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DENVER, CO – Last night was awesome. From meeting POTUS (as my friends in the military call President Obama) to explaining as best we could what the rules of baseball were to some of the Eastern Europeans, to going out after the game to celebrate Day 1 of Chris Clark’s birthday (he actually turns 39 today but no reason not to celebrate after midnight and then again tonight) it was just an awesome 12 hour stretch.
Testing is over, relaxing begins. As it turns out, the trend in this event is that two nights prior to the first game (AKA last night) is really when everyone lets their hair down. All the officials were together with no real responsibility today other than to go to meetings. So it was a late night.
It’s also the last night here where we will all be together and no one feels obligated to get to bed early because they need to be on the field the next day, or they’re traveling home. Being around such a wide variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences and senses of humor (and don’t forget accents!) is pretty awesome.
We had quite a few laughs yesterday. I was talking to some of the Englishmen and I said that I was enamored with some of their phrases and I wanted to steal them and use them when I get home. The reason I thought of that was we were all introducing ourselves and giving some background on who we were and one of the British officials, Dave, (everyone calls him Dive, which is how he says his own name in a British accent) said humbly, “I’m Dive, I’m just a nice bloke.”
I wish I could have the forethought, and the accent, to refer to myself or others as blokes. But I can’t pull it off. I’ve come to the realization that that’s just one of those terms that doesn’t work without the accent. In any event I’ll keep searching.
Mike Zeldman, Chris Clark, Kevin Forrester, Don Gallagher, JT Knoll and I all took a trip out to the fields this afternoon. Chris had to buy tickets to the games for his family who are coming out Tuesday, and Ireland was scrimmaging the Iroquois. We wanted to get a sneak peek.
The complex at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park is massive. It’s where the Colorado Rapids of the MLS play and it’s a great looking place. There are 20 fields all around and they’re in great shape. The grass is better manicured than most places in Jersey, and it’s spotless in terms of its cleanliness. It’s most certainly a great venue to host this event. We were trying to think if there was a place on the east coast that could host an event like this where there was a professional, mid-sized stadium surrounded by enough field space to hold the festival literally right outside the doors. We couldn’t think of a single one.
The Iroquois were exactly what you think they would be after watching the Thompsons dazzle the country at U of Albany this year. It’s a ton of two-man lacrosse, pick-and-rolls, behind the back, between the legs and no look shots and passes. The small amount of time we watched them play 6-on-6 it was like street ball lax style.
They are, without question, going to be the unquestioned stars of this event. And who can blame the masses?
I need to make sure I get in a workout tomorrow, because I’m feeling pretty sore from the testing yesterday. I need to shake the muscles out a bit.
It was a pretty low-key day. All that’s really left is to head out and have dinner and relax a bit. Then again, never say never. Maybe tonight we’ll run into the Prime Minister of England.
