Begin the Beguine

The Cowboys may be returning to sunny southern California for their training camp, but who needs Oxnard when we have the climate controlled greatness of Euless, oh yeah.

Practice commences Saturday and I will be in the house, I hope to see you there, too. Now, you can call it a cop-out or say that I'm lazy, but I am going to re-issue one of my earliest postings, as I feel that it encapsulates the whole start of session attitude. Who am I kidding, it rocks. So here it is:

Monday, February 04, 2008
Is That Your Age or Your Skate Size?

In the crossbar the other night, acting the part of the social butterfly, I began to realize what a ridiculous thing we have going here. There was a high school game in the midst of our little dress-up session, I was lucky enough to talk to one of the players in that game. His team had won against the team from Tulsa, one of the top rated teams in their league and as his season nears an end he has prospects for a career in juniors (this is professional hockey for young'uns) and who knows what beyond that. This kid is having fun, growing as a player, and accomplishing something. I am soon to be Thirty-two and clinging desperately to something I was never even close to having in the first place. Like many of you, I spend alot of money on this habit of mine and I can't even get that same fix that I used to, I just do it to feel normal.

When I grow-up I want to be... a grown-up. Admit it, you're a manchild too (or womanchild?), refusing to act your age and spend your Saturday night watching 48 Hours Mystery with the kids tucked in their beds. Instead you show up here for four or more hours playing a kid's game. We play at it like ten year olds, then move upstairs and act like we're 23, usually by Sunday mid-day we feel like we're 80. Some of us even take it to the extreme of tracking our stats and, get this, some of us write about it like it were some kind of legitimate sporting event. This is a sickness, and I don't want to get better.

I know that I am not alone, I am right in the middle of our demographic. This thing will be a draw on my life until I am the oldest one in the rink, when they carry me away. Many of you have been through marriages and careers with only this one constant in your life. I can't believe that they let a bunch of chronics like us hang-out together, we're just enabling each other, right? What are the side effects? You know, I tell people it's my work out routine.

And it is, I do stay in pretty decent shape because of this hockey thing. And it does build a camaraderie, not just among those of us here on Saturday nights. You see many wives and girlfriends (and reverse the gender), and occasionally kids. I know that some of you have taken up coaching or skateguarding or some other method of sharing it with the people around us. Being a part of something like that, building relationships with people of all ages and backgrounds, could be a good thing. Then again it might be an epidemic.

bcIII

P.S. If you, like me, are a ticket head and desire some closure on the Hammer, try this: The Hard Lie

Tennis Anyone?

I know that this is supposed to be all hockey all the time but what I just saw transcends the sporting horizon right now, free agency just don't cut it.


Roger Federer, like Tiger has been at the top of his sport, alone, for sometime. With five consecutive wins at Wimbledon, three Australian opens, four U. S. opens, ranked number one in the world since February of 2004, it appeared that all Federer had left to accomplish was to walk away a winner at the French.

Making it a personal mission, he started entering more clay court events (the Monte Carlo, Hamburg, Rome Masters) but always coming up short on the big stage at Roland Garros. The man responsible for the defeating the world's best was always Rafael Nadal. His record at the French was like Federer's at Wimbledon.


In 2007, Nadal and Federer met in the Wimbledon finals for a brawl, Nadal eventually succumbing to Roger's superiority on grass. The two met again this year and Federer is not the only one trying to increase his skill set, Nadal has made huge strides on the softer surface.


In the first two sets, Federer found himself down, but mounted a comeback into the first rain delay, leaving the court up 5-4, after an hour and a half away from the court, Federer started his clawing back to the top. The third set went to Federer in a tiebreaker 7-6, the fourth, the same. The fifth set was back and forth with Nadal pushing Federer to the brink in games and sets alike but Federer wriggling free before Rafa could seal the deal. Both men demonstrating every skill they had accumulated in their careers. Federer looked to be playing a superior strategic game while Nadal was unmatched in speed and strength. In fact, Nadal's creativity seemed to be the difference maker: with lateral moves accentuated with spinning shots; charging the net for timely, deft drop shots; and dramatic unorthodox between the legs or over the shoulder volleys. All the while, Federer seeming to throw the ball into the net when rushing, or sending it wide when trying to fend off Nadal's powerful, against the grain backhand.


After the longest round in the history of the championship (and two previous failed championship points) Nadal finally overcomes. Nadal has shown that he is a star on the rise, could Federer be on the fall? I certainly hope not, because this was the best tennis match I have ever seen, and I want to see more.