Sports Page

Spring is upon us which means, no rest for the weary. This weekend was the first full sports weekend thanks to the rain holding out.

Since I am more into pictures these days than writing, I'll let the camera do the talking

Lost the lacrosse game 4-3, but at least he got some aggression out


And a rare image of Kevin in full stride. He did score on this play, but Dad fell down on the job and missed the shot. At least the soccer team won, 3-0. (Click the picture for a larger view.)


Now, in the interest of giving equal time, last weekend was the first dance competition. I got a bunch of pictures for the studio and they are posted here.

But a couple of my girls.

As another baseball season comes to an end, at least for fans of teams that are not in the postseason, I need to re-quote George Carlin, and repeat something I posted over the summer.

[It is] completely unnecessary to suffer several days' emotional devastation just because your team loses some big postseason deal like the Super Bowl. Why on Earth would you place your happiness and peace of mind in the hands of several dozen strangers?

I did state earlier that my passion for cheering teams on has diminished over time, but this past season my Mets have sucked me back in, only to let me down once again. I think it was the all the hype of the end of Shea Stadium, and them showing all the great moments over the past 4+ decades.

As they trotted out the Mets' all-time greats, and re-lived the classic moments, it made you feel the current team would capture that magic one more time.

Alas, the dream died 10-feet short on the warning track of right-center.

Only in this age of not keeping score in Little League games, and everyone getting a trophy at the end of a season would you hear a conversation like this:

"She got a gold."
"Wow, she did that badly?"

Welcome to the world of dance competitions. Much like golf where you are competing against yourself, everyone is judged individually, except there are no places, no winners, just levels. You just get a certain type of award, and in this case the elusive 'Gold' just happens to be the lowest level. Makes me wonder if I stood up there for two minutes in some makeup and a tu-tu if I could bring home the gold. Maybe not, but it would make for a good picture.

So even though this is a 'National Dance Competition', I am not sure if there will be a winner, at least in the traditional sense of the word. Our house sounds like an Olympic press room , with the phone ringing and the latest results pouring in. I am sure the owners of the dance studio have a big board in their rooms and are marking what everyone did.

With Gold now being at the bottom, from what I have heard, the top consists of Platinum, Extreme Platinum, and Superior Platinum, which was discovered just yesterday. I also would not be surprised if we discovered the Super Secret Double Titanium sometime today.

To add to the confusion, and by that I mean mine, at one point today the following came over the newswire, uh telephone.

"Our studio and one other are neck and neck for the best."
So I asked, "Oh, so that means there is a winner for the week?"
"Umm, no I don't think so."

I believe the smiley for confused is .

I had a topic that has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while now and sadly Carlin's death last week prompts me to finally getting around to writing it down.

I was always very emotionally attached to the sports teams I routed for. In this case the Mets (Baseball), Devils (Hockey) and Cowboys (Football - American style!). Like a lot of fans, I lived and died with the teams. Which is great when you are winning (rare) and horrible when you are losing (much more often). During baseball season, I would wake up, and one of the first thoughts in my head was trying to remember what the Mets did the night before and it would set the tone for the day.

Over the past years my emotional involvement has become less and less in the teams I cheer for. Maybe it is because of everything else in life that is happening, there is just no time or energy, or maybe I came to realize what Carlin noted in his book in 1997...

I know I write a lot about Kevin and his sports, but I can relate to that more than the girl's dancing. I try not to push him too hard at it. I know it is something he enjoys, and he enjoys the competition, but I don't think he is driven by it like some kids. To him, I think it is just a better alternative than reading a book.

He has been playing with essentially the same team for almost three years now, and we couldn't have asked for a better mix of kids and coaches. They all get along great and the team as a whole has come a long way since they began.

When they first started playing, they didn't have a lot of success, and they have been getting better, but in particular, over this past spring season it seems they have turned a corner and have learned 'how to win'. It may be cliche, and I have heard it many times in professional and amateur sports, and never really knew what it meant. I think I have an idea now.

As I mentioned, my son Kevin plays soccer and lacrosse. One of the hardest things to do as a father is know when to encourage and push him to do better, and way to leave it alone so it is still enjoyable.

My two girls don't do any sports, but they both do dance, and that is an altogether different world, and I am sure to post many thoughts and stories on that as the 'competition' season heats up. I'll sum it up this way. If I had know ten years ago what taking a simple ballet lesson would turn into, she would have never been allowed to go to the dance studio.

Anyway, back to something I understand, sports. Or at least pretend to.

I don't want to say that I try to live vicariously through him, but I was never that successful in sports as a kid. Then again, I never had the choices and variety that kids have now. I did direct him towards lacrosse when it first became available, as that is a sport I always wish I had a chance to play, and outside of a year in an intramural club, never had the chance. However, he decided on his own a few years back to stick with it when it became a choice of baseball or lacrosse. Soccer was all his own doing, as that is the sport it seems all kids try at 5 or 6 years old, and he has stuck with it. And I have no idea where the playing goalie part came from. Must have been from some traumatic experience when he was a baby.

The calendar still says it is winter, but the signs of spring have arrived. The signs I am referring to are not of the traditional variety. To the Clark household the telltale signs are multiple sporting events or practices at the same time, and stressing about dance competitions. All the while wondering why a 48 hour weekend suddenly feels like 4 hours and trying to figure out to do the usual spring cleanup around the house when you have no weekends left to yourself.

For a household with a single boy there are enough balls, cleats and various sports equipment lying around to make any Sports Authority jealous. Yes, it is all his, as the two girls are all dance. Dance is another world altogether and will be the subject of a later post as I need some time to gather my wits, um thoughts, about it. Anyway, back to the boy, aka Kevin.

Some think I am crazy, others wonder why I still do it and a few think it is a good thing. Although this picture is a couple years old, I still play Dek Hockey. Yes, that is spelled correctly, and it is a form of hockey played with a ball instead of a puck and running on sneakers instead of any kind of skating.

George Carlin doesn't even classify hockey as a sport, but as three activities going on at the same time. Playing with a puck, skating and beating the sh*t out of each other. Well, we play with a ball, run around and for the most part there is no fighting although we do get the occasional bozo who thinks he needs to prove his manhood and act tough.