I used to work at the grocery store, saving my pennies for someday. Fortunately, my mother never left a note on the door telling me to move out to the country. People worry that my fandom will give me a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack. But you oughta know by now that yours truly paid uncle Sam, the realtor, and the mortgage company with the overtime and finally moved out to my new home with my wonderful fiancée. I promise those won’t be the last Billy Joel references in this piece, as it felt like an appropriate cultural touch stone given the big change in my life.

As I leave my childhood home, I say goodbye to many familiar routine things from my life that won’t exist in the same form. While my relationship to my mother won’t change, the biggest and toughest goodbye to say is to my beloved “man cave” referenced in the title of this story. “The Cave” as its affectionately known amongst my family and friends, was my personal clubhouse and hosting space from 2014-2025.

This room came into existence as a solution to “where is Nick gonna hang out with his friends?” So my childhood “playroom” was converted from a collection of toys to my growing collection of sports/film, music and TV memorabilia. The walls were adorned with keep sakes I found at shops, autograph signings and family hand me downs. A lot of effort and time went into putting this collection together and this feels like a good venue to showcase pieces.

In the pop culture category, there is a lot of fun stuff to show. My most prized personal possession is not something I collected, but rather a piece I won, my 2019 sports Emmy award from my team as an employee at MLB Network. I will forever love having received this honor, as I grew up watching the network and now an award with my name on it, for my behind-the-scenes contributions to it, is quite humbling to have. In the music space, I actually have a growing collection of vinyl records played on my Union Jack record player. In that collection you can find anything ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Frank Sinatra and everything in between. I’m proud of the set and excited to add more to it. There’s also my statue of Elvis from his 1969 CBS Special and the KISS lamp, just in case we forget that we should rock and roll all night and party every day.

I proudly fly the flag for the starship Enterprise, Next Generation edition mind you, because how can you not love Star Trek?! My collection of DVD’s best represents my addiction to physical media, but the quality is so much better than streaming a film. Now while I’ve got a sweet Bruce Springsteen concert poster, it’s dwarfed (literally and figuratively) by my poster for 90’s cult classic, Swingers! Because to paraphrase Trent, “the cave was so money, and it didn’t even know it!”

Now the overall majority of items in the cave are sports pieces. All of my favorite teams (Yankees, Rangers, Knicks, Jets and Liverpool) are represented here along with some fun pickups from other squads. My Chicago Cubs “W” flag was a must have, after I was in the Windy City the night they finally won the pennant, and need a collectors item from it. It’s not the only flag in the room, as my NYR lady liberty flag always flew majestically in the playoffs! But what you see before you in the slides above is much more than just flags and pennants and signs. They are representations of some of my favorite things in sports. Seats from Notre Dame Stadium, autographs from many notable Rangers, “play like a champion today,” and the Subway stop from Yankee stadium. They are moments I have lived through and enjoyed, documented by the newspaper covers I have saved over the years!

The Best We Watched

Of course, any good man cave is supposed to see some special memories get made on game day. So let’s take a trip down memory lane and look at the best games we watched there.

STEPAN! STEPAN! STEPAN!: This game was one of those instant Rangers classics. A nail bitter from start to finish, and then nerves of a dream season potentially ending was crippling for the mind and heart. My friends and I sweated this one out and then leapt into each other’s arms when Stepan buried the winner. My mom (a die hard Ranger fan herself) started cheering downstairs, until she thought we were about to fall through the floor above her from jumping up and down. One of those magical fan moments you look back fondly on years later.

For the Natty: An absolutely iconic playoff final was played on this great night. It was a true changing of the guard game we all watched together, as Deshaun Watson slayed the dragon in Tampa. As a passionate college fan, this was one brings back a lot of great memories.

One Last Time: This was another football classic to watch together, one that helped to mold the cave because Peyton Manning and his rivalry with Tom Brady helped mold my football fandom. To watch these two legends duel it out one more time, was enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The two old gunslingers letting it rip one last time.

A Summer of Baseball: This is one that kinda takes on a larger scope. The summer of 2014 was the first summer of “the cave.” The Yankees were the only thing on for most of it so we sat back and watched one of the most mediocre Yankee squads in a long time go out and grind for 162 games. We kept score, broadcasted the game into a tape recorder, and got excited about Chase Headley’s contributions. Dark but fun times.

A Winter of Hockey: Similar to the 2014 Yanks, my friends and I watched just about every game of the 2014-2015 New York Rangers. The team that continued to capture our hearts and charge up the fan base was awesome to take in every night. It was a blast because sitting there and building up to a win every night was an education in the game. I’d give just about anything to go back and watch that team again.

Witnessing Greatness: This one really explains itself, as the Warriors record breaking squad was jaw dropping. I’ve never seen anyone shoot the ball like Steph Curry and watching him battle KD and Russ was special. Just one of those regular season games that had no business being this good.

Jenkins for the Win: Another instant classic, this time from the March Madness ranks. Villanova hooked up with UNC to play one of the all time games. Marcus Paige’s game tying tray was cool enough, but Jenkins from range to win it left my friends and I in awe.

The Big Game: What man cave would be complete without a Super Bowl party? Over the years we watched several Super Bowls together, with food and beverages a plenty. I’ll miss hosting here but the new home will still get to play its part next season!

There were many more games than just the list above that we watched over the years, but they were the standouts. The real common thread is the friends that were at my side for these games. Life is better with people there to enjoy it with you and all of my guests enhanced all these experiences. One of the last but most important and frequent guests turned out to be my best friend in life. I knew Briana was the one when she didn’t panic at the site of all these “collectibles.”

While my new home doesn’t have the room for all this stuff, it’s the start of our life together. I can’t wait for that to continue to grow. We’ll make up for it in the next house and revive the cave. Until then, thanks for the memories!

On twitter you can find Mike @Mike_Sheerin, Tyler @TMon_19 and Sean @SeanMartinNFL. Subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. Our podcasts are available on Spotify. Visit the Rangers Ed Shop by clicking the link on our homepage. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon.