bit better. We started looking for company for the night and found a guy from Tampa, Florida. We touched his side, and told our girlfriend about his muscular back, and when we did a shot together, we kissed his cheek. His friends tied a balloon to him in case he got lost. We called him our future husband.If you dont believe in love at Murphys Bleachers, we said, you dont believe in love.We texted a friend: F--- Kluber.The mood in the bar turned, a little menacing in a pocket or two but mostly just empty and hollow, like no one could remember what we felt in the 9 a.m. sunshine, when so many great things seemed not only possible but likely, and to some, even ordained. That feeling died quick and hard. We turned away from the television and said, Im not looking anymore.We signed our bar tabs when the Indians went up 7-1, then walked out into a chilly night, the blue Christmas lights on the Murphys trees now seeming a little sad. Three people left the bar during the seventh-inning stretch and sang along with the crowd.Its a shame, they sang in a loud voice at the end.The bars emptied during the last two innings. People walked quietly down Waveland.The whole point of coming to Wrigleyville was to find out how it feels, and we found a feeling all right, just not the one we wanted. That feeling remains unknown and elusive, still out of reach, after 108 years, after four games. We wore technicolor fedoras and $50 fitted New Era hats. The crowd waiting on the Red Line stretched out into Addison. A woman sat texting on a stoop in a Cubs jersey and Chuck Taylors. One stoop down, two guys were eating apples, watching the silent march of people heading away from Wrigley Field. Nike Free Ireland For Sale . The move comes after the Canadiens were approached by the Buffalo Sabres for permission to speak to Dudley - a former Sabres player and head coach. "The Sabres called for permission and I appreciate that, Im flattered, Dudley told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of ESPN. Discount Nike Free Ireland Shoes . James, who turned 29 on Monday, injured his groin Friday during the Heats overtime loss at Sacramento. He sat out the following game, a 108-107 win Saturday in Portland, before coming back to help send the Nuggets to their seventh consecutive loss. http://www.nikefreecheapireland.com/ . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. Cheap Nike Shoes Ireland . LOUIS -- Roman Polak was celebrating even before Alexander Steen scored the winning goal in Saturdays 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Nike Free Ireland . -- Stanfords Kevin Danser knelt on one knee and hardly moved on the sideline as Michigan State celebrated its Rose Bowl victory and his Cardinal teammates made their way to the locker room. When Nikki Oppenheimer was 7, she had no idea what the word coed meant when she read it on a sign in her neighborhood park. Until this past summer, the 17-year-old had no clue what the word bola meant, either.Both discoveries were crucial on her road to becoming one of the nations surest shooters and a Division I womens basketball prospect.Ask Oppenheimer, and shell tell you that her Spanish is a work in progress. Its good enough to order some of her favorite dishes -- arroz con pollo, platanos maduros and empanadas -- but not much else.It got a lot better during the summer when the 5-foot-9 guard and Syracuse commit represented Puerto Rico in the FIBA Americas U18 championships in Chile. Averaging 11.6 points per game, Oppenheimer helped lead Puerto Rico to a fourth-place finish and a spot in next years U19 world championships in Italy.It was insanely amazing, Oppenheimer said of playing in such a big international tournament, which was won by the United States. We qualified for worlds, and I was told that was only the second time Puerto Rico has done that.Oppenheimer, a senior at Montini Catholic (Glenview, Illinois), is the daughter of Josh and Adrienne. Josh is an assistant coach with the NBAs Houston Rockets, and Adrienne is a former college volleyball player. It is Adriennes Puerto Rican roots -- her parents were born on the island -- that led to Nikki playing for the national team.Adrienne, who has cooked her daughter hundreds of Hispanic meals during the years, is fluent in Spanish. But thats not the case with Nikki or her older sister, Gabriella. Nikki has learned Spanish through school, but its been hard to teach her at home, said Adrienne, who was born in Los Angeles. Since Josh doesnt speak Spanish, I would feel bad to speak it at home to the girls.Mostly what I taught the girls at home were commands -- sit down, stand up. Nikki knows those, but she never got conversational.Now, Nikki wants to minor in Spanish at Syracuse, and her time with the national team has rekindled her Puerto Rican heritage.During a 10-day training camp in Puerto Rico, which was held before the team left for Chile, Oppenheimer immersed herself in the islands culture.Some of the girls didnt speak English so that was a bit of a struggle, but we got along great, Oppenheimer said. During training camp, I stayed with the family of one of the girls. It was great.On the court, Oppenheimer coped as her bilingual coach would mix the two languages freely during speeches and instructions.They say bola instead of ball, and they said muevete when they wanted me to move, she said. Things like that.Love for basketballAdrienne, who was a 5-10 right-side hitter in volleyball, met Josh during their days at Northern Arizona University. Known for his perimeter shooting, Josh played nine years of pro ball, mostly in Europe and the Middle East. When his playing days ended, he embarked on a career as an assistant coach. When he landed at DePaul, he and his family settled in the Chicago suburb of Glenview.Early on, it was apparent that Gabriella, who is now a triple major at the University of Alabama, studying economics, finance and communications, wasnt interested in playing sports. When the family would go to games, Gabriella loved the dancers and the halftime show. That wasnt the case for her little sister.Even at 3 years old, Adrienne said, Nikki wouldnt take her eyes off the game.Oppenheimer has been playing some form of basketball since she could walk, starting with her Fisher-Price hoop. Josh taught her the correct shooting form, and Nikki took things from there. When she was 7, Nikki noticed a sign at the park across the street that said Free Coed Basketball Clinic.Nikki was old enough to read the sign but not oldd enough to understand the coed part, Adrienne said.dddddddddddd When I explained to her that it meant that boys and girls could play, she immediately wanted to sign up.The next day, Nikki went to the gym with her mom. Sneakers laced up so she would be ready to ball as soon as she walked in, she was disappointed to find no other girls had shown. It was just Oppenheimer playing against all those boys.I was a little nervous and intimidated at first, she said. But once we started playing, I was fine.When she started to think about high school, Oppenheimer opted not to go to Glenbrook South, which was five minutes away from home. One of the reasons the Oppenheimers settled in Glenbrook was because they were impressed with the school district. But Nikki had other ideas. She wanted to go to Montini Catholic -- which is a half-hour away in Lombard, Illinois -- because of its reputation as a basketball powerhouse.Adrienne took Nikki to a few Montini games, sitting behind the bench run by coach Jason Nichols, who has a hard-driving style. When Adrienne asked Nikki, who was in seventh grade at the time, if she could take that type of coaching, the kid didnt flinch.I saw that he was really hard on his players and that he yelled a lot, Nikki said. But I was used to that with my dad. I knew I could take it.Getting yelled at is never the best thing, but I knew the reason behind it. I knew he was trying to get us better. I like that he will keep coaching us even if we are up by a lot. He teaches us to play the right way so we can be prepared for college.A developing starOppenheimer isnt only a basketball player. She has a 4.3 GPA and is interested in becoming a sports agent. She loves to read for fun -- Looking for Alaska by John Green is one of her favorite books. And she loves dogs. She has a feisty 10-pound Maltese/poodle mix that somehow survived getting hit by a car.Oppenheimer has shown similar toughness in her basketball career, battling for time at an elite program such as Montini, which is loaded with college prospects on a yearly basis.As a freshman, Oppenheimer contributed to a team that won a state title. She became a starter last season, and her reputation as a shooter with range out to the NBA 3-point line precedes her everytime she walks on the court.The first thing that came across when I met her was her jumper and her ability to knock down shots and stretch defenses, said Dave Yates, who has coached her for three years in AAU ball with Midwest Elite. Ive seen her miss a couple of shots and still have confidence and then make the next four in a row. Having that type of confidence is rare for kids.Her shot is very pure. Its one of the best shots Ive seen in 10 years coaching girls.Because every team that plays her is aware of her skills, Oppenheimer has become proficient at shot fakes, putting the ball on the floor and hitting a midrange jumper and also coming off screens, Yates said. Nichols, her high school coach, said Oppenheimer has improved at Montini.I really started to see her game evolve last year, Nichols said. She knew how to create her own shot from the moment she walked on campus. But last year she became a more willing passer off the bounce, making the right reads.Her better days are ahead of her. I think by the time she is a sophomore at Syracuse, she will be a big-time contributor.Nikkis father, who is commuting from Houston to Glenbrook as often as possible, said his daughter can be an elite level shooter in college.But he is also proud of her demeanor.Shes the most unselfish player Ive ever seen, Josh said. All she cares about is winning. ' ' '