The good old hockey game...the best game you can name...

I made a post on Jen's comments that was so good that I just had to repeat it here!

Ah, now Jen, when a hockey team ties up after three periods, the game goes into "sudden death overtime". These guys who have been skating like crazy for the last 20 minutes trying to score to avoid just this situation look at their team mates trying to suck enough wind to survive, down at their trembling, rubbery legs, and try to clear eyes blurry from fatigue and sweat. The game goes into overtime, and the game is won in the line changes...if the coach can change his people over during play without leaving too few people on the ice. All considerations of strategy and trying to match up teams against the opposing team goes right out the window, its a matter of "who can drive their body for another 30 seconds drive to the goal!?" Because the first side to score a goal wins the game. The referees mostly just try to stay out of the way....fouls and infractions take too much energy at this point for anybody to commit them, and if they did, their coach would yank them for good for delaying the game. Besides, the players are too tired to play a crisp game anyway, it is nothing BUT fouls, mostly by accident, tired players stumbling over their sticks, their own feet, their opponent's feet, over a shadow on the ice..., no point in getting upset about it.

Now... the goalies have to earn their pay. Shaved ice from skates getting dangerously dull coat them from head to toe, and it is freezing to their clothing, their hair, their masks. The goalie has to see through the sprays of snow (from people stopping just short of his position) and the sweat trickling into his eyes from the tension and the exertion of moving 50 pounds of padding from "here" to "there", when "there" is a tiny little puck coming in at 80 miles per hour. The ice is chopped and cratered outside of his crease causing even experienced skaters to trip and crash down into a melee of flying blades, elbows and splintered sticks, quite possibly bringing the goalie with them.

There is no heckling, shouting at individual players...they can't hear you anyway over the noise of a crowd going wild, not to mention the pounding of their heart beats, and raspy breathing. Any comment they could make would be short, almost in code..."Pass to you...Rob, got that?...change out Pat...." and of course "ooofff, you son of xxxx that was a cross check! Oooh, my ribs..."

This is when the goalie shines though. Not for him the glory of scoring points, only the panic of seeing 8 men in various colours of uniform charging in on him in the fastest game on earth.

Kind of boring, actually. I mean, how can that honestly compare to watching the outfielder trying to find a place to squirt his tobacco juice, or scratch his groin without a camera catching the act.
Just kidding...I rather enjoy PLAYING baseball. For me...its hard to watch though.