Two Sports That I Hold Dear

It usually comes as a surprise to people that I like sports.
Needless to say, I didn't come into liking sports through the tradition of playing little league, pee-wee football, 'Gus-Macker' styled tourneys, or intramural Sports.
In fact, during my adolescence I adamantly shunned sports.
I never felt the desire to play in any of the aforementioned athletics and it was due to neither my physical size and/or lack of coordination and skill. I just didn't "feel it."
Dad and I never really threw the ball around in the backyard, and most of my friends weren't into it either.
Sure, I was a skater, but during my true growth period... that was never a sport... at least that's what the jocks told us.

Honestly, that's what it really came down to -- Jocks.
For the most part, I found them to be mind-numbingly stupid.
All they ever talked about was sports.
Some of them could spout insane amounts of statistics about players and teams. *
They seemingly had no other interests.
Oh wait... they did.... girls.
They got all the girls.
The good looking ones that were cute and had good taste in music, but bad taste in boys. **

There's still a ton of jack-asses that make sports incredibly insane and almost impossible to enjoy.
The guy who dove into the safety net the other night at Yankee's Stadium, the guy who threw a beer on Ron Artest this past season at the Palace... or just go on any internet sports chat room or listen to a call in show.

Somehow I'm beyond that though...

I remember listening to Red Wings games on AM 760 WJR with my father, coming home from Boy Scout Meetings. "Going to bed" and turning my bedside alarm clock down low to catch the third period. The swishing sounds of the skaters on the ice, the hollering between the players, the announcer's voice skyrocketing in octaves as he wails, "He SHOOTS, He SCOOORES!"

Watching as my mom "C'mon!"s and "Oh!"s her way through any sporting event on television.
(Mom, you don't need to emote every time the puck is passed.) [[Although her squeeling with glee as Darren McCarty pummeled Claude Lemieux in retaliation for his check on Kris Draper... that was sweet.]]

I think of the silly characature t-shirts that my brother and I had of Dennis "The Worm" Rodman and John "Spider" Sally during the reign of the Pistons Bad Boy Era.

Anyway.
While the Pistons didn't win the Championship this year.
I'm excited about the new coach and the prospects of an expanded bench, but Hockey is back!
I can't help but be excited.

I once joked about how sports might ruin my marriage some day...
but I don't think that'll happen as Allison gave me permission to order NHL Center Ice for the season.

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* While I'm somehow better for being able to tell you who produced what album and it's year of release, and who did the remixes for that mind-blowing third track.

** How do you explain a girl that gives you the Smiths mix tapes, but dates asshole football players?