The one about the inbreeders

I am back. This will be short and not so sweet. I went to the Raptors game last night with the lad. He got the tickets as a gift. He was excited to see a game live. He was not a "sporty" kid, which I found sad in a way. On the one hand, I was a sporty kid but I was never involved in organized sports or leagues. I do not know why that was. My parents never brought up the subject and I never asked. As I look back on it, I probably would have enjoyed it.

I started playing hockey late in life. I would skate regularly (once or more a weekend growing up, when skating could be done on an outdoor ice pad--not like the weather we have been having here, unseasonably mild with no snow) but never asked to play ice hockey. I had friends who played in the local house league but I never asked to play. I am not sure I really "wanted" to play. I am thinking that I was afraid of looking bad learning how to play. That is the benefit of age and wisdom, I now know that as the learning curve and that we all progress at different speeds, but still it seems that I would rather have been thought of as a moron than as some sort of uncoordinated spaz (there is word you just do not hear enough, "SPAZ").

I would have loved some sort of basketball league but I do not think we had those back then. Basketball was not such a big sport then, but I did love to play and watch it. I liked watching hockey, too. I never joined the softball league and never got pushed to do so. I had to find out about it on my own. I stumbled upon it and wondered why I was not playing. Then again, I am not such a big fan of playing softball/baseball. I think that with the size of the teams, we could never get such a large number of guys for a pick up softball game. Oh well, that is ancient history and I did play organized ball hockey as a young adult, so I guess I learned that if I wanted to play I had to do it for myself.

So, back to the lad. We have got him involved with house league soccer (not a big fan) and softball (he really likes that). He does some skating but he, like me before him, is unsure and does not want to risk embarrassment so is not into ice hockey. That is okay as he has been involved in some basketball. This is good given his freakishly large size and Lurch-like coordination, he needs to catch up to his size so his mechanics are off. It can all be worked on. Anyway, he has developed a passion for basketball and baseball, even getting X-Box basketball and baseball games for himself.

As you can see, going to the game was a real treat for him. We did go together about four years ago. He did not seem to enjoy the game, though the seats were pretty bad. He enjoyed running around the Air Canada Centre more than the game. I guess he was too young to appreciate the game itself as opposed to the experience of running around in a "strange" place.

Just two observations here. One is that my streak continues. I have not gone to a Raptors game, in regular season, that they have won. I have not been to many games and there have been some pretty crappy teams, so that is not surprising. They lost last night BUT it was a good game and it came down to the final minutes of the game before it was really decided. It was a good effort and the lad got to see an exciting ending.

The other thing is that the crowd at a Raptors game is much different than those at a Blue Jays game. The Raptor crowd seemed to be a little more diverse ethnically speaking. It was a microcosm of this city. The Blue Jays crowd seemed more, what is the word,.....inbred. Yeah, that's it. The Blue Jays, or is that baseball, attracts inbreeders. You heard it hear first.

With that I say, ciao!