The Sporting Life

Another morning freshly back from hockey. We play every Tuesday and Friday mornings from 6:30 to 7:30 in the morning. Just pick-up hockey, with new teams every skate, but the players are pretty good and it's a good time. I play at being a goalie and playing with these guys over the past 5 or 6 years has really given my game a boost. I hope it isn't a poorly timed homily, but as they say, a rising tide floats all boats, so I play better against better skaters.

This morning proved another theory of mine - the team that has the most shots wins nearly every time. We played them pretty closely for the first 45 minutes or so, even though I was getting peppered with plenty of shots. I was moving pretty well and making some nice stops, but we were missing some good opportunities. But at this level, if you can put shots on the goal, you're going to score and they eventually started getting by me, in all kinds of ways; great shots, shots I tipped in myself, shots my defense tipped in for me - sigh. Ah well, we do it again next week.

I'm also an avid golfer, although that takes much more time than hockey, so I don't get to play as much. During the summer, I meet a friend at a small nine hole course up the road every Tuesday morning, so I'm back by 8:30 or so. Hockey, of course, gets in the way of that once it starts up, and, as a goalie I can't just not go or a whole bunch of folks will be mad at me. Luckily, Sunrise Hockey has 2 regular goalies, and a third one shows up every skate and usually gets to skate out, but in an emergency he fills in. Works out well for all of us, cuz you never know. There's only been a small handful of times during the past few years that they've had to play with only one goalie.

But I'm a real hack golfer. If I break 50 for 9 holes, it's been a good morning. When we played the other day (I try to get the third goalie to play for me on Tuesday for a little bit), I shot a 54 - ouch. Bad off the tee and bad putting makes for a long morning. But whoever says there's no exercise in golf is all wrong. Playing early in the morning means no backup at the tees, so you move right along. It's 3200 yards, so given my propensity for driving long and wide, I probably walk a couple of miles. Combine that with swinging a golf club and the mental strain that makes golf "A Good Walk Spoiled", means it is a pretty decent workout.

I'm also an avid sports fan. I'm part of a group that has 6 season tickets to the New England Patriots (a waiting list of like 50,000 now), and I get to see a few Red Sox (and minor league) games during the year. One of the greatest 2 days of my life (save for the births of my girls) was being at the storied games 4 and 5 of the 2004 ALCS against the hated Yankees. 16 out of 30 hours spent at fabled Fenway Park. My girls already know "Yankees Stink" by heart now. Watching the DVD of last year still chokes me up, having truly suffered through '75, '78 (in upstate New York, no less) and '86. It's nice being on top for once!

I'm looking forward to NHL hockey again too. Pretty much the only real TV I watch is sports. The Red Sox are nice because they are on virtually every night, so they will usually be on in the background. Sports are nice to have on TV because they don't demand 100% attention, so you can usually get something else done, like read, play a game or something, while it is on. But during the winter, there's not much on TV except the interminable basketball (especially college basketball) season. I'm not a basketball fan. Too much celebrating of the individual and not enough teamwork, I think. So with the NHL on, I can get the Center Ice package and always have a hockey game on. For some reason, I can watch neutral hockey games with much more interest than baseball without the Sox or football without the Patriots.