Welcome to the Brendan Smithsonian Institution!

Well, I've finally done it.

I created my own Red Wings' blog.

I feel like this has been a long time coming.  After spending the past year reading classic blogs like The Production Line, Nightmare on Helm Street, Fight Night at the Joe, and of course many more, I've decided to give this blogging thing a shot.

I've dabbled in it a bit over at The Good Old Hockey Show and did some radio too, but over there I'm required to be an unbiased hockey guy. Well, over here at the BSI (Brendan Smithsonian Institution...for those who are unfamiliar with acronyms) I can be as unbiased and the biggest Wings' homer that I want to be.

And now for those of you who may not know me via Twitter, here is a little bit about myself...some background history qualifying me to blog about the greatest organ-i-zation in all of sports.

I'm a 22-year-old native Michigander (Michiganian?) born and raised in the great township of Highland.  I played the game of hockey for seven years as a defenseman. I retired after my sophomore year of high school to better dedicate my time to cross country.  I'm an avid runner. My high school team won back-to-back state championships in 2003 and 2004 (I was a reserve those years).  I completed my first marathon in Philly last November. I'm currently living in Boston, MA and studying broadcast journalism at Emerson College. I'm the captain of the cross country team and will be unretiring from hockey to play for the Lions this fall. I'm pumped.

Enough boring stuff though, time to talk Red Wings. Spark notes version of the first time I ever heard about the Red Wings was when I was seven-years-old. It was the 1995 Stanley Cup finals. I was at my neighbors' house and they had the game on.  I've been hooked ever since.

Moving away from Michigan two years ago did something I didn't think was possible....it made my love for the Red Wings grow stronger.  You don't know how much you miss something until it's gone.  My first year in Boston I didn't have Center Ice.  I longed for the nights of listening to Ken and Mickey (here in Boston, Jack Edwards is crazy).  This past season I saved up the dough to watch my boys, started reading blogs, joined twitter, I did whatever I could.  And what a wonderful surprise, I stumbled upon the internet Red Wings community and was blown away that there were people out there just like me.  I've read people on twitter call each other 'fake friends'...well I love all my new 'fake friends.'  I'd personally like to thank Petrella and Andy for making me feel the most welcome into the Red Wings world that I'm now a part of. This season is going to be one hell of a ride.  I can't freakin' wait for H2H2.

And real quick before I wrap this up.  Just today my guest post over at TPL went up about Brendan Smith.  Well, thanks to the Red Wings blog world, I've been following Smith over the course of the past year. He's quickly become one of my, if not the number one, favorite Red Wing of mine (and he's not even on the damn team yet).  I was on the subway today heading home from work reading Kyle's post at BDS and thought "hmmmm...Brendan Smith...what's clever with Smith?....I know! *LIGHTBULB* Smithsonian Institution!"

And thus the Brendan Smithsonian Institution was born.  My very own Red Wings' blog (with a soon to be designed awesome banner by my girlfriend Jillian; STAY TUNED).  I hope everyone enjoys my thoughts on the team this upcoming season.  And there may or may not be a bunch of stories/references about my Uncle Leon and my pal Gannon, two of the biggest Red Wings fans I know.

Lets Go Red Wings.