I have long found it amusing watching people that have paid anywhere from 20 to 300+ dollars fight for a 10 dollar shirt like starved alligators over a scrap of steak.  Today, I find it even more amusing. 

It was the middle of the 4th quarter when the stunt team came out with all their fancy shirt-chucking equipment.  My daughter and I were sitting in section 323.  Were I by myself I wouldn't even bother standing for the thing, but my daughter was with me so I had her stand up with her sign and we joined together in our version of the 'chuck it here' dance.  As the 3 guys with the super sling-shot set up to bloody some poor sap's nose with a t-shirt I thought, "They're gonna shoot that right at us."   Then they released it.  At first I thought that it was going slightly to my right, but as it soared over the 200 level seats it started to curve back around my direction and right at my face.

I have long had a minor phobia that I would be at a sporting event with an item coming right for me and I would choke.  I would fumble it away, or run down a small child, or maybe just let it leave an imprint on my face.  It felt like it was in the air for about a minute and a half, but when it reached my hands, I held onto it like Jerry Rice in the endzone (you know... without the defense, or it really being all that hard as it turned out).  I turned to my daughter to try to hand it to her; she had a big smile on her face, but wasn't ready to take it as she was still fumbling with her sign.  I held onto it and started to dig in to see what kind of merch it really was.

I have no illusions about where these t-shirts come from.  I know that they are sent out to give advertisers a reason to give the Blazers money.  I just always thought that there would be some Blazer related item on the free stuff.

Nope.

via i342.photobucket.com

Just a Subway t-shirt.  As my buddy at the game said, "Just goes to show you, no matter how low your expectations are, you can still be disappointed."

Still, I got an amusing story out of the deal, so you can't beat that. :)