Tag: hockey

Some Fun, Eh?

I’m not sure I can explain why, but I needed my picture taken with the Cup.

stanley-cup-lineup.jpgYesterday, I was awakened by the warble of the phone. It was 11:45 and Rick Gentile was calling. I hadn’t seen Rick in years. He runs Hamden’s hockey rink where Stef learned to skate as a pre-teen.

“We’re getting the Cup tomorrow,” Rick said. He was speaking of the Stanley Cup. It’s the prize you win (disregarding any cash) when you win the NHL playoffs. I’m not a hockey fan, but I know the Cup and its travels. Unlike other exalted sports mementos, Lord Stanley’s Cup travels during the off-season and is very accessible.

It’s tradition that members and staff of the winning team have custody for a few days. Chris Scoppetto of Hamden is the assistant equipment manager of the Detroit Red Wings and this week it’s his turn!

I’m not sure I can explain why, but I needed my picture taken with the Cup. I woke up early (for me) and headed to the rink. There was a longer line earlier, but by the time I arrived the wait was no more than five minutes. The Cup, which yesterday had been at a Wooster Street pizzeria, would only be in Hamden from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM sharp.

The Stanley Cup is interesting, because it’s grown over time. It was at first just a cup with no base. Then, as more and more teams won it, additions were attached to the bottom. It started 7″ tall. It’s now over 35″! It will continue to grow.

stanley-cup-closeup.jpgI looked closely at the earlier names (click for a closer look). It looks as if they were punched into the side of the bowl in a very non-artsy working class fashion. The little close-up on the left has Gordy Howe, Alex Belvecchio (see Woody’s note in the comments below), Marcel Pronovost and Terry Sawchuck listed. Even I recognize those names from the pre-helmet, toothless thug era.

The year I first came to Philadelphia the Flyers won the Cup. As is common the team skated around the Spectrum–goalie Bernie Parent holding the Cup above his head. Bernie, a French Canadian of few words, was captured on video that night saying this one classic line: “Some fun, eh?”

Some fun today too.

stanley-cup-geoff.jpg

Hockey In The Neighborhood

The TD Banknorth Sports Center is a twin facility, with large venues for hockey and basketball. Hockey sits 3,300 and basketball around 3,800. Tonight’s game, SRO, checked in around 4,000.

PIC-0011For the past few years some serious construction has been going on within minutes of my house. Quinnipiac University has been building a field house.

Tonight, we carried the QU/Yale hockey game on one of our TV stations, and my fellow anchors and I drove up during dinner to take a look see.

The TD Banknorth Sports Center is a twin facility, with large venues for hockey and basketball. In separate arenas, Hockey sits 3,300 and basketball 3,800. Tonight’s game, SRO, checked in around 4,000.

This is a thoroughly modern, substantial, sports facility. Even from my perch way up in the press box, the game was well seen.

I’ve been invited to come back for the grand tour, and I’m sure I will.

Quinnipiac is working hard to become a major university. They acquired the University of Bridgeport’s law school and are already succeeding in sports. The campus, snuggled in the shadow of Sleeping Giant Mountain, is as pretty a campus as I’ve ever seen.

I wished they paid taxes at the same rate I do.

Tonight’s game was won by QU 5-1.


A Day At The Tables

24 Feb ’06, 2.22pm EST

Originally uploaded by geoff_fox.

Very windy – went to Foxwoods. Wish me luck.

That line above was thumbed onto my phone while playing poker. It was about all that went right early in the day.

After my big ‘score’ in the PokerStars satellite tournament, I thought some real poker might be fun. I don’t usually sit face-to-face while I play… in pajamas.

Foxwoods is around an hour from here. We drive by another beautiful casino, Mohegan Sun, to get there. About twenty minutes before poker became hot, Mohegan Sun shut their room. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors, but never an official explanation for why they closed.

As has been my custom recently, I sat down at a $10/$20 table and proceeded to bleed money. I’m a little embarrassed by how much I lost (and won’t put the amount here), but with the bets being in increments of $10 and $20, it mounts quickly.

Ouch.

My mood had shifted from good to bad. So, why not spread a little sunshine around? I headed toward Helaine in another part of the casino.

I took the shortcut to get to where she was from where I was. That involves cutting through the men’s room!

Helaine was having fun. She really didn’t want to go. We compromised and had an early dinner… or late lunch… take your choice.

We sat along a wall in the lounge attached to Cedar’s Steakhouse. On one TV, foreigners with unpronounceable names were playing hockey in an Olympic medal round. Go guy with 15 consonants and no vowels! On another TV, Scooter Libby’s lawyer explained how much classified data he’d need for Scooter’s trial, while commentators speculated it was a ploy to get the charges dropped.

Scooter’s my age for heaven’s sake. No one our age should be named Scooter.

Loaded up on chowder, burger and French fries the size of waffles, I decided to give poker another chance. Helaine told me an attitude adjustment was in order.

I went back, sat down and began to win.

I had an incredible mountain to climb… which I did. By the time we left, I was down $5. It’s so incredibly unlikely, I’ll say it again. I lost $5 for the day. And that was after tipping the dealer on every winning hand and tipping the waitress who delivered bottled water, coffee and a Baileys (the only alcoholic beverage I drink. What a wuss I am).

I got up from the table and we left. I am a happy man.

Before I close out this entry, two casino observations.

As you walk toward Foxwoods’ poker room, you pass a portion of the casino with unusual games. I don’t know their names. I have no idea of the rules. They are played, almost exclusively, by Asian men and women.

It is astounding to walk through this area and see nothing but Asian faces – most of them puffing cigarettes. I don’t know if the number of smokers here reflects the Asian-American population in general, but it is quite noticeable and a much higher percentage of smokers in one place than I remember seeing in decades.

The second observation concerns something we saw just before we left. Helaine was alongside my table, waiting for me to get up and cash out. She told me to turn and pointed to a coterie of security games and other uniformed casino personnel. Some of them were scurrying around, others standing and milling and others still were holding a white sheet aloft, hiding whatever was behind it.

If someone didn’t die tonight in the poker room, they surely got real sick. I guess that’s inevitable with so many people there all hours of the day and night. It was a little spooky.

As far as I could tell, no game stopped while this commotion was in progress.


The Farewell Tour Begins… At Age 17

It is a rainy, drab, chilly Sunday. It’s also a great day. Helaine, Stefanie and I have just been to Steffie’s field hockey team annual dinner.

Steffie received the award as ‘Most Improved Player’. It was a great honor and an award I feel was well deserved. Watching her play defense was amazing for Helaine and me. Steffie was fearless, aggressive and had an uncanny ability to pick the pocket of offensive players.

She wore her injuries (and she got pretty banged up this season) as a badge of honor.

The team and many parents got together in the basement banquet room at ‘Eli’s on Whitney,’ a local restaurant. Upstairs the bar was busy with banks of TVs showing out-of-town NFL games. Downstairs, it was all about the high school field hockey season that had just ended.

As the dinner went on, and the coach and some players spoke, Helaine and I realized this was the beginning of the end of Steffie’s high school life. Sure, she’ll be going to school for another six months or so, but now she’ll be doing many things for the last time.

That’s what made this celebration bittersweet. There’s no guarantee we’ll see Steffie play field hockey again – or that she’ll ever play again. It’s not the kind of game you play pick-up style with friends. There’s a good chance she’ll go to a college with no field hockey program/

Though field hockey has been important to all of us, it’s not that field hockey’s ending that’s so important. It’s that we’re leaving one part of her life and heading into another. There’s no stopping. There’s no turning back.

We hope it’s a bright future facing Steffie. She deserves a bright future. But no matter how bright, we’ll miss where we’ve been.

At this point, life is moving much too quickly. Steffie might not agree with that but I know Helaine does unconditionally.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Before Stefanie was born, Helaine and I had a long running joke. If our child turned out to have any athletic acumen, there should be an investigation.

Let the investigation begin!

Steffie’s school requires students to play sports – period. Nearly everyone, two of the three semesters a year, plays some sort of team sport. Steffie has played basketball, lacrosse and field hockey.

She’s actually been playing basketball since she was in grade school. This can probably be attributed to the very popular University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team, which is a perennial powerhouse.

Over the past few years, Steffie has gravitated more and more to field hockey and there’s no doubt it’s her favorite sport.

Forget what you’ve heard about women being demure. These girls mix it up. Field hockey is by no means a gentle game under any circumstances. Wooden stick in hand, playing over sometimes rough fields, the ball is hard and travels fast. Shin guards are worn, but that’s about it for padding (except the goalie who wears an unbelievable amount of foam and plastic).

Steffie is very good at this game… and fearless. Playing a defensive position, she knows letting a ball get past her can easily become a goal by the other team.

Today, playing at home, her team dismantled a team from Stamford. With two quick goals in the first few minutes, they never looked back. Steffie played hard and with great skill.

She was fast and relentless, digging out the ball and changing it’s direction. Her position calls for a ball stealer, not a pass catcher. She’s perfect.

Defense is not a glory position. When played properly you don’t hear about those playing it. When played poorly, you’re counting losses.

All went well until there were about 10 minutes to go. In the middle of the action, another player swiped for the ball and caught Steffie’s right hand, middle finger. Most hits wouldn’t have caused a problem, but Steffie’s own stick stopped the motion and concentrated the force into her finger.

She was in pain.

It wasn’t long before Steffie was on the sidelines being attended to by Ethan Victor, who was assisting the trainer. The finger and hand were swelling.

It seemed like the right thing to do to go to the hospital, so Steffie and I drove to Yale/New Haven Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Room. When the receptionist was taking down Steffie’s information and asked where she was born, I got to say, “upstairs.” Steffie was born at Yale, like George W. Bush (though he is less likely to admit to any Connecticut connection).

Ethan the trainer, was now Ethan the emergency room trauma specialist! That was a good thing because he helped speed along what would have been a slow and tedious process. The emergency room was jammed. It was “Sports Injury Saturday” with soccer, bicycle and paintball related injuries around us, and more that I don’t know about.

After seeing a few doctors and nurses and getting an X-Ray, we were told Steffie had fractured the tiny bone at the tip of her finger. More than likely, it would be just fine. But, Steffie would have to wear a splint for a while. And, field hockey would be out for two weeks… OK, maybe a week if her pediatrician said it was OK.

We drove home. Steffie was still in pain, but I think there’s a certain satisfying comfort in really knowing what’s wrong with you.

Though she always shies away from pictures and complains I take too many, Steffie agreed to ‘pose’ for this shot to archive the occasion (and possibly email to friends – I never quite understand what she’ll do). She will wear the splint with pride. Her team won.